that with her training and manner of life she might
look a little warily at the idea of college training for women.
Personally, you understand, I am heartily in favor of it. I have hoped
that Marian might go to college. Aunt Sally takes the greatest interest
in Marian, naturally, but she has never urged it upon us."

Sylvia gazed off across the lake and made no reply. She recalled
distinctly Mrs. Owen's comments on Marian, expressed quite clearly on
the day of their drive into the country, a year before. It was not for
her to repeat those observations; she liked Marian and admired her, and
she saw no reason why Marian should not go to college. Sylvia, guessing
nothing of what was in Mrs. Bassett's mind, failed to understand that
Mrs. Owen's approval of Marian's education was of importance. Nothing
could have been more remote from her thoughts than the idea that her own
plans concerned any one but herself and her grandfather. She was not so
dull, however, but that she began to feel that Mrs. Bassett was speaking
defensively of Marian.

"Marian's taste in reading is very unusual, I think. I have always
insisted that she read only the best. She is very fond of Tennyson. I
fancy that after all, home training is really the most valuable,--I mean
that the atmosphere of the home can give a child what no school
supplies. I don't mean, of course, that we have it in _our_ home; but
I'm speaking of the ideal condition where there _is_ an atmosphere. I've
made a point of keeping good books lying about the house, and the best
magazines and reviews. I was never happier than the day I found Marian
curled up on a lounge reading Keats. It may be that the real literary
instinct, such as I feel Marian has, would only be spoiled by college;
and I should like nothing better than to have Marian become a writer. A
good many of our best American women writers have not been college
women; I was looking that up only the other day."

Sylvia listened, deeply interested; then she laughed suddenly, and as
Mrs. Bassett turned toward her she felt that it would do no harm to
repeat a remark of Mrs. Owen's that had struck her as being funny.

"I just happened to remember something Mrs. Owen said about colleges.
She said that if it isn't in the colt the trainer can't put it there;
and I suppose the successful literary women have had genius whether they
had higher education or not. George Eliot hadn't a college training, but
of course she was a very g