, and went to remind her.

"No, Beth, I have not forgotten," said Mrs. Caldwell; "but after your
conduct yesterday, I do not know how you can expect me to give you
another music-lesson."

"Are you not going to give me any more?" Beth exclaimed.

"No, certainly not," her mother answered.

Beth's heart sank. She stood for some little time in the doorway
looking at her mother, who sat beside the table sewing, and pointedly
ignored her; then Beth turned, and went back to the drawing-room
slowly, and carefully practised the usual time, with great tears
trickling down her cheeks. It did not seem to make much difference
what happened, whether she was on her best behaviour or her worst, the
tears were bound to come. But Beth had a will of her own, and she
determined to learn music. She said no more on the subject to her
mother, however, but from that day forward she practised regularly and
hard, and studied her instruction books, and listened to other people
playing when she had a chance, and asked to have passages explained to
her, until at last she knew more than her mother could have taught
her.

CHAPTER XIX

But well-springs, mortal and immortal, were beginning to bubble up
brightly in Beth, despite the hard conditions of her life. She
sharpened her wits involuntarily on the people about her, she gathered
knowledge where she listed; her further faculty flashed forth fine
rays at unexpected intervals to cheer her, and her hungry heart also
began to seek satisfaction. For Beth was by nature well-balanced;
there was to be no atrophy of one side of her being in order that the
other might be abnormally developed. Her chest was not to be flattened
because her skull bulged with the big brain beneath. Rather the
contrary. For mind and body acted and reacted on each other
favourably, in so far as the conditions of her life were favourable.
Such congenial intellectual pursuits as she was able to follow, by
tranquillising her, helped the development of her physique, while the
healthy condition of her body stimulated her to renewed intellectual
effort--and it was all a pleasure to her.

At this time she had a new experience, an experience for which she was
totally unprepared, but one which helped her a great deal, and
delighted as much as it surprised her.

There were high oak pews in the little church at the end of the road
which the Caldwells attended on Sunday; in the rows on either side of
the main aisle the pews