comes the chance for `only a girl!' A man like Ralph
Percival, at this stage of his life, will be more influenced by a girl
like you than by any power on earth. It's a law of Nature and of God,
and if every girl realised it, it would be a blessed thing for the race.
I once heard a preacher say that so long as one dealt with general
principles, and talked broadly of the human race, there was very little
done. We have to fine it down to _my next door neighbour_ before we
really set to work. Fine down what I have said to Ralph Percival,
Darsie, and help me with him! He's drifting. He needs you. Help me to
pull him back!"

Darsie nodded dumbly. Mrs Reeves thought the expression on her
downcast face touchingly sweet and earnest, but even she missed the clue
to the girl's inmost thought.

Years ago she herself had been drifting, drifting towards death, and
Ralph had stepped forward to save her; now, in an allegorical sense, the
positions were reversed, and she was summoned to the rescue. There was
no refusing a duty so obvious. Heavy and onerous as the responsibility
might be, it had been placed in her hands. Darsie braced herself to the
burden.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

CHRISTMAS DAY.

It was Christmas Day; fifteen eventful months had passed by since Darsie
Garnett and Hannah Vernon had made their appearance in Clough in the
character of modest and diffident Freshers. Now, advanced to the
dignity of second-year girls, they patronised new-comers with the best,
and talked, thought, and behaved as though, deprived of their valuable
support, the historical centre of Cambridge must swiftly crumble to the
dust.

The little air of assurance and self-esteem which seems inseparable from
a feminine student had laid its hand on Darsie's beauty, robbing it of
the old shy grace, and on each fresh return to the old home Clemence and
Lavender eloquently described themselves as "squelched flat" by the
dignified young woman who sailed about with her head in the air, and
delivered an ultimatum on every subject as it arose, with an air of "My
opinion is final. Let no dog bark!"

These mannerisms, however, were only, after all, a veneer; and when two
or three days of merry, rollicking family life had passed by, the old
Darsie made her appearance once more, forgot to be learned and superior,
forbore to refer to college and college ways in every second or third
sentence, and showed a reviving interest in family affairs.