strued into a love passage with a member of the opposite sex,
opportunities for meeting those whom she considered her equals being
wanting in her dull round of daily teaching. Sometimes, a face she had
seen in the street, or a character she encountered in a book attracted
her, when she would think of her hero, allowing her mind to place him
in tender situations with herself, for the few hours her infatuation
lasted, showing her to be of an impressionable and romantic
disposition. Although she often felt her loneliness, and the consequent
need of human companionship, her pride would never suffer her to take
advantage of the innumerable facilities which the streets of London
offer a comely girl to make chance friendships, facilities which, for
thousands of friendless young women in big towns, are their only chance
for meeting the male of their species.

Mavis's pride was not of the kind with which providence endows millions
of foolish people, apparently by way of preventing them from realising
their insignificance, or, at the worst, making their smallness
tolerable. It arose from knowledge of the great and inexhaustible
treasure of love which was hers to bestow; so convinced was she of the
value of this wealth, that she guarded it jealously, not permitting it
to suffer taint or deterioration from commerce with those who, if only
from curiosity, might strive to examine her riches.

She feared with a grave dread the giving of the contents of this
treasure house, knowing full well that, if she gave at all, she would
bestow with a lavish hand, believing the priceless riches of her love
to be but a humble offering upon the shrine of the loved one.

For all this consciousness that she would be as wax in the hands of the
man she would some day love, she had much of a conviction that,
somehow, things would come right.

Beyond thanking the Almighty for the beauties of nature, sunlight, and
the happiness that danced in her veins, she did not bother herself
overmuch with public religious observances. She had a fixed idea that,
if she did her duty in life, and tried to help others to the best of
her small ability, God would, in some measure, reward her very much as
her dear father would have done, if he had been spared; also, that, if
she did ill, she would offend Him and might be visited with some sign
of His displeasure, just as her own father might have done if he had
been still on earth to advise and protect her.

Then, all