toward the kitchen window.

What was to be done with the long, dull festival day? Marion may be
forgiven if she cast many longing thoughts back to the academy, to the
pleasant bustle that filled the long corridors, the merry laughs of
the girls, the endless chatter, the coming and the going that seemed
to her never to cease. She was homesick to see Miss Ashton, her
room-mates, and Helen, over whose daily life she had already installed
herself as responsible for its comforts and its pleasures, and who,
homeless and poor, remained almost by herself in the great empty
building.

She was not, however, left long in doubt as to the day's occupations.
Hardly had the breakfast dishes been put away, when Aunt Betty
said,--

"Meetin' begins at ten. We hain't got no bell, and we'll start in
season. You can put on your things."

The clock said nine; meeting began at ten. Five minutes were all she
needed for preparation. Here was time for a few lines at least of that
Greek tragedy. She had read one line, when the door opened, and there
stood Aunt Betty.

"Listen, Aunt Betty!" she said. "Hear how soft these words are." Then
she rattled off line after line of the chorus. This is Greek, she
said, pausing to take breath. "Listen! I will translate for you."

She carried her book to the oriel window, so the light would fall more
clearly on its page, and began,--

"Before the mirror's golden round,
Curious my braided hair I bound,
Adjusted for the night;
And now, disrobed, for rest prepared,
Sudden tumultuous cries are heard,
And shrieks of wild affright.
Grecians to Grecians shouting call,
'Now let the haughty city fall;
In dust her towers, her rampiers lay,
And bear triumphant her rich spoils away.'"

"Doesn't that roll along sublimely? Can't you hear the cries and the
shouts of the Grecian host?"

"I can hear Marion Parke making a fool of herself. Be you, or be you
not, goin' to meetin' with me?"

"Meeting? Why, of course I am. I wouldn't miss it for anything. I'll
be ready in half a minute. Will you?"

Aunt Betty, in her short black skirt, her old gray sack, and her heavy
shoes, did not make much of a holiday appearance. Something of this
crept slowly into her brain as she looked down, so she turned quickly,
and went away without another word.

Marion gave some girl-like twists to h