t over feeling about
such sort of giving--in words--as a duty. Even with people whom I
work among sometimes, who need the very first gift of truth, so
much! We can only keep near and dear to each other, Sylvie, and near
and dear to the Lord. Then there are the two lines; and things that
are equal--or similarly related--to the same thing, are related to
one another. He can make the mark that proves and joins, any time.
Did you know there was Bible in geometry, Sylvie? I very often go to
my old school Euclid for a heavenly comfort."

"I think you go to everything for it--and to everybody with it,"
said Sylvie, squeezing her friend's hand as he left her on the
car-step.

Nothing comes much before we need it. This talk stayed by Sylvie
through months afterwards, if not the word of it, always the subtle
cheer and strength of it, that nestled into her heart underneath all
her upper thinkings and cares of day by day, and would not quite let
them settle down upon the living core of it with a hopeless
pressure.

For the real stress of her new life was bearing upon her heavily.
The first poetry, the first fresh touches with which she had made
pleasant signs about their altered condition, were passed into
established use, and dulled into wornness and commonness. The
difficulties--the grapples--came thick and forceful about her. At
the same time, her reliances seemed slipping away from her.

She had hardly known, any more than her mother, how much the
countenance and friendliness of the Sherrett family had done in
upholding her. It was a link with the old things--the very best of
the old things,--that stood as a continual assurance that they
themselves were not altered--lowered in any way--by their alterings.
This came to Sylvie with an interior confirmation, as it did to Mrs.
Argenter exteriorly. So long as Miss Kirkbright and the Sherretts
indorsed anything, it could not harm them much, or fence them out
altogether from what they had been. Amy Sherrett and Miss Kirkbright
thought well of the Ingrahams, and maintained all their dealings
with them in a friendly--even intimate--fashion. If Sylvie chose to
sit with them of an afternoon, it was no more than Miss Euphrasia
did. Also, the old Miss Goodwyns, who lived up the Turn behind the
maples, were privileged to offer Miss Kirkbright a cup of tea when
she went in there, as she would often for an hour's talk over
knitting work and books that had been lent and read. Sylvie might