As long as she could depend on Nan's support she
would not make any effort to use her own energy, nor would she exert
her will-power to force herself to strike out alone. The ice was in
perfect condition to-day, but it would not long remain so with such a
crowd cutting it to pieces, and the sun already thawing the powdered
snow and threatening to do more damage to-morrow. If Nan lost her
chance now she might not have another so good in weeks to come, for the
weather was always uncertain and the holidays were short. Everything
seemed to urge her to break loose from her self-imposed martyrdom and
go her way rejoicing; the crisp air that sang in her ears and filled
her with a sense of glorious exhilaration; the shimmering sunlight on
the ice that seemed to scud before her and invite her to join in the
race; the knowledge that she was in reality doing Louie a doubtful
service by staying beside her, and, last of all, the look of
disappointment in John's eyes as he shot past them at intervals, and
saw that Nan was not yet ready to capitulate. A sort of war with
herself was waging in her mind; her sense of duty against her
preferences; her long established habits against her newly found
resolutions. She had resolved to be like other girls in the future.
It was like headlong, impulsive Nan to make a resolve like this, and
never stop to realize that it was only the exaggeration of herself that
proved objectionable; that it would be as impossible for her to be
sedate and silent and serious as for a dashing dandelion to become a
dainty buttercup.

To her it seemed as if Miss Blake and the rest--were demanding of her
just such a metamorphosis and she had been trying--she really had--to
recast herself in the mold she thought they exacted. And now here came
John Gardiner, surely the nicest and most mannerly young fellow she
knew, and the one whom even Miss Blake was pleased to call "a perfect
gentleman"--here came John Gardiner, and told her that her despised
characteristics were precisely the ones that made her valuable. She
shook her head. It was no use; she could not understand.

"O Nan!" cried Louie, shunting along clumsily by her side and clutching
her arm in desperation. "Won't you please get me over to the shore?
I'm all tired out. I guess I'll go in for a bit and warm up and get
rested, and then I'll come out again, may be, and take another try."

Nan assented with alacrity.

"You've made a pretty good beginnin