s representative company
of beauty and brains, I have themes that cry out to be corrected,"
declared Emma Dean, who had been listening in interested silence to the
plans for the coming revue.

"You can't hear them cry out clear down here, can you?" asked Mary
Reynolds flippantly.

A general giggle went the round of the sextette.

"Not with my everyday ordinary ears, my child," answered Emma, quite
undisturbed. "It is that inner voice of duty that is making all the
commotion. I would much rather bask in the light of your collected
countenances than listen to those frenzied shrieks. But what of my
trusting classes, who delight in writing themes and passing them on to
me to be corrected?"

"Oh, yes; we all delight in writing themes," jeered Nettie Weyburn, to
whom theme writing was an irksome task. "My inner voice of duty is
screaming at me this very minute to go and write one, but I'm so deaf I
can't hear it."

"If you can't hear it, how do you know it is screaming?" questioned Emma
very solemnly.

"My intuition tells me," retorted Nettie with triumphant promptness.

"Then I wish _all_ my pupils in English had such marvelous intuitions,"
sighed Emma.

"My inner voice of duty is wailing at me to go upstairs and finish my
letter to my mother," interposed Grace, rising. Her face had regained
its usual brightness. She could not be sad in the presence of these
light-hearted, capable girls, whose sturdy efforts to help themselves
made them all so inexpressibly dear to her. She would help them all she
could with their entertainment. She would write Arline and Elfreda to
come to Overton for a few days and take part in the revue.

It was not until she had finished her letter to her mother and begun one
to Elfreda that the sinister recollection again darkened her thoughts.
She was living in the shadow of dismissal. Would it be wise to invite
Arline and Elfreda to Harlowe House for a visit while she was so
uncertain of what the immediate future held in store for her? If she
tendered her resignation she intended it should take effect without
delay. Once she had surrendered her precious charge she could not and
would not remain at Harlowe House. Still she had promised her girls that
she would help them. She had volunteered Arline's and Elfreda's
services, knowing they would willingly leave their own affairs to
journey back to Overton.

Grace laid down her pen. Resting her elbows on the table she cradled her
chin in her h