ad done her part--had she been too eager and
school-girlish? Had she met this stately ceremony with enough breeding
to show that she too was somebody? She pounced upon Miss Smith the
minute that lady entered the office.

"Miss Smith, who do you think has been here?" she burst out
enthusiastically.

"I saw him on the lawn." There was a suspicious lack of warmth in this
brief affirmation.

"He was so gracious and kindly, and he knows my brother. And oh, Miss
Smith! we've got to send that Zora right away."

"Indeed"--the observation was not even interrogatory. The preceptress of
the struggling school for Negro children merely evinced patience for the
younger woman's fervency.

"Yes; he says she's utterly depraved."

"Said that, did he?" Miss Smith watched her with tranquil regard. Miss
Taylor paused.

"Of course, we cannot think of keeping her."

Miss Smith pursed her lips, offering her first expression of opinion.

"I guess we'll worry along with her a little while anyhow," she said.

The girl stared at Miss Smith in honest, if unpardonable, amazement.

"Do you mean to say that you are going to keep in this school a girl who
not only lies and steals but is positively--_immoral_?"

Miss Smith smiled, wholly unmoved.

"No; but I mean that _I_ am here to learn from those whose ideas of
right do not agree with mine, to discover _why_ they differ, and to let
them learn of me--so far as I am worthy."

Mary Taylor was not unappreciative of Miss Smith's stern
high-mindedness, but her heart hardened at this, to her, misdirected
zeal. Echo of the spirit of an older day, Miss Smith seemed, to her, to
be cramped and paralyzed in an armor of prejudice and sectionalisms.
Plain-speaking was the only course, and Mary, if a little complacent
perhaps in her frankness, was sincere in her purpose.

"I think, Miss Smith, you are making a very grave mistake. I regard
Zora as a very undesirable person from every point of view. I look upon
Mr. Cresswell's visit today as almost providential. He came offering an
olive branch from the white aristocracy to this work; to bespeak his
appreciation and safeguard the future. Moreover," and Miss Taylor's
voice gathered firmness despite Miss Smith's inscrutable eye, "moreover,
I have reason to know that the disposition--indeed, the plan--in certain
quarters to help this work materially depends very largely on your
willingness to meet the advances of the Southern whites half way."

She p