king a
certain hidden harmony, and the cameo setting a seal of daintiness and
rareness to the whole. Christina was seized with admiration that had a
good deal of respect blended with it of a sudden.

"You don't agree with me, Dolly," she said after a little, when Dolly's
thanks and the beauty of the ring had been sufficiently discussed, and
a pause had brought the thoughts of both back to the former subject.

"What do you want, Christina?"

"I just want to be happy and comfortable," said the girl, "as I always
have been. I don't want to come down to pinching. Is that unreasonable?"

"You would not have to pinch, Christina."

"Yes, I should; to live like the rest of the world."

"Are you obliged to do that?"

"Live like the rest of the world? Yes, or be out of the world."

"I thought you were a Christian," said Dolly softly.

"A Christian! Yes, so I am. What has that got to do with it?"

"A good deal, I should say. Tiny, you cannot follow Christ and be like
the world."

"I don't want to be like the world, in bad things; but I mean things
that are not bad. One must be like the world in some ways, if one can.
Don't you set up for being any better than me, Dolly, for I won't stand
it; we are all really just alike."

"The world and Christians?"

"Yes; in some things."

"Ways of living?"

"Yes,--in some ways."

"Christina, did you use to think so in old times?"

"I was young then; I did not know the world. You have _got_ to do as
the world do, in a measure, Dolly."

Dolly was silent a bit. She too, on her part, observed her friend. Fair
and handsome she was; very handsome; with the placid luxuriance of
nature which has never known shocks or adverse weather. Dolly felt the
contrast which Christina had also felt, but Dolly went deeper into it.
She and her friend had drifted apart, not in regard for each other, but
in life and character; and Dolly involuntarily compared their
experiences. Trouble to Christina was a word of unknown meaning; to
herself it was become daily bread. Had that made the difference?
Christina was living on the surface of things; skimming a smooth sea in
a gilded gondola; shelter and adornment were all about her life, and
plenty within. Dolly had been, as it were, cast into the waves and was
struggling with them; now lifted on a high crest, and now brought down
to the bottom. Was that how she had learned to know that there were
wonderful things of preciousness and beauty at the botto