lacking his own nice conceptions,
they bring about a result he had so earnestly sought to avoid, and the
vase lose its perfect symmetry. But, alas! called from his work never to
return, it is completed by less skilful hands, a less delicate conception,
and, while the result is pleasing, the perfect harmony of proportion is
wanting, and those who see it feel conscious of its incompleteness, yet
scarcely know why.

We will skip over those six miserable years, so fraught with small trials,
jealousies, deceptions and an ever-increasing distrust, to a certain
Saturday morning in December.

The early winter had been an exceptionally trying one, and Toinette, now
nearly fourteen years old, had seen and learned many things which can only
be taught by experience. She had seen that in some people's eyes the
possession of money can atone for many shortcomings in character, and that
certain lines of conduct may be condoned in a girl who has means, while
they are condemned in a girl who has not; that she herself had many
liberties and many favors shown her which were denied some of her
companions, although those companions were quite as well born and bred as
herself, and with all the latent nobility of her character did she scorn
not only the favors but those who showed them, and often said to her
roommate, Cicely Powell: "If _I_ chose to steal the very Bible out of
chapel, Miss Carter would only say, 'Naughty Toinette,' in that smirking
way of hers, and then never do a single thing; but if Barbara Ellsworth
even looks sideways she simply annihilates her. I _hate_ it, for it is
only because Barbara is poor and I'm--well, Miss Carter likes to have the
income I yield; I'm a profitable bit of 'stock,' and must be well cared
for," and a burning flush rose to the girl's sensitive cheeks.

It was a bitter speech for one so young, and argued an all too intimate
acquaintance with those who did not bear the mark patent of
"gentlewoman."

The six years had wrought many changes in the little child, both in mind
and body, for, even though one had been cramped, and lacked a healthful
development, the other had blossomed into a very beautiful young girl, who
would have gladdened any parent's heart. She was neither tall nor short,
but beautifully proportioned. Her head, with its wealth of sunny, wavy
hair, was carried in the same stately manner which had always been so
marked a characteristic in her father, and gave to her a rather dignified