to show vehemence.

"What a little spitfire you are, Elizabeth! When you're a few years older
you'll learn not to express yourself so strongly. As to your knowing who
the girl is to whom I object, there is no reason for my keeping silent. I
have not mentioned her name because I was considering her feelings and
reputation. But since you insist, I'll tell you. I must emphatically
object to having my name published over Exeter Hall with Nora O'Day's."

"Why?" Elizabeth asked calmly enough now, yet she was exceedingly
annoyed.

"Why? What a question to ask! Surely you know how dishonorably she acted
last spring! Someone must have told you. You and Mary Wilson are such
friends."

"Yes; someone told me, but it wasn't Mary Wilson. She doesn't do that sort
of thing. Nora O'Day told me. Are you afraid to join the same set with
her?"

"Not afraid in one sense of the word. To be sure, she would not influence
me an iota. I might mingle with her and her kind and be none the worse for
it. Do not think I am considering myself in the matter. I have in mind the
younger set of girls who are so easily influenced. They know the story of
Miss O'Day's methods in examination. What would they think of seeing my
name in connection with hers?--that I would countenance anything that was
dishonorable! If not that, at least, like me, they might be suspicious of
a reform that had among its leaders a girl who had been publicly
reprimanded for cheating."

During the talk, Elizabeth had been leaning backward against the
study-table, her hands behind her, supporting her weight.

She paused before replying to Landis. Then she asked: "Do you believe in
treating every one who has done wrong as you intend treating Nora?"

"Surely. To treat them otherwise would be an open acknowledgment that we
are willing to overlook deceit and fraud. No one can afford to do that.
You must remember the stand Dr. Morgan takes on such matters. You have
heard her lecture often enough to know that she does not countenance
treating sin and crime lightly. Why, in her last chapel-talk she said that
while some amusements might be legitimate and proper for us, we must
refrain from them because of our influencing others who might be harmed.
I'm sure I could find no better person to follow than Dr. Morgan."

"I do not think her words applied to this instance. At least I would not
have taken it so. Nora did cheat last spring; but perhaps she is sorry for
it. You do not know