es are my weak
point, and Miss Duncan had criticised my work so severely that I was
feeling blue and discouraged. Then came the temptation to take your
theme, copy it, and hand it in as my own. You had lost it, so you would
never know what became of it. You could write another theme as easily as
you had written that. It did occur to me that you might be able to
rewrite that particular theme from memory. So I changed the title of
your theme, copied it that night and changed the ending a little and
took particular pains to hand it in early the next morning, so that if
any suspicion were aroused it would not fall on me, but on you. It was
thoroughly contemptible in me, and after I handed in the theme I felt
like a criminal. When Miss Duncan sent for me, I grew frightened and
instead of owning to what I had done I told more lies and tried to make
it appear that you were the real offender. At first she believed me, but
afterward she didn't, and made me admit that I had lied. When she told
me about promising you that she would give me another chance and that
you neither knew nor cared to know my name, I could hardly believe it.
Since that time I've never dared to speak to you. I have been so
dreadfully ashamed." Her voice broke.

"Don't think about it ever again," comforted Grace. "Everyone is likely
to make mistakes. I think you have suffered enough for yours. I am sure
you would never do any such thing again."

Mildred shook her head vigorously. "Never," she declared sadly.

Miriam, who had listened to the little girl's confession, an inscrutable
expression on her dark face, said practically, "Was there anything
besides what you have told us that made you unhappy to-night?"

"Why--why," stammered Mildred. "Yes, there was. How did you know?"

"I didn't know," declared Miriam dryly. "I just wondered."

"It was something that made me unhappy, yet glad, too," said Mildred,
her face flushing. "I thought I hated Grace and said horrid things about
her to two other girls I know, who are not her friends. To-night I was
with them at Martell's, and I quarreled with them about you girls. Ever
since I heard Savelli play at your entertainment I have felt differently
about everything. His music brought me to my real self and made me
realize how small and mean and contemptible I was. I discovered that it
was not you but myself I hated, and when these girls began to say things
about you, all of a sudden I found myself standing up for y