nothing--I'm only a
girl!"

"Only a girl! But, dear child, that's your finest qualification! You
can do more than I can ever accomplish, just because you _are_ a girl,
and will be admitted to an intimacy which is impossible for me.
Besides, Darsie, you are a particularly pretty and attractive girl into
the bargain; you know that, don't you? You _ought_ to know it, and be
very, very thankful for a great weapon given into your hands. If you
will join the ranks with me, and act as my curate, you will immensely
increase my power for good."

"But I can't! I can't! I'd love to if I could, but you don't know how
impossible it is. I couldn't preach to save my life."

"I'm thankful to hear it. I don't want you to preach. You'd soon lose
your influence if you did. It's a case of _being_, Darsie, rather than
doing; being your truest, sweetest, highest self when you are with these
men, so that they may feel your influence through all the fun and
banter. Lots of fun, please; you can't have too much of that; a dull
girl is soon left to herself. People in general don't half realise the
influence of just right _thinking_--the atmosphere which surrounds a
person who is mentally fighting for good. The sunbeams fall on the dark
earth and soak up the poisoned waters, and so may our thoughts--our
prayers," She was silent for a few moments, her hand resting lightly on
Darsie's knees. "There is a girl in your house--Margaret France--I
expect you know her! She has been one of my best helpers these last
years. Wherever Margaret is there is fun and laughter; she is just
brimful of it, but--can you imagine any one going to Margaret with an
unworthy thought, an unworthy cause? I want you to follow in her
steps!"

She paused again for a long minute, then said slowly and emphatically--

"Ralph Percival needs help, Darsie! He has not fallen very low as yet,
but he is drifting. He is in a bad set, and, like too many of our
richer men, he lacks purpose. They come up here because their fathers
have been before them, and it is the correct thing to do. There is no
real reason why they should work, or take a high place, but there seems
to themselves every reason why they should have a good time. Parents
sometimes seem to hold more or less the same opinion; at others they
seem distressed, but powerless. College authorities are regarded as
natural enemies; religious influences for the time beat on closed doors;
now, Darsie, here