preceptor, and, as I believed, my
friend. Listen to what he did say, in the presence of the whole school
of boys, as well as girls, assembled on that day to hear the weekly
exercises read, written on subjects which the master had given us the
previous week.

One by one, we were called up to the platform, where he sat enthroned in
all the majesty of the Olympian king-god. One by one, the manuscripts
were read by their youthful authors,--the criticisms uttered, which
marked them with honor or shame,--gliding figures passed each other,
going and returning, while a hasty exchange of glances, betrayed the
flash of triumph, or the gloom of disappointment.

"Gabriella Lynn!" The name sounded like thunder in my ears. I rose,
trembling, blushing, feeling as if every pair of eyes in the hall were
burning like redhot balls on my face. I tried to move, but my feet were
glued to the floor.

"Gabriella Lynn!"

The tone was louder, more commanding, and I dared not resist the
mandate. The greater fear conquered the less. With a desperate effort I
walked, or rather rushed, up the steps, the paper fluttering in my hand,
as if blown upon by a strong wind.

"A little less haste would be more decorous, Miss."

The shadow of a pair of beetling brows rolled darkly over me. Had I
stood beneath an overhanging cliff, with the ocean waves dashing at my
feet, I could not have felt more awe or dread. A mist settled on my
eyes.

"Read,"--cried the master, waving his ferula with a commanding
gesture,--"our time is precious."

I opened my lips, but no sound issued from my paralyzed tongue. With a
feeling of horror, which the intensely diffident can understand, and
only they, I turned and was about to fly back to my seat, when a large,
strong hand pressed its weight upon my shoulder, and arrested my flight.

"Stay where you are," exclaimed Mr. Regulus. "Have I not lectured you a
hundred times on this preposterous shame-facedness of yours? Am I a
Draco, with laws written in blood, a tyrant, scourging with an iron rod,
that you thus shrink and tremble before me? Read, or suffer the penalty
due to disobedience and waywardness."

Thus threatened, I commenced in a husky, faltering voice the reading of
lines which, till that moment, I had believed glowing with the
inspiration of genius. Now, how flat and commonplace they seemed! It was
the first time I had ever ventured to reveal to others the talent hidden
with all a miser's vigilance in my bo