ut its advantages.

"I don't like it," he exclaimed brusquely. "And you didn't take the
examination?"

"Oh, yes, I did, and it was splendid! I'll show you the papers. But why
don't you like it?" apprehensively.

"If you are going to teach in a public school, the discipline and
advantages of the public school education are immeasurably the best. I
don't like boarding schools except for the high up people who care most
for accomplishments. And I have been thinking it over, and had a plan to
propose to Mrs. Dayton."

"My schooldays seem a great perplexity all around," said Helen with a
dubious sort of laugh.

"I do suppose Helen could have worked her way through. I had decided to
give her a home, or her other expenses if a pleasant home offered. I
would much rather not have her put on the level of a domestic. We may
have some very fine theories on this subject, but Helen would have many
snubs to endure. And if she resolves to learn what is useful, she will
learn it as well there."

"But the experience will be so different. And two years will fit her
for just nothing at all. Every year more real education is demanded. I
am studying up for a college degree myself."

"Oh, dear!" Helen sighed lugubriously.

"Then, here, I should have had an oversight of your studies, and kept
you up to the mark."

"I am resolved I won't fall below anywhere," she replied resolutely; yet
there were tears in her eyes.

"But you don't know what the standard will be."

"Don't be discouraging, Mr. Warfield. Helen, go and get your papers,"
interposed Mrs. Dayton.

"Is that old body going to have Helen trained for a lady's maid?" Mr.
Warfield asked in an imperious manner; his lips touched with a bit of
scorn.

"You don't do her justice. At the end of two years Helen will be free to
choose her future course. She will be only sixteen then."

"And spoiled utterly. Full of airs and graces. She is too fine a girl to
be made a sort of puppet. There wasn't a girl in my class equal to her,
and some had had much better advantages. I should not want her to go on
living with the Mulfords."

Helen returned bright and eager, proud of her success as she handed him
her examination papers. But Mr. Warfield would not be reconciled to the
boarding school plan, and when he saw Mrs. Van Dorn step out of the
carriage in her fine attire, he felt that he hated her; that she was an
officious old body.

CHAPTER IX

DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS

Hele