ew must effect her dismissal;
little by little, as Madam Elwin's manner toward her became less
gracious, and her schoolmates made fewer efforts to conceal from her
the fact that she was not one of them, Carmen prepared for the
inevitable. Six months after the girl's enrollment, Madam Elwin
terminated her series of disparaging reports to Ketchim by a request
that he come at once and remove his charge from the school.

"As I have repeatedly said, Mr. Ketchim, the girl is a paradox. And
after these months of disappointing effort to instruct her, I am
forced to throw up my hands in despair and send for you." Madam Elwin
tapped nervously with a dainty finger upon the desk before her.

"But, if I may be permitted the question, what specific reasons have
you, Madam, for--ah, for requesting her removal?" asked the very
Reverend Dr. William Jurges, who, having come up to the city to
attend a meeting of the directors of the Simiti company, had accepted
Ketchim's invitation to first accompany him on his flying trip to
Conway-on-the-Hudson, in response to Madam Elwin's peremptory
summons.

"Because," replied that worthy personage with a show of exasperation, "I
consider her influence upon the young ladies here quite detrimental.
Our school, while non-sectarian, is at least Christian. Miss Carmen
is not. Where she got her views, I can not imagine. At first she made
frequent mention of a Catholic priest, who taught her in her home town,
in South America. But of late she has grown very reserved--I might say,
sullen, and talks but little. Her views, however, are certainly not
Catholic. In her class work she has become impossible. She refuses to
accept a large part of our instruction. Her answers to examination
questions are wholly in accord with her peculiar views, and hence quite
apart from the texts. For that reason she fails to make any grades,
excepting in mathematics and the languages. She utterly refuses to
accept any religious instruction whatsoever. She would not be called
atheistic, for she talks--or used to at first--continually about God.
But her God is not the God of the Scriptures, Dr. Jurges. She is a
free-thinker, in the strictest sense. And as such, we can not
consent to her remaining longer with us."

"Ah--quite so, Madam, quite so," returned the clergyman, in his
unconsciously pompous manner. "Doubtless the child's thought
became--ah--contaminated ere she was placed in your care. But--ah--I
have heard so much fro