e to see her and read some of her mother's
theses. Nora did not suspect you. She thought you were inclined to be
literary, and felt pleased that you approved of the work her mother did
years ago. That is all she thought about it. I did more thinking while
Nora was telling me. I thought that Landis Stoner must be a little mite
deceitful or she would not be critical of Nora when others were present
and yet slip in to see her during study-hours. It seemed--well--it seemed
downright deceitful to me.

"I heard you deliver an oration in the chapel. You know that you speak
well, and so you are in every public affair. At least, you have been ever
since I've been at Exeter. Your orations have been fine. I thought you
were wonderfully bright until the Christmas holidays. When I was leaving,
Nora brought me some of her mother's essays to read. I read them while I
was at Windburne."

She paused and looked straight at Landis. Landis had no words to reply.
She stood, dignified and erect by the study-table, toying with a silver
paper-knife. The silence lasted for some minutes. Then feeling that
Elizabeth was waiting for some word she gave a non-committal, "Well?"

"But it isn't 'well.' It is anything but 'well'. It's what I call
decidedly bad. The instant I read those essays, I discovered that your
work was cribbed. You had read--"

"What a fuss you make about nothing at all, Elizabeth! To hear you talk,
one might think that I was guilty of wholesale robbery, or murder, or some
other horrible crime. You young girls who are new to school-life and have
had no experience outside your own little town do not understand these
matters. You are, if I may say it, a little narrow in your views. You know
only one way, and have the notion that there can be no other. You say I
read those essays. Why, of course I did. They were good, too, and I
received a great deal of help from them. Every one who writes even a
little bit makes an effort to read all the good things along the same
lines. That is the only way one can develop talent. I got some excellent
ideas from Mrs. O'Day's essays. Is there anything criminal in that? If
there is, then we must lock up our histories and reference books when we
have any article to prepare for classwork."

"If it were receiving ideas merely, I should scarcely mention the matter
to you; or even had you taken the ideas wholesale and expressed them in
your own words, I should have said nothing at all. But you did no