over, in fancy, the lives
of those she had read about. Thus for fifteen years the restless child
tugged unsuccessfully at the parental tethers till relief came from an
unexpected quarter.

Marion's mother, despairing of her child's spiritual welfare, decided
curiously enough, to send her abroad to the care of her sister-in-law,
the wife of the United States minister to France. This aunt, being a
woman of broad sympathies and experience, questioned the girl about her
education, and, finding that it had been confined to the three R's and
the Westminster catechism, decided to send her to school. So Marion was
forthwith ensconced in a select _pension_ patronized by the Faubourg St.
Germain nobility. Here a new life was opened to Marion, and, freed from
her childhood's restraints, she eagerly sought companionship with these
girls of a different world. She learned a new language and new
sentiments, and though novels were forbidden in the school, the pages of
Balzac, Merimee, Sand and Gautier, surreptitiously read, fed her fancy
with new impressions and created new aspirations. Florence Moreland was
the only other American in the school, and to her Marion was attracted
by the very oppositeness of her nature. The frank practicality and keen
perception of Florence fascinated her, and although the two girls
disagreed on most subjects, a warm affection always kept their hearts
united.

Marion left the _pension_ at the age of seventeen. By that curious
process of expatriation which few but Americans can successfully
undergo, her childhood's sentiments had been removed, and European ideas
had been engrafted in their place. Her aunt, who during Marion's
_pension_ days had vibrated between Paris and the Riviera, now took her
for a few months of travel. Florence was invited to accompany them, and
after making the conventional summer-garden tour of the Continent, they
went to Nice for the winter. There the two girls studied Italian and
mixed in the quasi Anglo-European society of the place--certainly not
the best for a girl first to enter.

The transfer of Marion's uncle to the English mission brought them to
London, and they were just enjoying the excitement of a first season
when Marion's parents ordered her home. A child when she left Chicago,
she was now a woman. Her home, which had been uncongenial before, was
now intolerable. Her life became a continual struggle against the
prejudices of her parents. She longed to pull down th