ppy, and smiling and nodding and
beckoning to Beth. But following fast upon the vision, Aunt Victoria
would be beside her in the bitter wind, wearing her old brown dress
with white spots that was far too thin, and making believe that she
did not shiver; then they had returned from the morning walk, and Aunt
Victoria was pausing a moment at the bottom of the stairs to look up,
as if measuring her strength and the distance, before she took hold of
the bannister and began to mount wearily, but never once trusting
herself to glance towards Bernadine and the bread, lest something
should be seen in her face which she chose to conceal. From that
vision Beth would fly down the steps to the sands, and escape it in a
healthy race with the turgid waves that came cresting in and broke on
the barren shore.

Then one day, suddenly, as it seemed, a bird sang. The winter was
over, spring was upon the land again, and Beth looked up and smiled.
The old pear-tree in the little garden at the back was a white wonder
of blossom, and, in front, in the orchard opposite, the apple-trees
blushed with a tinge of pink. Beth, seeing them one morning very early
from her bed in Aunt Victoria's room, arose at once, rejoicing, and
threw the window wide open. Beth might have used the same word to
express the good and the beautiful, as the Greeks did, so inseparably
were the two associated in her mind. At this stage of her development
she felt very literally--

"The heavens are telling the glory of God,
The wonder of His works displays the firmament."

"O Lord, how wondrous are Thy works," she chanted to herself softly,
as she gazed, awe-stricken, at the loveliness of the rose-tinged foam
on the fruit-trees, and her whole being was thrilled with gratitude
for the beauty of earth. She took deep draughts of the sweet morning
air, and, like the Indian devotee, she breathed a sacred word with
every breath. But passive ecstasy was not enough for Beth. Her fine
feelings strove for expression always in some fine act, and as she
stood at the window she made good resolutions. Her life should be
ordered to worthy purposes from morning till night. She would in
future begin the day by getting up to greet the dawn in an ecstasy of
devotion. Not a minute later than daybreak would do for her. All
Beth's efforts aimed at an extreme.

She idled most of that day away in contemplation of her project, and
she was as dilatory and troublesome as she could be, do