So long as she could queen it over the other pupils
she was content. The first serious wounding of her self-love aroused in
her a vengeful malignity, which grew with its own exercise. Unable as
she found herself to command her little public by offices which had
seemed to her acts of condescension, she determined to rule through the
evil principle of discord. In a fortunate moment she was arrested in
this course by an exposure whose consequences showed her the reflection
of her own misconduct in the minds of those around her. Extreme in all
things, her self-reproach took the form of helpless despair, which yet,
at the touch of true affection, gave way before the courageous
determination to retrieve past error by future good desert.

The excellence of Margaret's judgment and the generosity of her heart
appear in the effect which this fortunate failure had upon her maturer
life. The pride of her selfhood had been overthrown. She had learned
that she could need the indulgence and forgiveness of others, and had
also learned that her mates, lightly esteemed by her up to that time,
were capable of magnanimous forgiveness and generous rehabilitation. In
the tender strength of her young mind, those impressions were so
received that they were never thereafter effaced. The esteem of Margaret
for her own sex, then rare in women of her order, and the great charity
with which she ever regarded the offences of others, perhaps referred
back through life to this time of trial, whose shortcoming was to be
redeemed by such brilliant achievements.

Margaret's school days ended soon after this time, and she returned to
her father's house, much instructed in the conditions of harmonious
relations with her fellows.

CHAPTER II.

LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE.--FRIENDSHIP OF DR. HEDGE AND JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE.

Dr. Hedge, a life-long friend of Margaret, has given a very interesting
sketch of her in her girlhood. He first met her when he was a student at
Harvard, and she a maiden of thirteen, in her father's house at
Cambridge. Her precocity, mental and physical, was such that she passed
for a much older person, and had already a recognized place in society.
She was at this time in blooming and vigorous health, with a tendency to
over-stoutness, which, the Doctor thinks, gave her some trouble. She was
not handsome nor even pretty, but her animated countenance at once made
its own impression, and awakened in those who saw her a desire to know