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< d.s-c _ t. 1. 4 =-  I _ ^/


AN
AMERICAN GIRL,
AND HER
FOUR YEARS IN A BOYS' COLLEGE.
BY
SOLA.


NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
549 & 551 BROADWAY.
1878.




COPYRIGHT BY
D. APPLETON & CO.,
1878.




-  '  'i..  ( ^  /  ':,, ^   ',  i  v ~. ' '. *  '/'  t   t
1-4-. s                                       /
CONTENTS.
CHAP.                                                   PAGE
I.-TIE BENDING OF THE TWIG....                5
II.-IIow TIE MAJORITY IMPRESSED TIlE MINORITY.         31
III.-FRESHMAN EXPERIENCES.....           54
IV.-SOEPHOMORIC AND OTIIER OPINIONS ON SOME IMPORTANT
SOCIAL Tics..     80
V.-CHOICE OF A CAREER...                    104
VI —ORTONVILLE TERSUS VASSAR.....    120
VII.-A  CALL FROM THE MINISTIER...               137
VIII. —IEAVY AND LIGIIT SHADINGI....        162
IX.-A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION...      190
X.-ANOTIIER PIIASE OF TIIE STORY..                    222
XI.-END OF TIIE PREPARATION.-BEGINNING OF TIE CAREER    244




I5




AN AMERICAN GIRL.
CHAPTER I.
TIIE BENDING OF TIIE TWIG.
"A child of thy grandmother, Eve-a female;
Or for thy more sweet understanding, a woman."
SHAKESPEARE.
"0 MOTIER, just listen to this that I found in
to-day's paper! Here's my chance to go to college:
'Recognizing the equal right of both sexes to the
higher educational advantages, the Board of Regents
have made provision for the education of women, and
they are now admitted to all the departments of the
University of Ortonville on the same conditions that
are required of men.' There! if that doesn't come
as near being a special Providence as anything that
ever happened to me! Won't it be glorious, mother?
I'll study hard, and win honors, and you'll be as
proud of me as if I were a boy."  And Wilhelmine




6


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


Elliott stood with expectant face, while her mother
said, quietly:
" You know, Willie, that we have never quite
agreed upon this subject of the higher education of
women, and I could never give my consent to have a
daughter of mine make herself so conspicuous as to
enter an institution founded and designed only for
young men. Then, if there were no other objection,
it could be condemned because of the ill-effects that
would result to their health; for girls cannot tread
the same path that boys do without detriment to
their health, as the highest medical authority may be
brought forward to prove."
" O mother dear, how can you say that?-for not
all the high medical authority in Christendom can
make me believe that I was born and destined to be
an invalid, all my life, because I happen to be a girl.
I-ave I ruined my health by keeping up with Frank's
class in the high-school? Look at me," and she drew
herself up proudly, but a moment after she burst into
a merry laugh as she caught sight of her face and
form in the mirror opposite; for they were, certainly,
a glowing refutation of the theory that girls cannot
do the same work that boys do, as far, at least, as the
end of a high-school course.
" I know that you are an exception in the way of




THE BENDING OF THE TWIG.


health, Willie," replied the mother, "for which you
should be very thankful; indeed, you have always
been more like a boy than a girl, but now it is time
that you were settling down, and paying attention to
things that essentially pertain to woman's sphere."
1" You look at things so differently from most
mothers," said the girl, "for it was only yesterday
that AMrs. Denton said to me that she would be perfectly happy if Ella were as much interested in getting
an education as I seemed to be, instead of spending
her time in flirtations, balls, and parties; and, on the
other hand, you wish that I was like somebody else's
daughter, and yet if I were like Ella you would not be
satisfied with me."
"Mothers are queer things," she continued, laughingly; " they take opposite ground from the crow
who always thinks her own are the whitest, for
mothers think other people's children better than
their own, mine does at least; but, now in regard to
this college business, you know that, since father's
death, we have all been brought up with the idea that
we mut make our own way in the world, and what
could be a better preparation for this than a good
classical education; and when it is offered for the
taking, it seems to me the blankest stupidity to refuse
it. If you needed me at home to help you, mother,




8


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


it would be different, but you do not; and why can't
I take my part of father's estate and put it into an
education, which will be my stock in trade? "
"You oblige me, my daughter, to give another
reason, and one outweighing all the others, that makes
me unwilling to have you go away from the restraints
of home, and be exposed to the temptations of college-life; and that is the fact that you have never
had a change of heart, have never taken Jesus as
your Saviour, and, without this, education can be
nothing but a curse. I have watched your growing
tendency to unbelief with the anguish that only a
mother can feel, who sees her loved ones going to
destruction, and I say now and here that you can
never have my consent to any step that will only make
you a greater power for evil, because not begun in the
fear of the Lord, which is the only true beginning of
wisdom."
" I may as well tell you now, mother," said Will,
'" something that I have been going to tell you for a
long time. I don't think that I ever can believe as
you want me to in those things. I try to, but it
grows more impossible every day. You have almost
forced me to accept certain forms of religious belief;
but, mother, I must be free." And the -proud lip
quivered. "I do love Jesus, although I have not




THE BENDING OF TIlE TWIG.'


9


been able to accept all the doctrines that you have
taught me. What do we judge people by, if not by
their every-day lives; and what have I done that is so
bad, mother? Have I ever done a dishonest or dishonorable thing? And yet you deny me your consent and blessing when I want to do something entirely proper, and that some would even call praiseworthy, simply because I am not a professing Christian; and, therefore, you cannot trust me away from
home for fear that I will bring disgrace upon you. I
cannot disobey you, mother, but I feel that I am
right, and once more I ask your consent to my going
to college."  And she stood with flushed cheeks before her mother.
As she looked at the bowed head, where threads
of gray were fast taking the place of the darker locks,
and as memory brought back the years in which she
had been watched over and cared for tenderly by this
mother, her conscience smote her, and slowly the
gray eyes filled with tears at the thought that she
had been the cause of adding a new pang of sorrow
to that mother's heart.
"Wilhelmine," began Mrs. Elliott in a sad voice,
"I never thought to hear such things from the lips
of a child of mine, least of all from a daughter.
You have in effect denied the Bible and Saviour;




10


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


and, my child, such a thing cannot but bring its own
curse. These long years have I looked forward to
the time when I could lean upon your arm, but I
cannot lean upon an arm that does not draw its support from the God of Abraham."
Will threw herself on her knees before her mother
and took her hands as she said, pleadingly: " Mamma
darling, why can't we live happily, and each believe
what seems best? You know that I want to be good
and true, and believe what is right; but I can't be
forced."
It was a common situation, but one of deep interest. The mother, with deep lines of care upon her
face, the inward struggle of the true mother's love
and tenderness, as it tried to break through the hard
shell of doctrinal religion with which it had surrounded itself; the one prompting her to clasp the
child in her arms and assure her of confidence and
belief in her, while the other prompted her to feel
that her daughter was under God's wrath and curse,
and must have no encouragement in plans for the
future until, by conversion, she had been passed up
into the light of God's smile.
The kneeling figure was in some respects a contrast. There were no lines of care upon the youthful
face, and fresh, joyous life leaped in every vein; but




THE BENDING OF THE TWIG.


11


there was the same firm mouth, the dark eyebrows,
the finely-cut, sensitive nostril, and, more than all,
the same strong will, so that Mrs. Elliott was arrayed
against herself when opposed to her daughter. She
answered the pleading tones:
"Yes, Willie, you talk about each one believing
as lie thinks best; but there is only one right way,
and if you do not take-it you are lost. I should be
willing to consent to anything in the way of education, if you were only a Christian, for then I would
know that you could not go wrong. You talk about
being true and noble, and so you are, my darling
child; but you lack the one thing needful, which will
keep you from falling into sin when you are tempted.
What have you to keep you true and noble when you
come to the trials of life? "
"Why, mother, I have the honor that I have inherited as my birthright, and the moral teachings that
you have given me by precept and example, and I feel
sure that they will keep me."
" But you must have God's blessing, or you will
fail. I hope you will go to your room and ask him
to forgive and help you, for your sin is against him
in rejecting his offers of mercy."
Mrs. Elliott was a Presbyterian of Scotch descent, and she kept the law to the letter, believed




12


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


to the uttermost the five points of Calvinism, and,
with the true Calvinist's spirit, would have forced
her children to Christ at the point of the sword,
thinking it was for their eternal happiness; while all
the time she was doing it her mother's heart would
have bled for their sufferings, so strangely do hearts
and creeds sometimes clash. She had been for ten
years a widow; for, when the rebellion broke out, William Elliott went as surgeon, and received a mortal
wound in one of the early engagements, so that he
only reached home in time to give his little family a
parting blessing, and express the hope that he would
meet them in heaven.
He left four children-Ienry and Frank, the two
elder; Wilhelmine; and the youngest, little Harriet,
who, from an injury to the spine, was condemned to
the life of an invalid, however long or short it might
be. Mrs. Elliott, who was all only child, went home
to live with her parents, and the home of her own
childhood became that of her children. IIere she had
passed the days of her widowhood, taking care of her
aged parents as long as they lived, and devoting herself to her family. Above all things she prayed that
they might be kept from the growing skepticism and
irreligion of the day, and brought to see the truth as
it is in Christ. At the time the story opens the elder




THE BENDING OF THE TWIG.


13


son was engaged in business in a distant State. Frank
and Wilhelmine had just graduated from the highschool of the place; and while her brother immediately
took a situation as book-keeper in one of the banks
of the city, Will was waiting for further developments
to determine her career. She declined going to a
fashionable boarding-school to " finish off," and heard
with longing heart the boys of her class talk of going
to college, for she was a good scholar, and had stood
shoulder to shoulder with the best boys of the school.
When one of the finest universities in the country
opened its doors to women, it seemed to her, as she
said, a special Providence in her behalf, and she had
not expected opposition of such a character as she
found in her mother. One great source of anxiety
concerning skeptical influences thrown around her
children had come from the bosom of her own family; for Mrs. Elliott's father, during his lifetime,
had been called an unbeliever.
Adam Conway had startled the community in
which he lived when, at the ripe age of thirty-five,
he had his name taken from the church-books, having
been a member from his youth. A life of the widest
philanthrophy and purest morality was necessary to
enable him to outlive the prejudice caused by such an
extraordinary step, and such a life was his. No tale




14


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


of distress was ever told to him in vain, and in every
benevolent enterprise his name stood first on the list
of subscribers.
Good people would often say, "'Squire Conway
lacks only one thing of being perfect, and even as he
is I guess he will not come far short of the kingdom."
HIe was an aged man when Mrs. Elliott, their only
daughter, came to live at the old home after the death
of her husband.
Mrs. Elliott knew, of course, of her father's peculiar way of thinking, and much grief it gave her to
feel that her dear father was still out of the ark of
safety and city of refuge. She feared the influence,
too, upon her children, but hoped to shield them by
prayer and correct teaching.  Not long after they
were settled in the old house, Will, who was a mere
child, came in from play one day and, with big-eyed
wonder, asked what an infidel was, for Jennie Irwin
had said that her grandpa Conway was one; and her
mother would not allow her to play with Will for
that reason. Mrs. Elliott took the little one upon her
knee, and tried to explain the meaning of the word in
language suited to the understanding of the child.
" Oh, he is like the man in my catechism that is going to be burned 'cause he won't believe as they want
him to, and they can't make him. Will they burn




THE BENDING OF THE TWIG.


15


my grandpa? " and the little face grew troubled, and
tears gathered in her eyes at the thought.
Mrs. Elliott explained to her that they did not
burn people now, and that the men who had been
burned were not all bad men; and, while she took
care that the child's trust in her grandfather should
not be shaken, she yet made the best of the occasion,
as she never failed to do, to show her her obligation
to love and serve God.
" But what has grandpa done that is bad? " persisted the child; and she was greatly relieved when
the mother assured her that her grandpa was a man
of the noblest character.  Ier mother kissed the
eager face, and told her that she would understand
these things when she grew older.
When she got down from her mother's knee, the
puzzled expression was only half gone, and, taking
her little catechism, she was soon lying full length in
the grass, looking at the picture of John Rogers, who
is about to be burned at the stake, while his family
gaze at the painful spectacle.  "Poor man!" she
murmured; "how bad those people are to burn him
so! and there are lots of his little children seeing
their father die in the fire, and pretty soon he'll be
all gone, and then they will not have a father. I
wonder why he did not believe as they wanted him




16


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


to, and they would not have him burned him so?
What makes people believe things? When I grow
big I will not believe anything. Maybe I can't help
it, though."
Not long after she was fast asleep, while the beetle hummed drowsily in the afternoon sun, and the
wind played with the golden curls and turned over
the leaves of the book; and it was not until the
maples were casting long shadows across the yard
that they found her, hidden as she was in the long
grass.
HIer grandfather assumed a new interest from
that time in the eyes of the child, and she sometimes
climbed upon his knee and, putting her arms around
his neck, would whisper, " What makes you be a infidel, grandpa? "
As Mrs. Elliott and her mother were influential
members of the Church, they often entertained ministers; these ministers often fell into discussions with
'Squire Conway; and Will was always interested in
the result of their arguments, even before she could
understand much of what they said. Old Mrs. Conway died several years before her husband, and her
last breath was a prayer for " father's" conversion.
The old gentleman became somewhat deaf, but his
mental faculties remained strong and clear till the




THE BENDING OF TIE TWIG.


17


end. During his last days the beauty and simplicity
of his character were noted by all who visited the
sick-room. Will was a favorite with her grandfather,
and was constantly by his bedside; and sometimes
she would come out of the room and burst into tears,
saying, "0 mamma, he is so lovely and patient, I
can't bear to have him die."
The church-people tried hard to turn the mind of
Adam Conway at the eleventh hour. They felt that
a calm, peaceful death in his own belief would have
a bad influence, and the Rev. Mr. Chetham was heard
to say that he had no doubt that 'Squire Conway would
show such terror at the approach of death, and be so
distracted with remorse, that it would be a remarkable
warning, and he would be able to point to it and say,
C" See what the death-bed of an unbeliever is!" but
that he should not be afraid to die, and should meet
the king of terrors with as much calmness and resignation as if he had lived within the pale of the Church,
was not at all within his expectations. They had
prayer-meetings in his room, and tried to construe his
words into a recantation or acknowledgment of a lifelong mistake; but they were disappointed, for Adam
Conway died as he had lived, in charity with all men;
and we trust that the God who knew his longings
after the truth dealt kindly with him, and that the




18


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


mysteries of the future were duly unveiled to eyes
prepared to see them.
Will had been a source of great solicitude to her
mother from her birth. Extraordinary vigor of body
and mind kept her in the fore front of every sport,
and on the verge of every danger; yet there was no
lack of native caution in her composition, and, in spite
of appearances to the contrary, the risk of life and
limb, which she seemed daily to encounter, was less
than usual instead of greater. Solicitous neighbors
had their hearts in their mouths as they watched her
dashing down-hill on her sled with the boys, or outstripping all but the boldest on the skating-pond, or
climbing to the farthest hay-loft; but, fortunately
for her peace, the mother slowly discerned the true
quality of good sense and prudence that underlay the
apparent recklessness of animal spirits, and she was
content to give Will the liberty she gave her boys,
whose constant companion she became.   Nevertheless, the mother's duty of training this daughter for
what she appreciated as woman's sphere constantly
pressed upon her. To hold the restless, vigorous
body to tasks of sewing and darning was more
grievous to the parent than to the child; yet it was
done, for Mrs. Elliott had extraordinary patience, and
was exceedingly conscientious in the performance of




THE BENDING OF THE TWIG.


19


that which she considered right, and her path of duty
was usually no less clear than her walk in it was
steadfast. But to remould and curb the nature, that
she only half understood, until her power to mould was
past, was her anxious and almost futile task, for the
vigorous body fed a brain no less vigorous.
Will was what mothers call a reasonable child,
and, approached on that side, there was little or no
contest between her and her mother; but, unfortunately, Mrs. Elliott had yielded reason to faith so wholly
that, in all matters relating to the moral training of
her children, she was incapable of exerting that sway
which she could easily have held had she met them
on natural ground.
Hers was the task of shaping these children's
souls by the line and plummet offered her in the
Bible, according to John Milton and Calvin, or rather
by that portion of the Bible distilled into the Westminster Catechism, which formed the basis of her
moral code. Dishonoring human nature by the belief in original sin and total depravity, she was compelled to set herself in antagonism to the children
she loved until they, too, accepted her definitions of
faith and goodness. And to such a parent, in the
perversity of natural things, a child is born with an
organic tendency to skepticism; a child whose reason




20


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


revolted at the formulse accepted by all about her.
The patient mother, as the years drew on, in which
she looked for a yielding of her daughter's reason and
will to the rule of faith and conduct that guided her,
and to which she believed all mortals should yield,
found only more and more hostility; but every evidence of Will's waywardness of soul was but a fresh
confirmation of her own belief in natural depravity.
After much weeping and prayer, the mother nerved
herself afresh to the task of subduing this nature, or
rather of bringing it into subjection to God, for
toward herself Will's temper was one of sweet dutifulness. All that subjection of spirit with which the
Puritan held himself in obedience to the stern decrees
of a loving but just God, led to the expectation of the
same subjection from his children; the family knew
but one law, in all the complicated interworking of
domestic machinery, the law of the parent's will.
Could this great gain but have coexisted with the
recognition of the child's God-tending nature, toward
whom the parent's hand were only needed to guide,
how blessed would be the years of childhood! But, to
a nature full of tenderest sensibility, as was that of
Mrs. Elliott's eldest daughter, the very loveliness was
taken from life by this steady effort to dominate reason and faith, which it was a part of her religion to




THE BENDING OF THE TWIG.


21


maintain. For the mother well knew that Will was
sweetness itself, in her desire for love; and in the
hours of temporary illness, or the twilight moment,
when she gave herself up to caress her, she yearned,
as only mothers can, to break down the wall of partition which, as years advanced, became more real between them.
And so the burden only grew     greater as the
years developed the romping, impatient, but loving
little girl, into a beautiful woman, Nvhomi a mother's
pride silently felt to be a radiant contrast to her companions; and it was with only a half-joy that she
watched the dancing eye, blue in the skylight and
gray in the shadow-the moist, enthusiastic eye, that
lighted up a face as mobile as the soul behind it.
Will did not know whether she was pretty or not.
She felt that she was altogether too large, and, in the
condition of semi-hostility to all the conventionalities
among which she found herself, was ever ready to
admit the worst, in regard to her face and figure.
She knew that her smile was bright and her teeth
brilliant, and that she was perfectly well and ready
for anything; but her brothers never flattered, and
Will did not fully know, until years had opened to
her the knowledge of the beautiful in art, that hers
was a magnificent form, and that her oval Greek face




22


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


was as faultless in proportion as it was vivacious in
expression. Perhaps there was one point of beauty
of which she was early conscious and suitably vain,
and that was her hand-a large, snowy hand, maybe
a trifle too opaque and bloodless, but exquisitely proportioned, and as strong and firm as was her friendship.
The vexed question of religious belief was the
cause of the only trouble Will had ever known, and
just now, as the story opens, she was in an unusually
sore state of mind on that subject. The Sunday before, there had been communion at the Presbyterian
church, and, after the regular service, when the communicants were asked to take the middle pews and
the others the side ones, it happened that Will was
the only one who sat on the side, for the rest of the
non-professors went home; but Mrs. Elliott never
allowed her family to leave before the sacrament was
administered. So Will sat all alone, and tried to look
very unconscious while her friends in the middle
pews cast solemn and pitying glances at her, and the
minister talked about the final separation of the sheep
from the goats, accompanying the words with appropriate gestures. Through the open window came the
warm, mellow sun, and far off she could see the blue
hills. HIow she longed to leap through the casement




THE BENDING OF TIIE TWIG.


23


and get away from everybody, and walk in the fields,
or lie under some tree and think! Everything seemed
to her glad and free, except people who went to church
and believed in the Bible and Saviour. HIer thoughts
went back eighteen hundred years, and she seemed to
see Jesus walking with his disciples in the fields where
lilies-of-the-valley grew, and about which he talked.
The face of the Master was one of wondrous beauty,
and she thought, if she could only have been one of
them and heard him talk, she, too, would have believed and loved him. She saw him again on the
shore of the sea of Galilee, and he always had the
same rapt expression of devotion as he talked and
pointed upward. Finally, she saw him on the cross,
and now the beautiful face is distorted with pain. A
great crowd are watching to see if he will not perform
some miracle, and get away; but he dies, and the people go home, and wonder what will happen next, for
it is all very strange. And is this the same one about
whom they now talk so much, and dispute concerning
his divinity and humanity? She was aroused by the
solemn tones of the minister saying: "Take, eat, this
is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks,
and gave it unto them, saying, drink ye all of it."
Mr. Reynolds was an old-fashioned Presbyterian minister-one who had never been softened by any of the




24


AN AMERICAN GIRL


ideas of liberal Christianity-and one who never temporized to please a mixed congregation. I-He was of
the real old school, whose very shirt-collar seemed to
say, "God, having, out of his mere good pleasure,
from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did
enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of
the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into
an estate of salvation, by a Redeemer."  And when
he cleared his throat on a frosty Sabbath morning, it
sounded as if he said, "All mankind, by their fall,
lost communion with God, are under his wrath and
curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life,
to death itself, and. to the pains of hell forever."
And, when he came to make a pastoral call, he always
seemed to bring the everlasting fire much nearer; and
children never felt quite safe to go on with their play
until the reverend gentleman was entirely out of
sight. After the sermon to-day, he came and spoke
to Will, and told her that he hoped it was the last
time she would trample upon the offer of salvation,
and grieve away the Holy Spirit, who, he felt sure,
was striving with her. But, could he have looked
into her heart at the time, he would have called it
anything else than a holy spirit, that was striving
with her. To make matters worse, old Mrs. Johnson
had overtaken her on the way home, and told her that




THE BENDING OF THE TWIG.


25


she ought to be ashamed, having such a good Christian mother, to hold out so against the means of redemption. There had been many repetitions of such
scenes, with variations, during the communion seasons
of several years. At first she received their exhortations and reproaches with a guilty feeling that they
were in the right, and she in the wrong; but she felt
that she would some time come out strong on the
Lord's side. Yes, she would join the church, of
course, if they would just let her alone a little while,
and let her put off the evil day as long as she could.
Then, as she grew older, these same exhortations and
reproaches made her angry and defiant. What business had they to torment her continually about her
soul? Was not her soul her own, and was not its salvation of more concern to her than to them? And,
besides, was not she as good in her every-day life as
they? Yes, some of them would even do things that
she would scorn to do; and she wondered if the Lord
really thought as hardly of her as those church-people
did. Then she found somewhere among her grandfather's books a copy of Renan's "Life of Jesus,"
which she read with eagerness. Here was a great man
who did not believe in the Bible or Jesus as she had
been taught, and why might he not be right? Besides,
she did not see how a man could be bad who could
2




26


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


write such a beautiful dedication to his dead sister as
she found in the beginning of the book. This helped
to give form to her shapeless doubts and questionings,
but she said nothing, for she would not give her
mother needless pain. But this unlucky opening of
the University of Ortonville by which Will saw the
realization of her darling ambition, and her mother's
refusal to consent to her going on such grounds,
brought all the rebellion of her nature to the surface,
and resulted in the disclosure of her skepticism above
described. So, this glorious afternoon in the early
autumn, Mrs. Elliott went to the missionary-meeting
with a heavy heart, and Will went up to her own
room to think over what had happened.
" Strange," said the girl, as she walked slowly up
and down the room, "that the old, old story is so
spoiled for me that I cannot bear to hear it mentioned.
I wish I had never heard it till now; how beautiful it
would seem! And it is beautiful now," she continued,
as she paused before a picture of Christ stilling the
tempest, that her mother had given her on her last
birthday, "when I can separate it from those hard,
dreadful things in the Catechism. How glad I am
that we have to settle our final accounts with the
Lord, and not with the compilers of the Westminster Catechism! There was a gentle knock at her




THE BENDING OF THE TWIG.


27


door, followed by a little pale face, and a voice
that said:
" May I come in, Willie? I sha'n't disturb you
while you study."
" Oh! it is you, IIally, is it? I thought you were
asleep, or I should have been looking for you long
ago. I have something to tell you."
Then followed a recital of her hopes about going
to college, and how her mother had dashed them, for
the moment, to the ground.
' Never mind, Willie, we'll see what can be done
about it." And a little white hand caressed lovingly
the brown curls. "I've set my heart on your going,
too, and I'll talk to mother. Won't it be splendid for
you to go and study all the things that Jack Adams
talks so glibly about, and said you never could do
them because you are a girl  You are so grand and
strong, you can do anything you try." And the blue
eyes grew bright and the pale cheeks flushed, thinking
of the triumphs that her darling sister would win in
college.
Harriet Elliott, or IIally, as every one called ler,
had been thrown from a carriage when a mere child,
which resulted in an incurable injury to the spine,
and her life always hung on a very slender thread.
She was thirteen years of age, a little, pale, patient




28


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


shadow, with premature habits of thought and reflection unnatural and painful in one so young. To use
Will's words, "she had been attacked by ministers
and church-people while in such a weak, helpless condition, that they finally brought her to confess herself
the chief of sinners; and it really was absurd to hear
the little thing, that did not know a wrong thought,
mourn over her shortcomings, and question her acceptance and effectual calling."
But there was one subject upon which she was not
at all orthodox, where her puritanism failed entirely,
and that was in her thorough adoration and approval
of her elder sister. No matter what Will did or
thought, the little invalid always found ground for
forgiveness, if not of approval, and once said in a
most heterodox way, when Mrs. Downs was talking
of Will's refusal to join the church: "Well, well,
such broken-backed creatures as I need a prop of that
kind; but I see no use in forcing it on to Will until
she feels the need of it."
There could scarcely be a greater contrast than
the two sisters presented: the one, tall, fearless, and
independent, with bounding step, and glowing face;
the other, small, slight, with slow, feeble step, and
thin, pale face, always patient, though she had no
prospect but a life of pain. To the younger, the




THE BENDING OF TIIE TWIG.


29


elder was everything that is strong, brave, and noble; and Will grew to value more the love and approval of her little sister than of any one else.
Mrs. Elliott was finally induced to give a reluctant consent to Will's going to college. It was with
a heavy heart and many misgivings, however, as to
the eternal welfare of her daughter, that she packed
the large, new trunk, and saw that all her clothes
were in good order-careful and loving mother that
she was. Some hot tears fell among the piles of
clothes in the trunk; for she felt, since the conversation that has been described at the beginning of
the chapter, that she would never he brought back to
the fold, and being exposed to the miscellaneous beliefs and unbeliefs of a university town like Ortonville made any hope of her conversion still more improbable. And yet tlie mother had a secret pride
when she heard others talk of Will going to college,
and predict for her a brilliant career. She gave her
a new Bible, and hymn-book, a copy of the "Confession of Faith," and, the day before she went, sent for
the minister to talk and pray with her.
I-Ie talked to her of the dangers and temptations
she would meet, and warned her to avoid certain skeptical books. The poor, dear man could hardly have
hit upon a more certain plan to insure their early peru



30             AN AMERICAN GIRL.
sal. Will clung to her mother at parting, and whispered: " You will believe in me, mamma darling, that
I will do right! You must say so, or I can't be happy," she pleaded; and the mother forgot her creed as
she said, "' I do believe in you, my precious child."
Then there were a rumbling of wheels and a waving of
handkerchiefs, and she was gone. "What a happy
home mine would be," thought Will, as she leaned
back on the cushions of the carriage, " if there were
no such thing as religion! "




CHAPTER II.


HOW THE MAJORITY IMPRESSED THE MINORITY.
"How fresh was every sight and sound
On open main or winding shore!
We knew the merry world was round,
And we might sail for evermore."
The Voyage.
TOWARD the close of the afternoon Will changed
cars for the last time, for they were drawing near the
university town; and many got in from villages by
the way, whom she took to be students; and, from
what she had read, she could easily decide 'lpon the
freshmen, from their timid, modest looks; and the
sophomores, from their blustering, bullying manners.
Two of the latter class sat not far from her, and
presently one of them said to his companion, as he
pointed backward with his thumb at Will: " By Jove,
Barker, what'll you bet that girl is not going to enter
college? You know they have admitted women by a




32


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


recent act of the regents, and she just looks like it.
All I have to say is, it will ruin the institution; the
feminine mind can't stand the pressure, and it will
come down to a third-rate boarding-school for boys
and girls."
As a matter of fact this same young gentleman had
been plucked twice when trying to pass examinations
for entering the sophomore class. IIis companion
was not disposed to assent entirely, for, after glancing
at Will, he said: " Pooh, I don't agree with you at
all, Irwin. Although no one can be more opposed to
co-education than I am, yet it is not because I believe
the feminine mind incapable of doing anything we
do in college or anywhere else. Why, I have a sister
that can leave me so far behind that I never get sight
of her; she is two years younger, and yet she was in
my classes in school and did all my problems and
translations for me; so, if you object to the movement,
do it on reasonable grounds, I say."
Will was much interested in this conversation,
and it brought a new phase of the question which she
had not thought of before. It had never occurred to
her that any of the students could be so selfish and
unfair as to be unwilling that the university should
throw open its doors to sons and daughters alike, and
for a moment she shrank from the thought of meet



HOW THE MAJORITY IMPRESSED THE MINORITY. 33


ing so many who would look at her and think, " What
under the sun is that girl doing here? " for, who knows,
she might be the only one who had ventured to grasp
the hitherto forbidden fruit!
Her heart gave a great leap when the name of the
town was called out. There was much talking and
exchanging of greetings as classmates met again after
the long vacations, many cries of " Halloa, Fresh! does
your mother know you're out?." "What makes you
look so pale, Fresh? " etc.
"Drive me to the president's house, please," said
Will to the hackman, not knowing of any better
place to go, to find out what she must do first. As
they whirled along the avenues of maples, she leaned
out-of the window with wistful curiosity to see the
town tliat was to be her home for the next four years.
The driver stopped before a sombre stone house and
handed her out, saying, "This is the place, miss;"
then mounted his box and was off. Will tripped up
the steps and rang the bell with a beating heart, for
she had a wholesome dread of meeting that high dignitary, the president. A broad-faced Irish girl came
to the door, and, in answer to the inquiry for the
president, said: "La! miss, the president don't live
here; there's his house t'other side the campus; this
is the hospital, and we have three cases of small-pox."




34


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


Will caught up her valise and hurried down the
steps, looking in vain for the hackman who had
brought her, and nothing remained but to walk the
distance. The wind blew raw and chilly, and a slow,
drizzling rain had set in, which added to the unpleasantness of the situation.
"Well," thought Will, "if I were a believer in
omens and such nonsense, I should say that the fact
of being thus set down before a small-pox hospital
was a proof that my college course had not met the
approval of the gods; but we'll give them another
trial."
The president was not in his residence, but at his
office in the university-building, and the maid said
she would show her the way; so, once more taking
her traveling-bag, she followed the nurse-girl for
another half-mile, while the latter wheeled a babycarriage.
The man of affairs sat at his desk, writing, but
looked up with a bright smile as Will advanced and
offered her letters of introduction.
Ie shook hands with her and smiled upon her in
the most kindly way as he said: "And you came all
the way from C, alone, you tell me, and are not acquainted with any one here, and you want to enter the
university? Why, you are a brave girl, I must say!"




HOW THE MAJORITY IMPRESSED THE MINORITY. 35


" Have any other young ladies applied for admission, and are there very many boys here?"
"I think that you will not be entirely alone, Miss
Elliott, for I hear of several young ladies who are
intending to be examined for admission; and, as to
your last question, I believe there are more than
thirteen hundred young gentlemen in all the departments."
" How do you think the girls will be received in
college? " asked Will.
"I can tell better some time hence," he replied,
evasively; " and now I will take you to Mr. Benson,
the steward, who will find you a good boarding-place."
The president left her in the hands of the steward,
a gray-headed gentleman, with a pen over his right
ear, and his genial face looked out over a stiff linen
collar as he said: " Yes, yes, I have a number of good
places down in my book, for everybody keeps boarders here, you know. There is Mrs. Hodges, in William  street, No. 94-first-rate place; Mrs. Myers,
in Thompson Street; and Mrs. Smith, Jefferson Avenue, No. 59."
" Why, they all seem to be widows here?" said
Will, struck with the fact that the heads of the households were women.
"Oh, no; but their husbands always allow them




36


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


this enterprise of keeping boarders, by which they
make their own pin-money and pay the church-dues,"
said Mr. Benson, with a twinkle in his eye.
Will found out afterward that, in the majority of
cases, the women who were allowed the "enterprise
of keeping boarders " supported their husbands and
families, besides making pin - money and paying
church-dues. Mr. Benson sent his little son along,
to carry her bag and show the way.
The clouds had lifted enough for the autumn sun
to smile for a moment upon the tops of the tall pinetrees in the campus, as Will and her escort set out to
find a boarding-place. She thought that everybody
was delightfully kind, and that going to college was
one of the jolliest things in the world. At Mrs.
Hodges's, No. 94, a little girl came to the door, and,
on being asked if her mamma had rooms to let to students, she went to speak to that lady, returning with
the reply that "mamma don't want girls."
"Well," said Will, with just a little sinking of the
heart, "your mamma's prejudices should be respected."
The next was the Myers mansion, in Thompson
Street, where the lady of the house came to answer the
bell herself. "I could not think of taking a ladystudent, it's so odd, you know; we can't tell what




HOW THE MAJORITY IMPRESSED THE MINORITY. 37


they might be like," and the door was closed without
further ceremony.
Will's spirits fell perceptibly at this, but she determined to try once more, so she rang at 59 Jefferson Avenue. A little colored servant-boy came to
the door, and, after the usual question was put and
carried to headquarters, he came back with a grin,
saying, "She hathe not a good opinion of ladieths
who wanths to come to a boyths' college."
Will returned to the steward's office, and the indignant tears stood in her eyes as she said: " They
all look at me as if I were some wild animal, and say
they want to take boys; are boys so much better than
girls?"
" Oh, oh! " said the kind-hearted steward; "I
might have known people are prejudiced, yet, against
ladies who come here to college: I did not think what
I was doing when I sent you alone. Never mind, I
know where I'll take you-strange I didn't think
of her before! Mrs. Williamson, a cousin of mine,
said the other day she would try lady-boarders if she
had a chance."
Mrs. Williamson did take her; and Will was soon
eating bread-and-butter and raspberry-tarts, and fast
forgetting her tears, as she sat by the open fire and
answered the questions of the mother and two daugh



38


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


ters about her journey, home, and friends, and how
she had the courage to come alone; and she became
quite a heroine in their eyes when she told of the
repulses she had received in Thompson and Jefferson
Streets.
I wish that I could do justice in describing these
two girls, Angelica and Samantha Williamson. They
were what the college-boys (for there is no subject
too sacred for their irreverent tongues to handle)
termed " college widows."
In every university town there is always a series
of these who have depended upon the students for
their "clhances;" and who, after angling patiently in
the matrimonial sea for years, are often obliged to
give up in despair. They have plenty of bites, but
they pull up too soon, or do not conceal the bait effectually, or something interferes with their success.
Of this unfortunate class were Mrs. Williamson's two
daughters.
Year after year they had watched the tide rise and
fall, as each successive class entered and left the sheltering arms of its alma mater, but the tide had never
risen high enough to float them off the rocks of single
blessedness, and they had never even experienced
that innocent feeling of rapture and contentment with
all sublunary things that comes of being " engaged."




HOW TILE MAJORIIY IMPRESSED TIHE MINORITY. 39


They were now in that appalling border-land where,
in the rear, they see the path strewed with what once
seemed to be golden opportunities, but which proved
to be only those fair, false mirages to which every
single woman can point as she thinks, "It might
have been! " In front lay the vast, desolate plain of
old maidenhood, into which they had not yet traveled far enough to feel thoroughly at home, and from
which they still had hopes of being rescued.
Year after year they made up bolts of muslin into
under-clothes, which they ruffled and embroidered
with the greatest industry, and laid away in bureaudrawers to grow yellow and moth-eaten; they had
untold supplies of table and bed linen stored away,
for the good mother would say, as she looked fondly
at her girls, "It is best to be ready, for there is no
telling what may happen," but it never did happen;
and now, as I write, these dear blossoms are still
clinging to the family tree, and very probably will
never be plucked from that time-honored trunk by
a gentler hand than that of the reaper who takes blossoms and grain, alike.
Mrs. Williamson had taken another lady-student
several days before, whom she now brought down to
introduce to Will, who looked toward the opening
door with eager face, for the peculiar light in which




40


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


" lady-students" were regarded made her curious to
look at one from an objective standpoint.
A neat, trim little figure came tripping in, bearing the name of Clara Hopkins. She was almost a
head shorter than Will, and her plain, gray dress fitted to perfection, while her hair was combed smoothly
away from her forehead and gathered in a coil behind.
She came forward and seized Will's hand with the
most lively enthusiasm, as she said, " I am glad that
I am here to welcome you to our ranks."
"What a nice little thing she is!" thought Will;
and then they fell to comparing notes, and found that
they had gone over pretty nearly the same ground in
preparation, although Clara was two years older than
Will, and had taught some time in a primary school
since her preparation for college. They were soon
fast friends, and had agreed to room together; and
Will wrote to Hally that night that she had found a
"perfect treasure of a room-mate," and that they
would get along famously. After they went to their
room, and were preparing for bed, Clara said, "Your
trunk is not here yet, dear, so you can use my Bible
till it comes."
" Thank you," said Will, " I don't care for it;" and
she felt as if the wrappings were being taken from
an old wound.




HOW THE MAJORITY IMPRESSED THE MINORITY. 41


The other looked surprised and grieved, and, when
she saw that Will did not kneel to pray, she said,
"Aren't you a Christian, and don't you love Jesus?"
The hot blood rushed to Will's face, as she thought,
"As I live, the same old story!" but she replied
aloud, " Yes and no." Clara looked puzzled, but said
no more.
Will was up early next morning, ready for examinations, and at eight o'clock she entered the university-buildings prepared, as she said, to run the
gantlet or die in the attempt. The long, bare halls
were not accustomed to resound with the tread of
girlish feet, and the steps had hitherto been worn
only by male devotees in their pilgrimages to the
temple of learning. "I can tell," she thought, "just
by the way each professor looks at me, whether he
believes in girls going to college." She came first to
the mathematical-room, where she found an elderly
gentleman with a bald head and kindly face, who,
as she afterward found, was Prof. Noyes.   Beside
him sat an assistant or "tutor" with a very large
nose, and a half-amused, half-contemptuous look on
his face, when he saw a girl place herself among the
candidates. The room was nearly full, some working at blackboards, and others being examined orally,
while others still waited for their turn. After wait



42


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


ing patiently for what seemed to her a very long
time, the large nose turned to her, and said suddenly,
" Miss, can you prove that the whole is greater than
a part "
"No, sir," said Will, promptly and somewhat
haughtily, for she was not disposed to look favorably
upon any jokes from the tutor.
" Well, then, you may prove that the square described upon the hypothenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares described
upon the other two sides, and also that the angles at
the base of an isosceles triangle are equal."  Then
followed more propositions, in most of which she
acquitted herself creditably. Prof. Noyes, who had
been looking at her work, seemed highly pleased, and
began in easy, pleasant tones to ask her some questions about algebra, and Will soon forgot that she
was undergoing the dreadful ordeal of examination,
for he had a delightful way of asking questions that
put her at ease, at once, and she did not feel that she
must be all the time on the defensive. IIe sent her
to the board with a problem in quadratics. It was
very long, and she worked away until she had covered a whole blackboard, but it would not come out
right. She bit the chalk-crayon, in her perplexity,
and drops of perspiration started on her forehead, but




HOW THE MAJORITY IMPRESSED TIIE MINORITY. 43


that did not help the matter. The professor, who had
been watching her, now came to her relief by saying:
" Your work is very good, indeed, but you have written X' instead of X4 in this equation, which, you
see, will bring it right; you may consider yourself
'passed' in mathematics, Miss Elliott," and she left
the room with a reverence for Prof. Noyes that increased as the months and years of college-life went
by. Then, came history, geography, and other things
that she considered very easy, and late in the afternoon Latin and Greek. She could not quite decide
whether the Professor of Latin believed in girls or
not, for he asked her to scan passages in Virgil in a
matter-of-fact way without regard to sex, which she
liked much better than to have them drag in some
allusion to her being a girl, which so many did.
Will had heard that Prof. 13orck, who examined in
Greek, was very stern, and bitterly opposed to ladies
entering the university, so it was with some trepidation that she entered the awful presence. There were
only two candidates left, and, while waiting for her
turn, she looked around the room.
The only object of interest, which indeed was
enough, was a large oil-painting of ancient Athens,
that covered one whole side of the room. Will forgot her anxiety about Prof. Borck, as she watched




44


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


the beautiful Greek women in their graceful dresses
carrying jars of water on their heads, while over all
was the soft sky, and she could almost see the wind
gently stirring the foliage, when she was aroused by" Well, miss, what do you know about Greek?" and
a pair of large eagle-eyes and a hooked nose swooped
down upon her from the rostrum where he sat. She
told him what she had gone over-two books of
Xenophon's " Anabasis," IIadley's " Grammar," and
Arnold's " Composition."
" We require three books of Xenophon; but,
young woman, it is not so much the amount that I
want to know as the way you have done your work;"
and he proceeded to find out how she had gone over
the ground. IIe gave her passage after passage to
translate, nouns and adjectives to decline, asked for
all the comparatives and superlatives of 7ya09;, and
the parts of op0o, eXo, and other irregular verbs, and
might have gone on indefinitely, had it not grown so
dark in the room that it was difficult to see the page.
"I've no fault to find with you, Miss Elliott, except that one book of Xenophon, which deficiencies we
always require to be made up under a private tutor,
and I recommend you to Jerry Dalton, a member of
the senior class, who does that kind of work to help
himself through college; you will be the first young




HOW TIlE MAJORITY IMPRESSED THE MINORITY. 45


lady that lie has had in that capacity," and, as Will
turned to go, he added, " See that you confine yourselves strictly to the Greek." It was too dark for
her to notice the flash of humor that was in the eagleeyes as he said this, and, supposing it was a sort of
implication of her necessary frivolity as a girl, she
bowed with great dignity as she replied, " I have no
other intention, sir."
Prof. Borck turned to his assistant and said: "I
do not think it will work at all. Now, I don't know
of anything better than to send her to Dalton to make
up that Greek, for it is the way we do with the boys;
but, if Jerry Dalton can be closeted for an hour a day
t^\Nh that face and eyes and never think of anything
but the 'IRetreat of the Ten Thousand,' he is a very
remarkable young man. I'll warrant that before a
month he will be partial to the conjugation of t~X&oe
and Jya7rwo, and his dreams will not be troubled by
the integral calculus so much as by visions of gray
eyes and brown hair."
Will had been the unwilling hearer of these remarks, for the door did not latch behind her, and she
was delayed in the corridor by looking for her gloves
that had fallen from the book; but she only thought,
"What an old bird of ill-omen he is! "
This closed her examinations, and she bounded




46


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


across the campus, eager to tell Mrs. Williamson and
the girls her good-fortune. She sprang up the steps
two at a time, and, instead of waiting to open the halldoor, she stepped through the window that opened
down to the floor of the veranda, and, rushing into
the kitchen, seized Miss Samantha by the waist and
spun her around, so frightening the cat that she ran
out and did not appear again for three days. They
all liked this lively girl, and Miss Samantha smoothed
her disordered braids with much better grace than if
any one else had taken such violent liberty with her
revered person.
Perhaps Will's letter to her sister will give the
best idea of her first week's experience as one of the
girls who first entered the University of Ortonville
after the admission of women:
"DEAR LITTLE SIS: I'm here, as large as life. I
came, I saw, I conquered, and am established as a
member of the freshman class of the university, in
good and regular standing. Was weighed in the balance, and am somewhat ahead of Belshazzar, for I was
not found wanting, except a little in Greek, which I
have to make up under a private tutor, and I must
tell you about him. Imagine a pair of legs of tremendous length and the pants making vain endeavors




HOW THE MAJORITY IMPRESSED THE MINORITY. 47


to equal their linear dimensions, arms to match, and
the coat-sleeves having the same benevolent intentions as the pants, but failing in the same way; these
surmounted by a head-piece adorned with yellow hair
and a mushroomy-looking mustache, and you have,
in outline, my private tutor. He is a fine fellow,
although he holds girls in great contempt. He is
President of the Young Men's Christian Association,
and is going to be a Methodist preacher. He knows
a great deal about books and such things; but to put
him in a parlor would remind one of the famous
quadruped in the china-shop. You ought to have
seen him when I was first introduced to him and told
him that I wanted a little coaching in Greek: he
thrust his great arms into his pants-pockets and looked
down at me from his immense height with a most
pitying expression, partly because I was a freshman,
but mostly because I was a girl, for he is very orthodox on the girl-question, and doesn't believe in them
doing or being anything except 'chaste keepers at
home.' But he is as bashful as possible when you
bring him to close quarters; and, when he first heard
me recite, he sat in one corner of the room and I in
another, and from that distance he hurled questions
at me; but now he is thawing out a little since he
finds that I can acquit myself honorably on Greek




48


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


roots, in spite of my petticoats; but I cannot tell you
any more about him, although he is a fertile subject,
for I have so much else to say.
" I have not begun this in chronological order, I
see, as I have not told you about the opening morning in chapel. It was terrific, and I did not know as
there would be a vestige of me left to send to you.
You see, we have prayers every morning in the law
lecture-room, as our hall is not done yet; it is an immense room, and the freshmen sit on one side and
the sophs on the other, so that the two combustibles
are separated by the grave upper-classmen. We girls
(there are nine of us) went fifteen minutes before
time, and, when we entered the door, we heard the
most uproarious din, and, on coming up the stairs,
found the fresh and sophs joined in mortal combat,
while, above all, rose the chorus, 'Saw freshman's leg
off-short!' We were terribly frightened, thinking
that some one would surely be killed; but at last we
were all in the room and no lives lost.
" There are one hundred and fifty boys in our
class, and more than a hundred sophs; then the other
classes, together with the law and medical students,
make an imposing assembly.
" We, poor little wretches, did not know where to
sit, of course, and not one boy was polite enough or




HOW THE MAJORITY IMPRESSED THE MINORITY. 49


dared to face the crowd and show us a seat; so we
kind of edged around into not much of anywhere, but
found to our cost that it was in direct line of the
missiles between the hostile classes, which missiles
consisted of hymn-books, sticks, anything movable;
a great apple-core struck me right in the eye, which
caused me to see a whole solar system of stars; but I
bore it bravely, feeling something of that rapture that
the old martyrs must have felt-for, was I not suffering in the cause of co-education?
" I thought that I was used to boys; but I must
say that I never met boy in his most malignant form
until I came to college. In looking at my own class,
every variety can be seen-long boys, short boys, fat
boys, lean boys, boys pious and boys impious, gathered from one hundred and fifty families all over the
land, from Maine to Mexico, a most heterogeneous
collection, fused into one solid mass by the common
bond 'our class.' Every one of them is, doubtless,
some 'mother's darling;' but I never before realized
how much poor as well as good material is worked up
into these same mothers' darlings. Oh, yes, we have
a Sandwich-Islander, too, born under the very shadow
of old Mauna Loa; and a Japanese with funny, long
almond-eyes and yellow skin, who is being educated
for a missionary. The girls are not expected to have
3




50


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


much class-spirit yet, but are supposed to sit meekly
by and say ' Thank you' for the crumbs that fall from
the boys' table; but, in spite of that, I feel my bosom
swell with pride when I look at these one hundred
and fifty heads, and think that I, too, as much as the
best of them, am a member of the freshman class of
the University of Ortonville.  But I've wandered
from the chapel-scene. As soon as Prexy (that is
what the boys call the president, for short) came,
there was a general lull; he is a magnificent-looking
man, called here from the presidency of --, and
this is his first year here. One bygone the faculty
came and formed a most reverend collection of wise
heads, with here and there a tutor sprinkled in.
They gave out the hymnIIow firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,' etc.;
then the choir of fifty boys stood around the organ,
while twelve hundred voices poured forth a volume
of sound grand and tremendous; our poor feminine
voices were completely drowned. Then the president made a delightful prayer, in which he asked
the Lord to watch over and protect those we had
left behind, in our homes, and who were making
sacrifices that we might come here and drink at
the fountain of knowledge; and other pretty things




HOW THE MAJORITY IMPRESSED TIlE MINORITY. 51


of like kind he said. There was no particular outburst of the belligerents during the prayer, except
now and then a wily soph would hiss ' Fresh!' and the
fresh would hiss in reply. I suspect that the faculty
have to wink at a great many such things, for this
time-honored animosity between those two classes,
silly as it is, cannot be stopped at once, and, in such
an institution, the reins have to be held very judiciously, or they would blow the whole faculty up with
gunpowder and think nothing of it. A-fter this, the
freshmen were called up, one by one, to receive their
papers, upon which was written either ' Passed' or
' Not passed,' and you might have seen one here and
there turn pale as he sank into his seat, his paper
containing the fatal 'Not passed,' which meant that
his examinations had not been satisfactory, and he
could not be admitted.  Then we all dispersed to
the different recitation-rooms to have lessons assigned.
" Yesterday the freshmen and sophs had a ' rush,'
which I will explain. They meet wherever the spurt
seizes them, and, with the best intentions, plunge at
each other like mad in a hand-to-hand fight, and often
an arm is broken or an eye knocked out, which is
simply 'hard luck.' We were just coming out of
Latin while the sophs were going up to trigonometry,




52


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


and they met on the stairs and went at it. One sweetfaced boy said, ' For Heaven's sake, Phelps, wait until
the girls get out of the way!' but that worthy replied, 'Damn 'em, they have no business here anyway,
and let 'em take their chances!' I was on the last
step hurrying to get out of the crowd, when I was
pushed violently against the bannisters, making my
nose bleed in a most ghastly manner, and, of course,
I had no handkerchief, which, you know, is my fortune always in an emergency (you remember the time
I did not dare to cry at Percy Ames's funeral, because
I did not have that indispensable with me?); but the
girls came to my relief and helped me home, and all
the while the martyr-fire burned brightly in my
breast, and I only laughed at my bruises. Now,
there is not one of those boys but, if you find him
out of college, would have run to a lady's assistance
and begged a thousand pardons for having had any
hand in such an accident; but, would you believe it,
not one of those two hundred and fifty boys offered
any help or sympathy, simply because they feel that
we are trespassing upon their domains!
" You would be amused, too, to see how the people in town regard us; for I never go on the street
without hearing some such remark as-' See, there is
one of them; look at her!'  This will all change in




HOW THE MAJORITY IMPRESSED THE MINORITY. 53


time; but it makes it hard for the pioneers who have
to bear the brunt of the battle.
" But I do enjoy our work so much; we are reading Cicero's discourse concerning 'Friendship,' in
Latin; and, in Greek, Isocrates's ' Panegyricus,' which
is very beautiful but quite hard. I still think a great
deal of my room-mate, although she is churchy; her
father is a Methodist minister, and, of course, poor;
and she has taught, to get money to come to college,
which is very noble; and she is a fine, ambitious
scholar. If slie will not bother me too much on religion, we will work well together; but, you know,
that's my sensitive point.
" I hope it will not tire you to read this fearfully
long letter. Will you miss me much if I do not go
home Christmas? You know that I am so far away
and have so much to do, that I thought I would not
go home again till the end of the year.
" Get well fast, and be able to run over the hills
with me in the summer.
"Ever your loving old sister,
" WILHELMINE ELLIOTT.




CHAPTER III.


FRESHIMAN EXPERIENCES.
"The tongue which like a stream could run
Smooth music from the roughest stone,
And every morning with 'good-day '
Make each day good, is hushed awayAnd yet my days go on."-Mlns. BRtOWNING.
To those at home the winter passed more slowly.
The events in IIally's life were her sister's letters,
which she kept under her pillow, and over which she
laughed and cried by turns; and Mrs. Elliott, too, felt
less anxiety than she had expected to feel, in view of
the bold step her daughter had taken; and, although
she thought that she had cast her burden upon the
Lord,.yet her confidence was more truly the result of
a growing insight into her daughter's character, and
in part the reflection of Hally's enthusiasm.
The little invalid grew weaker and paler as the
weeks went by, but she always wrote in the most
cheering manner to her sister; how she hoped to be




FRESIMAN EXPERIENCES.


55


able to join her in rides and walks when vacation
came, but, even as she wrote, the hope died within
her, for her heart told her that she was to have no
more of such pleasures with her darling sister. She
never allowed her mother to write anything that
might alarm Will, for she said, " What's the use? it
will only worry her and not help me." All the while
the young student, busy with the trials and triumphs
of college-life, never thought that Hally could ever
be anything else than the dear, patient little angel,
and in her dreams of the future the little one always
formed one of the chief characters.
A freshman year in college is full of trials for a
boy; but, for a girl, who enters an institution where
boys have held undisputed sway for generations, every
day brings persecutions which he never feels.
He enters a field which has been his without dispute from time immemorial, for his father and grandfather were there before him; while for her every step
costs a battle, and every innocent action is the subject
of unkind criticism. She is presupposed to be loud,
masculine, and aggressive, until she proves herself
different.
So the nine girls of the University of Ortonville
did not find their path strewed with roses, but they
were mostly brave, high-minded girls, and hoped to




56


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


disarm criticism by their daily life and work, rather
than by angry retorts, and by degrees they succeeded.
The first concession in their favor was changing
the name of the " Young Men's Christian Association" to the " Students' Christian Association," and
several of the girls joined. After some weeks they
were called upon to lead in prayer, and, after two or
three years, were occasionally asked to conduct the
meeting.
An incident occurred about this time that weakened the bond between Will and her room-mate, which
result was due to Clara's excessive zeal in trying to
proselyte.
Will had concluded that she would not go to
church any more, so for several Sundays she staid
at home and read her dear Carlyle, much to the grief
of Clara, who thought that no person could be good
who did not go to church. But the force of habit
was so strong upon her that she did not feel quite at
ease when she saw others going. So the next Sabbath she ventured into the Presbyterian church, where
she heard a sermon from the text, " The wicked
shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the
righteous into life eternal;" and it was closely defined
who the wicked and who the righteous were. She
plainly saw that, according to the minister's definition




FRESHMAN EXPERIENCES.


57


of each, she would be classed with the wicked. The
next week, when she was preparing to settle down for
a quiet day at home, Clara said, " Go with me to my
church to-day, won't you? "
"Oh, I'm sick of churches; it will take me a
month to recover from last Sunday's sermon, it was
so hideous."
" But I want you particularly to go to-day, for we
have class-meeting."
" I don't know much about you MIethodists, but I
suppose they are off the same piece with the rest; it
is always 'Believe what I say or you'll be forever
lost,' and doubtless your minister, in addition to that
fundamental principle, will denounce Calvinism and
every other ism not his own. No, I'm going to stay
at home and read Emerson's ' Oversoul.'"
" And you will not go even to oblige me? " said
Clara, in an injured tone.
"Yes, if you put it in that way, I'll do it to
accommodate you," she replied, putting on her
hat.
Clara had an indefinite idea, as many of her belief
have, that, if you can only bring a sinner under direct
fire of the gospel, by some happy chance he may be
pricked to the heart, and brought to see the truth;
so, with a prayer in her heart that her poor, mis



58


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


guided chum might be brought under conviction, they
went to meeting.
There were perhaps forty persons in the class to
which Clara belonged, ranging from children of twelve
to gray-headed men and-women, the leader being
brother. Ramsey, a deacon of the church.
They began by prayer, after which each one was
called upon to give his or ler experience.
Will noticed that the women spoke and prayed.
This was something quite new, for she had been accustomed to hear no one speak in church but the
"holy men," and she did not quite know whether she
liked it or not, for it was so strange.
Each one who spoke had some particular friend
or acquaintance for whom he asked the prayers of the
rest. Clara arose and said that she had a very dear
friend who was living without the Saviour, whom she
begged that they would remember at the throne of
grace in an especial manner.
This irritated Will, when she perceived that Clara
was aiming at her, for her interest up to this time in
the meeting had been entirely impersonal.
She saw that Mr. Ramsey called on all, and took
them in the order in which they sat. She began
to feel a little uncomfortable, when slhe heard him
call upon those nearest ler, but she thought, "i e will




FRESHMAN EXPERIENCES.


59


not call upon me, for I'm  a stranger; " but he did,
saying, " My daughter, what have you to say on the
side of the Lord? "
" Nothing, sir," replied Will, growing very red, as
she felt the eyes of the whole room upon her.
The good man looked disappointed, and immediately he began to pray for her, begging the Lord to
pluck this brand from the burning, and she was portrayed as a poor wretch living without hope and God
in the world. At one time she would have been
frightened at hearing herself held up in such a light;
but now she was only indignant, first, because AMr.
Ramsey had called upon her, and then because Clara
had insisted upon her going. That was the first and
last time that she ever went to a Methodist classmeeting, and she resisted all Clara's coaxing to remain
during the rest of the service.
On her way home she was overtaken by one of
the girls, whom I have not yet mentioned by name,
but who, more than any other, exercised a lasting influence upon Will's character. At first glance you
would say that she had not a single element of beauty.
HIer hair was red, and her nose had a decided inclination to turn up; she had freckles and light eyebrows,
and yet no person ever became acquainted with Nellie Holmes who did not think her beautiful; and, be



60


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


fore her college-life was over, more than a dozen boys
had fallen hopelessly in love with her, and raved
about her beauty, while she was a paragon of loveliness to all the girls in the class. She often spoke of
her own homeliness in a playful way, and sometimes
she would say-and the playfulness was mingled with
a tone of regret-" I think Dame Nature might have
been a little more generous with me."
To-day she was in fine spirits as she came up to
Will, and said: "We have had such a beautiful
sermon to-day! Dr. Bingham always preaches so
beautifully; the text was, 'The truth shall make
you free.' Won't you go with me to hear him some
time? "
"What church is it?" asked Will, feeling shy on
the subject of churches.
"The Unitarian-that is the one I like the best."
"The Unitarian! " said Will, musingly; "let me
see; they do not believe that Christ was God: what
do they think of him? "
" That he was a great, grand brother man, who
seemed to get nearer to the soul of things than the
rest of us. Come home and spend the day with me,
and we'll talk about it-come."
" Do you know," said Nell, as they walked along,
" you remind me of ' Jo' in 'Little Women? ' only




FRESHMAN EXPERIENCES.


61


you are prettier than Jo," and she looked admiringly at Will's brown hair and fine profile.
"I'm not as good as Jo; but I wonder what she
would have done if she had been made to learn the
catechism, and go to prayer-meeting when she did
not want to? "
" Is that the way you were brought up? how sorry I am for you! " said Nell, pityingly.
By this time they were at her boarding-place, and
she brought Will in and set her down in a rockingchair before the grate, where a cheerful fire was burning, and said: " Now, I'm going to read you some of
my religion;" and she took up a volume of Whittier's
poems, and read " The Eternal Goodness."
" How beautiful that is! " cried Will, as she repeated:
"I know not where his islands lift
Their fronded palms in air;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond his love and care."
Then she read " Our Master," and Lowell's "Vision of Sir Launfal,' and ended with Gerald Massey's
"Final Iarmony."
" Yes, those are all very lovely, but they are only
poetry," said the skeptical Will; "for how do we




62


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


know anything about God or a hereafter, or whether
there is any ' "
" What a little atheist you are!" said Nell; but
you will come out all right; I've never had such a
struggle as you, for I was never taught to believe in
any but a God of love and mercy, and I have never
questioned him for a moment."
" No, I'm not an atheist," said Will, a little frightened at the word, " for there must be something at
the bottom of things; but as to there being one who
looks out for each one of us personally and hears
prayers, I don't know, I'm sure."
" I can't remember the time when I did not believe in a God who loved me and listened when I
spoke to him. But don't worry about these things too
much; you are not to blame for what you think, but
I believe you would be happier if you felt as sure of
things as I do. Iere is a book that I wish you would
read-' The Religion of Humanity.'"
" That sounds nice, and I'll read it for your sake,
if nothing else."
Clara looked doubtfully at the book when Will
showed it to her, and she said, "I'm afraid it will only
help you farther on the wrong way."
"I'll risk anything being injurious that Nellie
Holmes recommends," said Will, with a little touch of




FRESHMAN EXPERIENCES.


63


resentment, for she had not forgotten the class-meeting of the morning.
It is only due to Prof. Borck's far-sightedness to
state the result of Will's lessons with her private
tutor. Young Dalton, by degrees, recovered from
his bashfulness, and, instead of sitting at the farthest
corner of the room, he even, sometimes, forgot his
book, and had to look over with her. He also recovered from his contempt for girls so far as to say,
" Really, liss Elliott, if all girls were like you, I should
not have the slightest objection to their going to college."
As the days went on, his admiration warmed into
quite a personal regard for his promising pupil; and
then, before he was aware of it, he was in love, and
exhibited some of the most common of the manifold
and multiform symptoms which indicate that condition of mind. Sometimes he blushed when she spoke
to him, and sometimes affected indifference. Sometimes, when she happened to be a few moments late,
he would walk in the direction she was sure to come,
and of course was very much surprised to meet her.
One morning he came resolved: stern determination sat upon his brow until he came in sight of the
object of his disturbance. The lesson went on as
usual, until.c found that his text of Xenophon dif



64


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


fered very materially from hers, when he laid it down
and looked on with her. She was bending with all
earnestness over the book, when he suddenly drew
her head upon his shoulder and kissed her lips, saying, " It's no use-Miss Elliott, I am going to tell you
anyway."   If he could only have knelt gracefully
upon one knee, and poured forth his soul in words of
burning eloquence, his feelings might at least have
been spared; but to be unceremoniously kissed like a
country lass at an apple-paring was not at all in accordance with Will's ideas of the fitness of things. Poor
Dalton! Hamilton, in his a Metaphysics," had never
told him how to declare himself acceptably, and in
all the labyrinths of his calculus he had met nothing
that threw light upon the subject; so he trusted to
the inspiration of the moment, and threw himself
from his high pedestal of a tutor to the level of a
very awkward lover. Will thrust his arm aside and
stood before him, her face flushing angrily as she
said:
"I employed you to teach me Greek, and not
make love to me. Everybody says that we come
here just to flirt with the boys; and, when we are
going along quietly trying to mind our own affairs,
you make fools of yourselves, for which we get the
blame. Why, such a scene as this just now is enough




FRESHMAN EXPERIENCES.


to throw disgrace upon the whole cause of co-education in its present uncertain state," and she smiled,
in spite of herself, at the extreme character of her
statement.
" I-I-did not mean to do any thing wrong;
and, if I have, I hope the Lord will forgive me! "
"Doubtless he will, Mr. Dalton; but I think
you had better ask my pardon first. I guess we have
had enough Greek for the present; so, whenever you
are ready, present your bill."
I would not convey the impression that Will was
remarkably prudent, or more sensible than girls of
her age, maybe; for, had she been in love with the
tutor, I'm  afraid the cause of co-education would
have been secondary; but she was not, and that
made the difference."
She read the rest of her Greek alone, and went
up to be examined in it; and, as no questions were
asked about Dalton, no person knows to this day of
the scene that was enacted, for which Xenophon
would have been to blame had it injured the cause
of the higher education of women.
Finally, the semi-annual examinations came at the
end of the first semester's work, and, when the professors were asked how the young ladies stood in
their classes, they were compelled to say that they




AN AMERICAN GIRL.


66


had done their work as well as the best in the class,
but they always added, " Their health will break
down either during the course or after." When the
girls heard of it they were highly amused.
' They have changed base somewhat," said Nell,
merrily; " at first the cry was that we were mentally
incapable, now we are only ' physically incapacitated.'
Strange, isn't it, that we will either die during our
college-course or after, and we will not have a head
or finger ache for the next decade that can't be directly traced to the higher education? We must not
die a bit sooner than fourscore years, either, or it will
be because we read Isocrates in a boys' college, but
they may make an exception in favor of those of us
who are struck by lightning or killed in a railroadaccident."
The rest of the year passed quietly, with only one
or two incidents in Will's life worthy of mention.
It happened one night in February that Wendell
Phillips came to lecture on " The Lost Arts," and
Will had no company that night with whom to go, for
Clara had a beau, and no others from the house were
going. It is only fair to say, in regard to Clara's
beau, that he followed her from her native town, so
that it was not an attachment for which the institution was to blame. Will could not miss the lecture,




FRESHMAN EXPERIENCES.


67


but it was not the right thing to go alone, at least
it was not customary; and, although Clara intimated
that " Herbert " would not object to her going with
them, still, as Ierbert said nothing to her, she could
not consent to inflict herself upon them.
It was drawing on toward eight o'clock.  She
stood at the hall-door with cloak and hat on, and
looked out into the night. There was a blustering
wind that blew scuds of clouds over the sky, giving no
certain indication as to whether it would rain, snow,
thunder and lighten, or what, but pretty certain that
it would do something unpleasant. She thought of
the brilliantly-lighted room, where hundreds of " laws
and medics " would look curiously at her from the
galleries because she came alone.
Now, strong-minded reader, do not smile with contempt because she did not without a qualm seize her
umbrella and start for the scene of conflict. She was
very young yet, and, to use a term of the spiritualists, had not yet been "developed" into a strongminded woman, though the material for one was all
there. She had come from a town where one who
had espoused "woman's rights " would have been
shunned as if she had been the victim of small-pox;
so she could not bloom out at once into freedom and
absolution from conventionality, even were such a




68


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


thing desirable.  She half turned to go up-stairs,
but stopped to reason with herself: "Shall I give up
hearing Wendell Phillips's lecture simply because I
have no one to tow me along? No, it would not
sound well," and she hurried out before the impulse
would leave her. The usher took her away up in
front, and, as it was late, everybody was there to see
her come alone. Some said, " She has grit," and
others, "She is too bold," while none guessed her
struggle on the stairs. She soon forgot herself ill the
eloquence of the speaker, and always says with particular satisfaction that she did hear Wendell Phillips
lecture on " The Lost Arts."
One other incident, while it lessened somewhat
her belief in the necessarily "refining influence of
education," at the same time taught her a lesson in
prudence, which, perhaps, she lacked. One Saturday
night, the mail was late on account of heavy snows,
and, as Will was expecting her home-letter, she felt'
that she could not wait until Monday before hearing
from the office. There was no.one to send, and, as
Clara was sick with sore-throat, she must either go
alone or wait. She had not learned to wait, so she
went alone. The office was fully a mile and a half
from their rooms, and the way was lonely, for the
houses were set far back on the lawns, and besides it




FRESHMAN EXPERIENCES.


69


was after ten o'clock. " Pshaw! what is there to be
afraid of in this land of bibles and Christian privileges? " she said, as she drew on her cloak; but the
bibles and privileges did not deter her from taking
her little pearl-handled revolver from its morocco
case; and, putting two cartridges into it, she slipped
it into her cloak-pocket, taking care that Clara did not
see her, for her room-mate would have been more
afraid of a loaded revolver than of anything she
might meet on the way.
It had been given her once as a prize at a shooting-match, and she had always considered the exquisite little instrument more for ornament than use, and
had never loaded it before. She reached the office in
safety, and was rewarded by the wished-for letter.
Thinking to make the way shorter, she took a street
even more lonely than the others, and was hurrying
along, when she heard a quick step behind her, and
the next instant a hand was laid rudely on her shoulder, and a voice, close to her ear, said: "I have long
waited for just such an opportunity of becoming acquainted with you, Miss Elliott."
She turned, and, by the light of a street-lamp, saw
the ill-favored visage, of a medical student, whose
name she did not know, but whose impudent leer she
had often encountered going to and from recitations.




70


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


"Thank you, sir. I know the way perfectly well,
and would prefer to go alone, and she quickened her
pace.
"Not so fast, my dear," he said, growing more
familiar, and putting his arm round her waist. She
grasped the revolver with her right hand, and cocked
it, while, with her left, she pushed him from her,
saying, as she faced him, "If you touch me again,
sir, I'll fire!"
"Oh —all-I-I-meant no harm, miss; but itisn't it too late for a lady to go alone'( "
"I'll give you until I count three to get from
here to the corner! " at which the nonplussed disciple
of YEsculapius took to his heels, muttering, "lWho
would have supposed she had a revolver?" and his
fellow-students thought, next day, that Baggs was unusually quiet, and had not his customary amount of
"buncombe," as he worked over his " cadaver."
One evening, in early June, Will sat poring over
her books. In a few days the final examinations for
the year would take place, and then —hurrah for
home! There was scarcely a moment that she did
not think of home, and the probable changes in the
town, and Hally's joy at her coming, and the days
were passing rapidly with the pleasant anticipations.
There was a knock at the door, and a letter was




FRESHMAN EXPERIENCES.


71


handed her, on which she recognized her mother's
writing. She was not expecting her home-letter so
soon, and it startled her somewhat, for they came so
regularly. It simply said, " Hally is not at all well,
and we think you had better come home as soon as
possible."
" There, I know it is worse than they pretend, and
they have kept it from me all this time," she said,
with troubled face, as she hurried down to find out
when the next train would leave, and to tell AMrs.
Williamson that she must go. There would be no
train until eight next morning. As they sat at tea,
the door-bell rang, and a boy, with a yellow envelope
in his hand, asked for Miss Elliott. The ominous envelope had " Western Union Telegraph Co." on the
outside; and the brief dispatch said: " She is dying;
come!"   A  few moments after, Clara found her
leaning against the bannisters, and the message had
dropped to the floor. She pointed to it, and Clara,
after glancing at it, put her arms around Will's neck,
as she said: "It is hard, dear, but the Lord gave, and
the Lord hath taken away, and we must learn to say,
' Blessed be the name of the Lord! "'
Will writhed as if each word had been a daggerthrust, but only said, " Please don't, Clara, if you love
me!" but Clara, thinking that now was the time to




AN AMERICAN GIRL.


press home "the truth," continued: "That is often
the way the Almighty Father deals with us, his erring
children; for, when we set our affections upon earthly
things, he takes them from us, that we may be drawn
toward him. If your sister is taken from you, I
shall feel certain that it is intended for your eternal
welfare-to draw you nearer to the Saviour."
Will stood up very straight, and, with a hard look
on her pale face, said: " Clara Hopkins, if you don't
want me to hate you, never talk to me that way
again. Affections on earthly things! What does he
give us affections for, and objects to set them on?
What harm is it doing the Lord, that I have some
one who always believes the best things of me? If
that is the way your God treats those he loves, I don't
want to know him. Pretty way to fill up heaven, by
making earth so lonely and cold and wretched that
we don't want to stay! Oh, it is too hideous to think
of!"
She left Clara sitting on the stairs, while she
walked out into the moonlight. The shadows of the
maple-leaves lay thick along the walk, but she did not
see them; she passed groups of students, who looked
curiously at her, but she did not hear their jests.
She wanted to get away from everybody, and
think about it. One of the most secluded walks was




FRESHMAN EXPERIENCES.


73


through the cemetery, down to the river, and this she
took. After all, Hally might get well, she thought;
many people had been considered dying, and yet recovered and lived many years; but sober reason told her
that there was scarcely a hope of its being so in this
case.
She wondered if it would do any good to pray.
To whom should she pray  The stars, and blue
sky, and moon, did not look as if they knew or cared
anything about it, and what else was there away up
yonder? At any other time the white tombstones
and stillness of the cemetery would have brought up
all sorts of ghost-stories to her mind; but now there
was no feeling of terror as she walked along the
winding paths with rows of graves on each side.
Why should she be afraid? Was not Ilally soon to
be one of those who lie so still, and would she not
soon read her name on a stone like that; and how
could she ever be afraid where Hally was? When
she came to the little river, she threw herself down
upon the bank, and looked up through the willowbranches at the sky. The water had a gurgling, contented sound, that annoyed her for a time. What
right had anything to be contented and happy in a
world where there is so much trouble?
But when Will felt her heart beating against the
4




74


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


warm earth while all around myriads of living things
were starting up into joyous life, where only a few
months before everything was cold and frozen, a feeling of trustfulness came over her, for a moment, and
she felt certain that there was a loving hand somewhere that would guide everything aright. But it
was only for a moment, for the old pain came back
when she arose and faced the hard reality: IHally
dying away at home, and twelve mortal hours to be
passed before she can even start.
Nell was there waiting for her when she came
back. She only said, as she pressed Will's hand:
"We are all so sorry, Will dear; I've been to see the
professors about your examinations, and they say it
will be all right, and for you not to be troubled about
them. Prof. Borck said lots of nice things about you,
and expressed more feeling than I thought the dear
old fossil was capable of. Now Clara and I will pack
your trunk after I put you to bed, for we have bought
your ticket and ordered the carriage, so you have
nothing to do but rest until you go;" and, bringing
her night-dress, she did not leave her until she was
snugly tucked in bed.
It is again night, and the eastward-bound train is
sweeping into C. At one window is a pair of




FRESHMAN EXPERIENCES.


eyes strained to catch familiar objects. Yes, there are
the mill and the water-works and the gas-factory, and
yonder on the hill is Mr. Hitchcock's new house, just
where it was nine months before. There was no one
to meet her as she stepped upon the platform, and
Will was glad of it, for she dreaded to know the truth.
"Driver, please hurry-won't you.?" and he looked
at her wonderingly as she added, " I may be in time."
But the last hope was crushed as she went up the
well-known steps, for she saw crape tied with white
ribbon swaying in the evening breeze.
Yes, 'twas all over; and what was the use of going
in? So she sat on the steps until they came out and
found her, an hour after. Mrs. Elliott met Will with
unusual tenderness, for grief had softened her greatly, and she drew her gently into the parlor, where the
little rosewood casket was standing by the open window. There, among the soft satin linings, lay the
same patient, pale face, much thinner than when she
saw it last; but the blue eyes did not open, nor the
lips unclose with a glad smile of recognition as she
bent over it with endearing words. " If you could
only have been here this morning," sobbed the mother, " it would not have been too late; she wanted to
see you so much, and, when she was too weak to speak
your name, her face would light up when the door




76


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


opened and then fade with disappointment when she
did not see you; she gave me this little note yesterday to give to you if you did not get here in time."
XWill put it in her bosom, while she stood transfixed,
gazing at the waxen face until it seemed to smile and
almost speak.
People came in and looked at the dead and passed
out, but she saw nothing except the little still figure
that was once her sister. Finally, they came and
took her away, and she went up to her own room.
Everything was just as she had left it, except the
vases on the mantel which were full of fresh flowers,
and she found that this had been done daily by IIally's orders since the flowers came. There was the
picture of Christ stilling the tempest, and on the
other side the deer pursued by the hunters. Over
the bureau was the little skeleton rifle that IIally had
given her one Christmas, after she learned to shoot.
Then she took the little note from her bosom;
it had been written with the greatest difficulty by the
weak, trembling hand, and the letters were very uneven; it said:
"WILLIE DARLING: I'm so tired that I'm afraid I
can't wait even to see you. Don't blame any one for
not letting you know sooner, because I would not let




FRESHMAN EXPERIENCES.


77


them tell you, for I was so sure that I could last until
your vacation; but, this morning, I know that my
story will be told in a few hours.
"It will be so hard not to see you once more; I
wished to hear your bounding step in the hall again,
and wanted you to carry me out under the trees in
your dear, strong arms, but it is too late. Don't feel
too hard and bitter because I have to go, Willie, for
you know I never was of any account, and would
only be a burden to you and mother.
"All the grand things that I have hoped to do and
be, I leave for you, my precious sister, and remember
that I always believe il you whatever comes. Somehow, I think I will not be far from you, and when-"
The last lines were almost illegible, and the pencil
fell from the thin fingers before the last sentence was
finished; and the next day, at the same time, the
same little hand was still, and folded over the heart
that had throbbed so tenderly, as she painfully traced
the last words of love to her absent sister. The next
morning, Will arose early, and walked a long way to
a certain spot where wild-violets grew, for Ially had
always loved them, and, gathering a small bunch, she
returned, and clasped them in the dead fingers.
The funeral took place in the afternoon. There




78             AN AMERICAN GIRL.
were offerings of flowers by the girls in IIally's Sunday-school class; then the ride to the cemetery in the
warm June sunshine, where they left her beside her
father, under the old beech-tree that stood in the corner of the Elliott lot. Then they came back to the
quiet rooms in the old house, and life went on pretty
much as before.  Many of the good church-people
looked for Will's conversion after such a dispensation
of Providence, which, they were sure, was sent for
that purpose, and they saw with disappointment the
vacation passing away, arnl still she made no "profession." Although she was not converted in the Calvinistic sense of the word, yet Will was different,
after Hally's death, in many respects. To be sure,
the change was not seen in her unqualified acceptance
of the Apostles' Creed, nor in a warming toward the
Shorter Catechism. She lost none of her buoyancy
of spirits, nor her love of adventure, but with her
gayety and freedom there were mingled a tenderness
and forbearance for all weak, helpless things, more
thoughtfulness for those in trouble, and a keener
appreciation of beauty, both in the outer and inner
world. Everything beautiful was unconsciously associated in her mind with Hally, and for a long time
the little grave under the beech-tree exerted an influence more powerful than the voices of the living.




FRESHMAN EXPERIENCES.            7 9
Will said that she would remain at home a year
after HIally's death, but Mrs. Elliott saw that it would
be a great sacrifice for her to drop out of her own
class, and, as the eldest son was coming home again to
live, she encouraged her to go, and thus Will became
a sophomore.




CHAPTER IV.


SOPHOMORIC AND OTHER OPINIONS ON SOME IMPORTANT
SOCIAL TOPICS.
".... Thereupon she took
A bird's-eye view of all the ungracious past;..Till, warming with her theme,
She fulmined out her scorn of laws Salique,
And little-footed China."-TENNYSON.
"The glorious hour has come at lastSophomores, we're sophomores!
College Song-Book.
" B  Zeus! we're euchred, Sandy, and it all comes
of introducing that topic of the girls.  I can't play
cards and discuss them too, so let's throw up the cards
and make the discussion general. I propose the question: 'Our girls, are they a fizzle or not?'-affirmative, Randolf and Sanderson; negative, Burton and
Crooks; how's that Ran? "
" Don't bother me with any questions about college-girls, for I'm sick of hearing them discussed.




OPINIONS ON SOME IMPORTANT SOCIAL TOPICS. 81


Every one I met all summer button-holed me about
the girls in college; did I like them, and did they
keep up in the class, and were they pretty and womanly, or homely and masculine, and had I fallen in love
with any of them-till I swear I never wanted to see
a petticoat again!"
"I was bored that way, too," said Crooks, " but
I puffed 'em up, I tell you; for, on the whole, I think
it was a good move for the institution to let 'em
come."
This conversation came from an upper room in
Fifth Street, where four gay young sophomores were
assembled to have a good time, and talk over prospects for the year that had just opened.  Randolf, the largest of the four, would have been handsome but for a supercilious and cynical look that he
always wore; he was an excellent student, and plunged
into everything with a sort of desperate enthusiasm,
so that the girls, among themselves, had dubbed him
"The Devouring Element."    Charles Burton was
two years his junior, a tall fellow, with a fine sensitive face and scholarly bearing, who, when the conversation took the present turn, sat with an amused
smile, but said nothing, until Crooks, a jolly fellow,
about whose face there was nothing striking, turned to
him with-" Burton, we have not heard from you yet."




82


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


" Oh," said Randolf, with a curl of his mustached
lip, "Charlie is in the situation of a fellow when he
has married one of the girls in a family, and so is
bound to stick up for all the rest, good, bad, and indifferent; of course, he will vote their whole ticket."
"As to that," said Burton, blushing; " I have not
changed my first position in regard to co-education by
acquaintance with the girls here, and if I had forty
sisters I would have them all here."
"Come, come," said Frank Sanderson, a merryfaced boy with red cheeks and black eyes that sparkled with fun, " your talk is too general, and we must
come down to particulars-that is, to the girls of
'70.  We'll take them in alphabetical order.  I'll
do Misses Allston and Bowers," and, lifting his eyes
with a mock-heroic air, he said, "0 my Muse, wilt
thou vouchsafe to mortal man to sing the praises of
his Mary Ann! " and then he continued: " I hear Miss
Allston is a splendid dancer, and I'm dying to get an
introduction to her; and isn't she pretty though, her
lips look like fresh strawberries, and wouldn't I like
to kiss her; and, in short, she is a decided success,
for she gets her lessons first-rate-not one of your
digging sort, but light, airy, fairy-like, you know.
Then Miss Bowers enjoys the distinction of being the
homeliest girl I ever saw, but she doubtless has the




OPIN1IONS ON SOME IMPORTANT SOCIAL TOPICS. 83


feminine virtues in excess to make up for it-scholarship faultless, etc. There, Crooks, you take Misses
Collins and Davidson."
"Well, boys, I'm going to get out my Greek for
to-morrow," said Randolf, going to the table and
taking the lexicon and a copy of Homer, "for Old
Toughy will invoke the Muses in a different way, if
we don't know all the Homeric forms; " and he pretended to hear no more of the conversation.
" I'm not poetical like you, Sandy, so I'll do mine
in plain prose; " said Crooks. " Miss Collins strikes
me as being a very sensible sort of girl, and don't
you remember her elegant translations in Thucydides?
I used to wish that I could run words off my tongue
as she did; as to Miss Davidson, I don't know much,
for she did not recite in my section, but she has
magnificent hair and complexion, which will carry
her through. But my favorite among the collegegirls, is Nelly Holmes."
"Stop! you are ahead of time," said Saiderson, "for we next come to the chef-d'oeuvre of the
class of '70, the Queen of the Amazons, the ' coming woman,' Miss Will Elliott, and no one of us
can do the subject justice but Randolf," and he
nudged Crooks's elbow. Randolf looked up and
frowned.




84


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


"Don't get me started on her, for I can't bear her
style."
" She admires you anyway, and that shows good
taste, for she was anxious to have an introduction to
you last year," said Burton, winking at the others.
"She does? " said Randolf, feeling flattered;
" well, I'll not throw myself under her chariot-wheels;
why, I'm afraid of her: she is brilliant and all that,
but so cold and sarcastic and independent, and then
she has such a way of aping boys; her very name is
boyish-' Will; ' if she wants to shorten Wilhelmine,
why don't she have it Mina or Minnie, or something
feminine? Then her hats are always the same boyish
style. You know we fellows don't like to see anything
in any woman that we would not want to see in the
woman we would marry; and I'd as soon think of
marrying an iceberg or the north-pole as Miss Elliott.
She is the first girl that I can't understand; she sets
herself on a pedestal, and she may stay there, for all
o' me."
" I think you entirely misjudge her," said Burton,
warmly; "for I had an excellent opportunity of becoming acquainted with her last year, and I do not
think there is another girl in the class that has more
real womanly feeling than Miss Elliott; and as to her
independent ways, I admire them, for they are out of




OPINIONS ON SOME IMPORTANT SOCIAL TOPICS. 85


the common run, and her hats are peculiarly becoming
to her style, the broad brim and high crown a la Kossuth. It seems to me it is time for us to lay aside the
prejudice that requires women to be cast in the same
mould. I think Miss Elliott a splendid specimen of a
sound, healthy girl, morally and physically."
"So say we all of us," said Sandy. " By-the-way,
I hear she has lost a favorite sister; you remember
she was called home before last term was out; perhaps that will soften her to the consistency Randolf
likes."
"I shall be careful not to get into her clutches,"
said the latter worthy.
" How nonsensically you talk," said Burton, " Will
Elliott, of all others, is the last to want to clutch you
or any one else. I think her independence of masculine help is perfectly sublime. Ran wants a girl to
twine around him, for he is still befuddled with the
oak-and-vine picture."
"Don't let us show so much disposition, boys,"
said Sanderson; " I hear Misses Fitzgerald and Baker
are not to return-one has gone to Europe, and the
other's father has failed, so that leaves only seven of
the fair sex."
" I say, Burton," said Crooks, " are you and Nelly
Holmes going to hold up the Unitarian choir this




86


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


year? You are a lucky fellow to have the chance of
singing off the same book with her twice every Sunday."
"It's plain to be seen where Crooks's trouble lies,"
said Sanderson, " but lot's have something to drink;"
and he poured out a glass of cider from a pitcher on
the table, and raised it to his lips, saying, " Here's to
the pioneer girls of the University of Ortonvillelong may they wave! "
" What do you think? " said Crooks; " Brown, the
medic, told me to-day that several women have matriculated in that department, which certainly looks
like business."
"Gracious Heaven! Female medics? " said Randolf; " the male medic is bad enough, but from the
female medic may Zeus preserve us!"
"You think," said Burton, a sarcastic smile playing round his lips, " with the scientific preacher in one
of Charles Rceade's novels, that woman is high enough
in the scale of creation to be the mother of God, but
not high enough to be a saw-bones? "
In another part of the town, at 45 Clinton Street,
four sophomore girls were settling themselves for the
year in two suites of upper rooms in the family of
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, a middle-aged couple, who proved
to be a father and mother to the girls, and made a




OPINIONS ON SOME IMPORTANT SOCIAL TOPICS. 87


home for them which they always left with regret,
and returned to with pleasure.
People were not so afraid of taking college-girls
this year; in fact, the Meyerses and Hodges, in Thompson and Jefferson Streets, actually advertised for
girls. They had heard that girls were not so noisy as
boys; that they took better care of their rooms; that
they did not smoke and injure the wall-paper, nor
spit tobacco-juice on the furniture; that they did not
reel up-stairs half-seas over, and go to bed in their hats
and boots. In short, college-girls were no longer ostracised, except in fanmilies where there were marriageable daughters, where, of course, nice young men were
preferred.
The four girls in Clinton Street are Will and
Clara, Nelly IIolmes, and her room-mate, Laura Davidson. There are two sitting-rooms, and two bedrooms,
cozy and nice; and they have just finished unpacking
their trunks, and are putting up their book-shelves
and little brackets that they have brought from home,
to add to the pictures and other things with which
the rooms are decorated. Before one of these pictures Will stands with folded arms. " I like this one,"
she said, pointing to a fine steel engraving called
" Pharaoh's Horses." " What magnificent heads, with
flowing manes, fiery eyes, and nostrils dilating as they




88


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


are driven into the sea by the royal charioteer! But
what a queer one t/is is; see, it is one of Cole's 'Voyage of Life,' in which youth is starting out. There
he stands at the prow, with beautiful long hair, and
innocent, hopeful face; is it a boy or girl? either, I
guess; behind him, in the stern, sits old Father Time,
with his scythe and hour-glass ready to cut him down
at the wrong time; and see, stretching away in the
dim distance is the river of life, running in among
the trees, and banks lined with beautiful things; but he
does not see them, for his eye- is fixed on that vague
shadowy object which looks like a temple of some
kind, for there are towers on it; but it is all so dim,
like a dream: is that what we are all chasing, I wonder?-Mater sanctiss8ima! there goes eight o'clock,
and I have not looked at my Trig nor Greek yethave you Nell? I don't want to begin the year by
flunking."
" By what? " said Clara, pausing, with a duster in
her hand.
" Why, haven't you heard the boys talk about flunking? I think it is one of the most expressive words
in the English language; it means a failure, a fizzle,
a want of ability to answer when you are asked. Now,
how very incomplete it sounds to say: ' The prof
called on me, and I was unable to respond from want




OPINIONS ON SOME IMPORTANT SOCIAL TOPICS. 89


of knowledge of the subject; or, not being conversant
with the topic, I was obliged to remain sitting!' but
just to say I 'flunked,' covers the whole ground, including the dreadful feeling of shame and the desire
to get through a very small place that must come
from a failure in recitation."
"I wish," said Clara, "that you would not fall
into the boys' manner of expressing things, for they
are so full of slang."
" I don't at all agree with you, for I think that a
judicious use of slang is very effective, and I intend
from time to time to transplant some of the choicest
of the boys' phrases into my own; it is greatly superior to girls' slang; why, one of my girl-friends
went to Vassar, and came home.full of such as 'I'm
dying to know it; I'm furious to see him,' and the
most trifling things were horrible, or splendid, or gorgeous, and every other sentence began with, 'I vow!'
and, if you don't see that boys' slang is superior to
that use of English, I don't admire your taste. For
instance, cheese it,' that squelches me,' 'I'm smashed
on her,' up on your ear,' or that's cheeky '-jewels
every one of them, 'five words long, that sparkle
upon the stretched forefinger 'of all time forever;'
then, when you add to these the many invocations of
the Olympian Zeus, and other classic oaths, you have




90


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


at once a diction elegant and imposing," continued the
provoking Will.
The next time that Clara was alone with Nell, she
said: " Don't you think the freedom of our life here
is having a bad effect upon Will? She seems to take
so naturally to boys' ways."
"I'm not alarmed about her," said Nell, "and I
like every one of her odd ways; she is a character
rarely met out of books, and is decidedly refreshing.
She is the most delightful mixture of boy and girl that
I ever met: she has all the daring, independence, and
strength of a boy, and yet the grace and tenderness of
a woman. Isn't it too funny to see her try to sew?
She has no more idea how to use a needle than if it
were Neptune's trident."
"Yes, and for that very reason she needs taming
and curbing a little, for she is inclined to be too
boyish."
"Well, I don't want to see her tamed, and she
sha'n't mend any stockings or gloves as long as I can
get into her trunk-the dear old bother! "
The sophomore year began much more pleasantly
for the girls than their freshman, because they had
outlived much of the prejudice against them, and began to feel more at home.
Several more girls entered with the freshman




OPINIONS ON SOME IMPORTANT SOCIAL TOPICS. 91


class, and, instead of hazing them, and trying to make
them feel their nothingness, the sophomore girls received them with open arms, and tried to make the
way for the younger members smoother than their
own had been.    They had, for the first semester,
Sophocles's " Antigone," Hlorace's "Odes," and trigonometry, besides lectures on English literature and
composition. It was a year full of interest in many
respects.
In the first place, the question of woman suffrage
was to be submitted to the State of S, for it was
about to revise its constitution, and it seemed the fitting opportunity for a decision to be made whether,
as John Knott once said, in a very " knotty" speech,
" the fair sex should be allowed to vote, to hold office,
drink cocktails, and ride astride." The leaders of the
woman-suffrage movement made the university town
a basis of operations, and Will was one of the earliest
converts.
She had never heard the subject fairly presented,
and had not thought much about it, but with the
spirit of Paul, as soon as she knew the right, she followed it with the greatest enthusiasm.
Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Howe, and Mrs. Stanton,
beside a host of lesser lights, lectured during the campaign. Part of the university-girls were bitterly op



92


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


posed to the movement. Nell had been brought up
from childhood to believe in the equality of woman,
and accepted it all as a matter of course. Clara was
not decided, but Will talked, thought, and dreamed
of woman suffrage with all the ardor of a young convcrt.
Debates were required of the sophomores on questions chosen by themselves, and Will got permission
to have the question, "Shall the ballot be given to
woman? " if she could find three others to take part
in it. Plenty of boys were willing to take the negative, but she had trouble in finding some one to assist
her on the affirmative. Nell would have taken it, but
she protested that, like Moses, she was slow of speech,
and would only bring disgrace upon the cause, while
the other girls talked reprovingly to her, and said that
it was'highly improper, and wanted her to give it up.
Finally, one young gentleman took it, for the sake of
argument, for the boys thought it would be fine fun.
The next week was chosen for the discussion, and so
many from the other classes had permission to come
in and hear it that the room was crowded. Only
fifteen- minutes were allowed to each speaker, and if
one was inclined to run over time he was called to
order by the professor. The first affirmative was good,
but lacked spirit, plainly showing that the young man




OPINIONS ON SOME IMPORTANT SOCIAL TOPICS. 93


did not feel deeply the cause for which he was speaking. The first speaker on the negative had evidently
read and thought on the question, and his arguments
were well presented, consisting of all those objections
now so hackneyed, but then comparatively new, at
least to college-students who had never given serious
thought to the subject. IIe sat down amid a round
of applause, and there was a general murmur among
the boys of "Let's see her beat that, if she can;"
"She can't come up to that," etc.
Will arose quietly and took her place upon the
platform. She was dressed in simple black, with soft
lace in the neck, that made her look more girlish than
usual, while her rippling hair was gathered into a coil
behind, without ornament.
She was a trifle pale, and a little frightened, for
she knew that the majority was against her. IHer
voice trembled at first, but grew steady as she forgot
herself in her subject, and a bright flush rose to her
cheek, so that even the surly and skeptical Randolf
whispered to his neighbor, " I never knew before that
she was so handsome." She took up the arguments
of her opponent, and answered them one by one, occasionally pointing the argument with a flash of wit
which made the hard, unsympathizing faces relax;
and, as her tones grew earnest and eloquent, every




94


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


eye became fixed upon her with real, kindly interest,
instead of the cold sneers that she encountered when
she first began.
The fifteen minutes lengthened into half an hour,
and she took her seat amid the most enthusiastic applause, which continued until she came forward and
bowed, while the last speaker on the negative refused
to speak at all. After they were dismissed, many of
the boys with whom she had never spoken before
came forward and declared themselves converted to
her standard in spite of their former prejudices. She
rather hoped Randolf would speak to her too, but he
did not.
When they reached home, Nell threw her arms
around Will's neck, exclaiming:
" You dear old girl, I'm so proud of you, for your
speech was perfectly magnificent, worthy of Susan B.
herself. We are going to crown you."
And, seating Will upon an ottoman, she ran to
the conservatory and cut a sprig of ivy, which she
twisted into a wreath, sayings
" We do hereby bestow upon you the title of ' Defender of the Faith."'
The comments of the boys, as they went home in
little groups, were various.
" Boss speech that," said Clarke.




OPINIONS ON SOME IMPORTANT SOCIAL TOPICS. 95


" What a way she had of making a fellow feel like
Judas himself, for ever having said a word against
woman's rights! " said Hawley.
"She beat Gardner all hollow," said Kimble.
"But what a magnificent voice and style she has
on the platform-so modest and yet so impressive!"
said Ralston, a gentleman of artistic tastes.
" Well, I never liked her half so well before," said
Crooks.
Randolf said nothing, but the image of a black
dress and white lace at the throat crossed his mental
vision oftener than he would have been willing to
confess.
Charlie Burton came down that evening to call
on the girls, and he greeted Will with the most genuine boyish enthusiasm concerning the "speech."
"I knew, just by the way you looked when you
got up, that you were going to say the right thing."
From this time there sprang up between Will and
him a most lively friendship, free from the nonsense
that usually marks friendships between young gentlemen and ladies; and Will used to say that she had at
last found a good, square boy who would never make
love to her, and who never thought she was dreadful
because she could not sew, and who seemed always
to understand her without explanations; while Char



96


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


lie wrote home that he had found the oddest, jolliest
girl, so charmingly boyish, and, at the same time,
such a true-hearted girl.
Now, reader, do not look wise and say: " Yes, the
old, old story; of course they fall in love before they
know it;" for, to spare all false conjectures, I'll just
say that such a thing was never thought of by either
party, although they discussed everything, from " the
tender emotion " to " the immortality of the soul,"
but their hearty friendship lasted throughout the
course; and even now, although Charlie is married
and involved in business cares, he still writes letters
of the sincerest friendship to Will, and speaks with
the old warmth of his girl-friend in college.
A few weeks after the year began, Nell came
home in a high state of excitement, holding up a
book as she said:
"See what I've found!-Dr. Clarke's book on
'Sex in Education,'.bearing pat on the question at
issue. Mr. Fiske says he has sold more than two
hundred copies, though they only came yesterday, and
that the book bids fair to nip co-education in the bud."
"Ba, ba, black sheep!" replied Will, looking up;
" but sit down, Nell, and read it aloud, for I'd like to
know what the dear old humbug has to say against
girls."




OPINIONS ON SOME IMPORTANT SOCIAL TOPICS. 97


"Why," said Laura, with a shocked expression,
"Dr. Clarke is one of the most eminent physicians
in Boston."
"Don't care if it were Esculapius himself returned from Hades with his shroud on, I would not
believe him if he tried to make girls out weak and
good for nothing. But read it, Mark Antony, read the
will, Csesar's will;" and the impetuous girl made a
snatch at the book, but was forestalled by Clara, who
took it and began to read aloud, while Will paced the
floor with rising excitement.
"Come, my young war-horse," said Nell, "don't
shake your mane so defiantly," and she drew her
down on the sofa. " Just look at it calmly, and, if it is
true, accept it; and, if it is not, there is no need of
growing angry about it."
"Well," said Will, only half appeased, "what
does the precious doctor propose to do with us after
he has cajoled us into believing that we are born and
predestined to be invalids from the foundation of the
world? Send us home to embroider chair-covers and
toilet-sets, I suppose."
"I hardly think any one will be so rash as to
accuse you of being an invalid, or making a chaircover," said Nell, laughing; but Will went on without paying attention to the remark:
5




98


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


"Women have washed and baked, scrubbed, cried
and prayed themselves into their graves for thousands
of years, and no person has written a book advising
them not to work too hard; but just as soon as women
are beginning to have a show in education, up starts
your erudite doctor with his learned nonsense, embellished with scarecrow stories, trying to prove that
woman's complicated physical mechanism can't stand
any mental strain. I'll venture that Miss A-  and
Miss C —, etc., whose early decline he bewails, had
not sense enough to enjoy good health, or their mothers had not before them."
" Now, that is going too far, when you say that
every one who has not such health as you have is lacking in common-sense; even I can't stand that," said
Nell.
" Well, well, I'll take it back: they all have the
best of sense, from Eliza Ann to Dorothea Maria, and
their mothers before them. There, isn't it handsome
of me to come down so in favor of the fair sex? But,
girls, I like what he says against corsets, and the
abominable way women dress; for I've been of the
same opinion since I have been reading about dress
reform in the Woman's Journal; I am going to burn
those new corsets you made me get last week, Clara,
and make my dresses shorter; and I'm going to prove




OPINIONS ON SOME IMPORTANT SOCIAL TOPICS. 99


to you that the corset, with its concomitant train of
evils, has killed more women than ever Noah's flood
destroyed. Ninety-nine hundredths of all diseases on
record belong to women, and they all arise from her
mode of dress. What would you think of tying up a
race-horse that way and starting him on the course?
It's just as absurd to expect a woman to run this race
of life creditably in her present style of dress!"
"A speech, a speech!" said Clara; but Will continued:
"Corsets have a moral significance, too, or rather
an immoral one, for they have been the means of
making women do the most improper things. Take,
for instance, the terrible example of Dr. Mary Walker! "
"What did corsets have to do with her style of
dress? " asked Laura.
" Why, haven't you heard how she came to dress
so abominably? " said Will, with a mischievous sparkle in her eye.
" No, no," cried they all; " how was it? "
"She was once a most lovely, gentle girl, with
laces, and ruffles, and drapery, that floated around her
girlish form, soft as gossamer. She read Tennyson,
and talked sentimental things under the moonlight;
she vowed to love, and be faithful and obedient; but,




100


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


alas! behold the domestic vampire-the ruthless destroyer of her peace-for on the day when she, a ' sweet
girl graduate,' was sweeping up the stage to take her
diploma, she tripped upon her train, and, as she fell,
her corset-stay ran into her, inflicting a dangerous
wound. She arose from the floor a changed woman;
she waited not for congratulations or condolences of
friends, but hurried home, and took refuge in a complete suit of her brother's clothes, and has never been
induced to leave them, except for repairs. What is
to blame that she now strides over the country, from
platform to platform, in male attire, except the corsets? In view of all these facts, I now proceed to
burn the prisoner at the bar, on the charge of womanslaughter and as a corrupter of public morals," and
she threw the corset into the grate.
" Why, I never heard that story about Dr. Mary
Walker," said Clara.
" I never did, either," said Will; " but I think it
is a reasonable way of accounting for the doctor's little idiosyncrasy in the way of dress, and so I put it
in; for you know, in law, it is no difference whether
things are true or not, so that you make out a strong
case. "
" Well, for my part, I don't see any point in all
this talk about dress reform," said Laura; " my cor



OPINIONS ON SOME IMPORTANT SOCIAL TOPICS. 101


sets are always loose enough to put both your fists
under, and, as to long skirts, I like them, and would
not have them any shorter for the world."
"Oh, you're like Ephraim, joined to your idols, so
you'll have to be let alone," said Will.-" But, girls,
there is another subject of more importance to me just
now. I don't get exercise enough, and I feel Dyspepsia with his bony fingers making a dive for my devoted digestive apparatus, and my liver is fast making
me believe in the total depravity of the human fainily."
"Yes, you do look as if you were in a rapid decline," said Clara, smiling.
" Well, look at the exercise the boys have-football, base-ball, gymnastics, and lots of such things;
while all the recreation we get is to poke to and from
recitations. Mlay be you don't feel the need of it, but
I do, and I'm going to ask Mr. Lewis if I may split
wood on Saturdays."
"IIow  ridiculous, Will! You would be talked
about all over college."
" It's a question of life and death with me;" and,
true to her word, she spent the next Saturday forenoon in the wood-shed sawing and splitting wood, to
the great amusement of the other girls, who looked
in now and then to see how she was progressing, and




102


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


occasionally to bring her a hot doughnut from the
kitchen where Mrs. Lewis was frying them.
The next college paper contained this notice:
"People are requested to keep their children indoors, for the great.fegatherium Amazoniense is
loose, in the person of a sophomore girl who saws
and splits her own wood; the Board of Health think
best that every one be on his guard until this interesting specimen is caught and domesticated, measures
for which are in rapid progress."
Dr. Clarke's book was discussed in the next few
weeks by more than the girls in Clinton Street. The
boys read it, and delivered their opinions at length
among themselves.  The president and the faculty
read it, and shook their heads doubtfully about the
"experiment of co-education."
The ministers of the place took up the question,
and particularly the pastor of the Presbyterian
Church, Rev. Edmund Allison, felt himself called
upon to give his views at length; so, taking Dr.
Clarke's book as a basis, he inveighed against the
whole woman movement, both in lectures to his Bibleclass and in sermons from the pulpit. It was against
the canon of the Holy Scriptures that women should
follow the pursuits of men, and that she should
wield the saw and scalpel was to the last degree un



OPINIONS ON SOME IMPORTANT SOCIAL TOPICS. 103
fitting, for, however much she might try to conceal the
hateful fact, she was inherently weak, and her persistent efforts to do that for which God never intended
her, would only result in misery to herself and evil
to the race. Thus spoke the Rev. Edmund; but still
the ladies of the University of Ortonville went daily
to the dissecting-room, to the law-lectures and recitations, and still the world moved on.




CHAPTER V.


CHOICE OF A CAREER.
"One likes a beyond somewhere."
GEORGE ELIOT.
"Love is it? Would this same mock-love and this
Mock Hymen were laid up like winter bats,
Till men grew to rate us at our worth! "
TENNYSON'S Princess.
"GIRLS, here is an invitation to go skating tonight; Charlie and two or three of the other boys are
going, and they want us four to go."
"Hip, hip, hurrah! " cried Will, as she turned a
hand-spring over the table, and sent Godwin's " Moods
and Tenses" spinning to the other end of the room;
"I feel as if I could skate fifty miles to-night! I
have not had a chance yet to try my new club-skates,"
and she ran to the closet to get them, while she
hummed a part of the skater's song

" Bound to the steel we love, ever and on we go! "




CHOICE OF A CAREER.


1G05


" It will not be so much fun for those of us who
do not understand the art very well," said Nell; " but
it will be nice to watch the others."
The river was in fine condition. Recent winds
had swept the snow from the ice, leaving it very
smooth, and the broad, shining track sparkled in the
moonlight as the merry party with shout and laughter buckled on their skates. Will had decidedly the
advantage of the other girls, for she was quite at
home on skates, while they were only learning, and
she said, laughingly, when one of the boys offered to
help her put on her skates:
" Oh, don't mind me, but devote yourself entirely to helping the weaker ones, for I can take care
of myself," and, hurriedly fastening her skates, she
shouted, " I'm going to see if I can't go to the bend
and back before the rest of you are ready to start! "
" You must not go alone," said Clara; " it is not
prudent."
But there was no one ready, and Will was off;
bowing a good-by as she glided swiftly backward,
then turning, she was soon out of sight, and the voices
of those she left behind grew fainter, until, finally,
there was no sound but the sharp cutting of her own
steel upon the ice. In some places it was very thin,
and swayed as she flew over it, but the sense of




106


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


danger only made the blood leap faster through her
veins. She reached the bend-which was a mile
from where she left the party-and stopped to take
breath before starting back.
Hearing voices approaching, she glided into the
shade of a clump of willows as three juniors rushed
by, evidently skating a race. There was a fourth, but
his skate had become loose, and, in stopping to fix it,
he fell heavily, the thin ice broke with a crash, and the
next moment he was struggling in the water, which
was much beyond his depth. Will heard his frightened cry, and darted from under the willows in time
to see the face of Phelps disappear under the ice, the
same who had sworn at the girls on the stairs when
she was a freshman, and had pushed her against the
bannisters, and who had never hesitated to say unkind
and mean things about the college-girls. There was
no room in Will's mind for resentment now, for every
thought was bent on saving him. She hastened to
the spot, and, lying full length upon the ice, leaned
over trying to catch him, but the treacherous ice broke
from under her, and it was by an almost superhuman
effort that she regained her footing.
She hesitated but a moment, while the despairing
cry came from the drowning man, "Miss Elliott,
can't you save me?" then springing up the bank and




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across a ravine to a fence, she seized the topmost rail,
which was frozen fast, and which it took all her
strength to loosen, dragged it to the spot and flung it
across the hole in the ice, all the time chiding herself
for not doing it more rapidly. She crept out upon
the rail and caught his arm, but poor Phelps was too
far gone to help himself, and she had not strength
enough to draw him out. She begged him to catch
hold and try to pull up, but he was so nearly insensible that he scarcely heard her while she was doing
her best to keep his head above water.
She listened in vain for voices, that she might cry
for help; but all was still, for the companions of the
young man had either not missed him, or thought that
he could take care of himself.
Her heart leaped with hope as she heard the sound
of sleigh-bells passing on the road above, and she
shouted with all her might. Her voice was wonderfully clear and strong, and it rang out now on the
still, frosty air, startling two gentlemen, who were
riding leisurely along, so that one exclaimed: " Hark!
wasn't that a woman's scream? Hold the lines, Roberts, till I run over and see. It came from the river."
The other, hastily tying the horse to the fence, followed, and in a few moments Will was released from
her post, and Phelps was saved.




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He could not speak, but was rolled up in robes and
put into the sleigh, while Will told of the accident in
a few words. She declined riding, and said she would
skate back to keep warm, after which she disappeared
like an apparition in the moonlight.
When she came back to where she had left the
party a little while before, the girls cried, " Where
have you been, Will Elliott?"  " We would have
sent some of the boys after you," said Nell, " but we
are all such novices that we can't get along alone on
skates. But what has happened?-for your skirts are
frozen stiff as boards!"
"Yes, I had a little accident, and got in," said Will,
but she could not be coaxed to give further information.
The next day it was talked all over college how
Miss Elliott had saved Tom Phelps's life.
The girls came home from recitations in a great
state of excitement about it, saying, " Why didn't you
tell us last night, you naughty girl, how you came
to be so wet, instead of letting us hear from outside "
"But wasn't it perfectly grand?" said Nell; "for
that fellow has said so many ugly things about you;
it is an instance of the moral sublime;" and they
talked away very fast, while Clara came and threw




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109


her arms around Will's neck, exclaiming, " I'm proud
that you are my chum."
Will stood blushing, not knowing what to say,
until finally, with an impatient gesture, she said: ' I
shall have to request you to 'cheese that' now, much
as such language goes against my feelings, for you
talk too much about a little thing that any one of you
could and would have done under the same circumstances."
A few days later she received a letter from the
father of the young man, which ran as follows:
" MY DEAR Miss ELLIOTT: We have just learned
of your heroic conduct by which you have restored an
only son to the arms of his glad and grateful parents.
To be candid, Miss Elliott, I must confess that, while
I was in the Legislature, I worked against the admission of women to the university, because I felt it my
duty; but, if I am forgiven for that, my influence
will hereafter be on the other side, and 'tis you who
have converted me. How could I consistently stand
out against a movement, the results of which have
made me to-day the happiest father in the State? And
if you are a representative of college-girls, I'm glad
that my son has the honor and privilege of being in
the same institution with them.




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AN AMERICAN GIRL.


" I know that reward is not to be spoken of in the
case, for such a deed is beyond price; but, if ever you
are in need of help in carrying out your plans for life,
remember that you will find in me one who will feel
honored by being able to assist you in any way that
lies in his power. Tom's mother unites with me in
the deepest gratitude, and warmest wishes for your
welfare. Sincerely yours,
" EDMUND PHELPS."
"The old gentleman is quite gushing," said Will,
as she threw the letter into Clara's lap.
From that time young Phelps was the warm
friend and defender of Miss Elliott, and, whenever
her peculiarities were spoken of in an unpleasant way,
he always said:
" It will do very well to talk like that when it's
smooth sailing, but wait until you get under the ice
and are saved by such a woman, and you will change
your tune."
One evening, as Will and Clara sat by their own
little fire cozily talking, Will said, assuming a confidential tone:
"Do you know, I believe Charlie and Nell are
engaged! I've been confirmed in the belief ever
since the night we went skating; his manner toward




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her was so different from the way in which he treated
the rest of us."
" I should think,' said Clara, " that he would tell
you all about it, for you are such great friends."
" Well, I think he has been on the point of telling
me several times, but could not get up courage. And
don't you think Nell has changed wonderfully? "
" I don't quite see in what respect you mean."
" Well, now, she used to talk so enthusiastically
about our college course, and had so much class spirit;
we all used to say, you know, that we never could
survive if anything should happen that we could not
go on with the class, and we used to talk about what
grand things we were going to do and be when we
got through, have careers, etc.: now she talks so calmly and contentedly about everything, and she never
says anything more about a career.  I don't think
she even takes the interest in her studies that she
used to-not that she does not always have good
lessons, but she does not go at them with the same
spirit, and always acts as if she had something better
in prospect, and was simply waiting to get there,
taking this by the way. I'm half provoked with her
for giving up so easily, but, if he is her affinity, as
they say, why it must be all right. I tell you nothing
takes the starch out of a girl like being engaged. She




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AN AMERICAN GIRL.


loses ambition right away, and don't amount to anything forever after."
"What would you have girls do? Don't you believe in their being engaged and married?"
" Oh, yes, I s'pose so," said Will, yawning, "but
that always seems to be the end of them, they settle
right down and lose their individuality, and are as
good as dead and buried. Now, I can't think of anything more prosy than being married, for then the
future is fixed, and any one can foretell your life
from that to the end of the chapter. The pleasant
uncertainty is all gone, and the grand possibilities of
the future are all narrowed down to the stupid reality
of being some man's wife; read Jean Ingelow's
'Songs of Seven,' and you have it all. I think it is
so dreadful to get to the end of things, and have nothing more to look forward to than what your mother
and grandmother did before you."
" What are you going to do?" asked Clara.
" Oh, I don't know," said Will, impatiently, "but
I want to do something, have an object, be somebody " (and she struck at the air with clinched hands
as if fighting an enemy); " I want to choose some trade
or profession for life, as the boys do, and work."
" Then you do not intend to be married?"
"I don't know, but I s'pose I'll have to be some



CHOICE OF A CAREER.


113


time; for to think of being an old maid and growing old and gray with no one in particular to love, is
horrid. They say that a woman can't have a profession and take care of a family well, and IPd like to
show that she can if it is possible. I wish that I had
some particular talent for something, so that I could
know what I was made for; deciding upon a work
for life is no easy matter. Have you decided what
you are going to be? "
"No, but I want to work somewhere for the Lord,
if he wants me."
"Yes, you'll marry some missionary and go to
China or India, and wear your life out teaching the
heathen the way of salvation according to John Wesley, and that is more than most of us will do, I doubt
not;" and Will, seeing from Clara's last remark that
she was veering around to the religious question,
hastily took up her books, and the subject of future
careers, for the time being, was dropped.
Not many days after, Will burst into the room
with radiant face, exclaiming:
"I've at last found my ideal woman-perfectedly
grand she is, and I'd do anything for her, live for her,
die for her!-and she has helped me decide what I'm
going to be."
The girls were all together in Will's and Clara's




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room, and, as they were accustomed to Will's outbursts of enthusiasm, they all looked up with expectant but not astonished faces.
"Her name is Evelyn Lane; she is in the medical
department, and the professors all say she is the
smartest in the class. I'm going to be a doctor, for
I think there is no calling in life so grand. To save
people's lives and make them well and happy, what
could be more magnificent! To think of having
people confide in you, and believe that you can save
their dear ones; to have a mother take your hand with
tears of gratitude in her eyes, and tell you that you
have saved her darling, to have pale faces grow
brighter at your entrance, what lot in life could be
sweeter?"
"You precious girl, what an old romancer you
are! " said Nell.
"Romancer!" echoed Will, indignantly; "maybe you think I'm in fun about it?"
"Oh, not at all; only you have a way of idealizing people and things wonderfully; but your choice
is grand, and we all give you a God-speed, and three
cheers for Dr. Elliott and the new career! " and they
gave three cheers in pantomime, so as not to disturb
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis below.
" I'll finish in the literary department, and then




CHOICE OF A CAREER.


115


go right into the medical, for I think I have just
about enough money to put me through and keep me
until I have passed the starvation period, which always comes before a doctor or lawyer is established.
I'll depend upon you girls to get me into practice, for
you will each take me for your family physician, and
I'll carry the young Bartons and Joneses and Smiths
through the whooping-cough and measles in the
grandest style. But, oh! my doctor-lady, she is divine; and, what do you think? she kissed me-actually kissed me, all undeserving as I am-and such a
mouth and lips! it will make me happy for a month!
I never realized how much there is in the art of kissing before. Here, Clara, I'll begin on you, and try
different kinds for practice. This is the kiss of your
city cousin, who cares nothing particular about you,
but is obliged to like you because you are her father's
sister's child; she leaves behind a delicate odor of
Hoyt's German cologne or Lubin's extract, and on
the whole is rather nice. Here is your Sunday-school
teacher, who is greatly interested in your eternal welfare; it is sincere and pleasant accordingly. Here is
the kiss of your big brother, who gives it from a
sense of duty in a matter-of-fact, business way, while
around his mustache is the lingering fragrance of a
fine Havana-not at all bad. Here is the kiss of




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somebody else's big brother, which makes your heart
beat faster, and is very unlike all the others-so I've
heard, for I do not speak from experience. But what
makes you blush so, Clara? Does it bring up reminiscences of the past? I beg your pardon."
"Upon my word," said Nell, " I've never heard
such an elaborate analysis of the art in my life. I
think you will have to write a book on the subject."
" Oh, I'll bring it in as an appendix to my book
on ' Women in Clothes.'"
Clara took an early opportunity of saying to Will
that, as she now had chosen her life-work, she hoped
that she would take Jesus for her helper, otherwise
she feared for her success.  Clara's solicitude for
Will's well-being was sincere and genuine. She was
of a very affectionate disposition, and she yearned
over Will with the feeling of an elder sister. She
admired, too, the gay, dashing girl, and even tried to
imitate some of her feats, and thought her splendid;
but when it came to questions of religion she felt the
weight of her great responsibility. She was, as has
been said, the daughter of a Methodist minister of
small income, and had been brought up to habits of
the most rigid economy. She kept all her accounts
in a most methodical way, and added them up care



CHOICE OF A CAREER.


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fully at the end of each week, which Will declared
made her nervous.
She was a close student, and entered into the minutest particulars of everything; viewed every text
from every conceivable side, and would sometimes
take up half the recitation-hour, to the annoyance of
the rest of the class, discussing some preposition or
particle with the professor, its probable meanings, or
the shade of difference between that and some other.
She was a general favorite among the professors, for
she was not only a fine scholar, but she seemed always
to strike the points that pleased them most. No man
can be a college professor for any length of time without having one or more hobbies, and a right appreciation of the merits of these hobbies on the part of a
student is a sure passport to favor. Sometimes it is
a particular manner of demonstrating a proposition,
or of rendering a passage, or the pronunciation of a
word. Clara was always fortunate in remembering
these, and bringing them in at the right time, to the
great delight of the professor in the chair. It is a
wonder that Will and Clara lived together four years
as they did; for Clara had a disposition which was
sometimes exacting and even imperious, and her
room-mate was made of very combustible material.
They did have a good many ups and downs, and




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sometimes high words full of bitter feeling passed between them, but they always made it up, and were
heartily ashamed of it afterward; but two such dispositions should never live together, for they mutually
dwarf and cramp each other. Will, with her large,
restless nature, was made impatient and more restless
by Clara's exact way of doing everything. Clara was
a "limit-lover," while Will was a " limit-hater," and,
instead of each yielding something in order that they
might meet upon a common platform, each pulled
more decidedly her own way. They would have
lived more comfortably, however, had it not been for
the ever-recurring question of religious belief; and
Clara had something of the spirit of persecution mingled with her love for Will, which made her feel that
she must hold the subject before her continually. She
sometimes wrote home requesting their prayers, and
was in the habit of saying that she would not feel
that she had done her duty if she left a word unspoken that might fall upon her room-mate's heart with
the weight of conviction. In such cases Nell was always Will's refuge, and she never failed to find comfort from the quiet but decided words of her friend.
Do not imagine that Will and her room-mate were
always in a state of domestic ebullition, for there
were times, and many, too, when they really enjoyed




CIOICE OF A CAREER.


119


each other; they had gay walks and strolls, they read
books together, and even laid girlish plans for the
future, in which they were to be associated in some
way, but, as has been said, they were never intended
to live together; and when, after four years of daily
contact, they separated, Will felt no aching void in
her heart made by Clara's absence.   She thought
often of her, and with the kindliest feelings and
warmest wishes for her welfare, but she never had
that feeling of want and desolation that comes when
we have parted for an indefinite time, and perhaps
forever, from one with whom we have been long associated and have come to regard almost as a part of
our own life. When Will was in trouble it was not
Clara of whom she thought first, but it was to Nell's
arms that she longed to fly, and into her ear that
she longed to tell her troubles; but there was real
loneliness in Clara's heart as she bade Will good-by
for the last time, and felt that the great stormy and
sunshiny nature was gone from the reach of her
voice forever, and it was a real sorrow to her that
she seemed to go so easily and with no apparent regret.




CHAPTER VI.


ORTONVILLE VERSUS VASSAR.
"ORTONVILLE, February 24, 187-.
"DEAR MAME: You have asked me, ever since I
came here, to write you a descriptive letter telling all
about the university, the professors, the boys and girls,
and so on. I've never found time to do it until now,
so here goes. I must begin with our faculty, of course,
as they are the crowning glory of the whole, and may
Jove hurl one of his ever-ready thunderbolts at me
if I do not deal justly with them! There are more
than forty men in our faculty, including our president, senior professors, assistant professors, emeritus
professors, and "toots," as the boys call them. Our
Prex's name is Hannaford, and we all dote on him.
It is a hard position to fill, that of president of an
institution of this size. He has to be all things to
all men, and to women, too, now, under the new dispensation. Ile is a perfect Chrysostom in eloquence,
and the baccalaureate addresses delivered by him will




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121


be long remembered by the classes who heard them.
To be sure, our class owes him a little grudge for expelling one of our boys for hazing, but then we know
it was just, for he almost killed a freshman by holding him under the pump one freezing night, so that
he had convulsions and meningitis afterward. Then
comes lovely Prof. Atkins, who occupies the chair
of Latin Language and Literature. There is an air of
refinement and culture about his every movement,
and in every line of his sensitive face.  Hle has
spent many years in Europe, and is as familiar with
the city on the Tiber as with his own native town.
There is some talk of his resigning, on account of
poor health, while young Prof. Lathrop will take
his place; he is engaged to Prof. Atkins's daughter, and bids fair to become a giant in the world of
learning. Dear, old, sour Prof. Borck comes next,
who is our exponent of Greek language and customs. Iis sourness is mostly on the outside, for
under his frowning exterior there beats a heart as
tender as a woman's. They say he has domestic
trouble. Poor man! Do you notice that many of
our great men are unfortunate in their selection of
companions for life? Prof. Borck has traveled over
the classic soil of Greece, but it was in his early
manhood. He has strolled in the groves of Helicon,
6




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and drunk at the fountain of Hippocrene. IIe has
visited the supposed site of ancient Troy, but it was
before Dr. Schliemann's discoveries, so he did not see
the body of Agamemnon, nor the fan with which
Helen is supposed to have carried on her flirtations
with the handsome Paris.
"Our assistant professor in Greek is a bachelor,
and has not had matrimonial infelicities to account
for his bad temper, so we conclude it is physiological.
I always used to believe that love and reverence for
a teacher were the best incentives to study, until I
knew him; but I don't believe that any amount of
love or reverence would have started us out of bed
at four o'clock on cold winter mornings to look up
Homeric forms, half so soon as the inevitable certainty that a deficiency in these would be met with
cutting sarcasm and scathing words of reproof from
the professor in the chair. We used to call him
'II68oa9 OiKV Achilles, Homer's ferocious old boy.'
" I must tell you a little incident that happened
in class, just to show how he used to take fire. The
word &v (pronounced hen) occurred in a passage, one
day, and he went on to explain its use with great
zeal. He began, 'Gentlemen, I want you to notice
that the construction of this hen is very singular.'
To be sure it was very trifling in the boys to smile




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123


and think of poultry when the innocent e was under
discussion, and when a passage from a great poet was
being analyzed, but boys will do trifling things.
"The professor noticed their merriment, and grew
nervous-was something the matter with his collar
or necktie that caused it?-and he put up his hand
to see, but he was dressed with his usual precision,
so that could not account for it. lIe began again:
' This hen has been the subject of a great deal of discussion,' and again the naughty boys smiled louder
than before. Ile grew very angry, turned first red,
then purple, till one of the girls whispered to me,
'I'm afraid he's going to burst.'
"'Dismissed!' he roared, shutting the book, and
it was not till several days after that one of the boys
told him the cause of the.aughter.
" Next I come to Prof. Noyes; but how can I ever
do justice to the embodiment of the higher mathematics 2 I could not hope to, if this same embodiment were not, at the same time, a great-souled,
warm-hearted man, made of flesh and blood. He is
the terror of the idle wretch, while ever the true
friend of every honest inquirer after mathematical
truth. Ie has a calm, gray eye, that solves problems
and completes curves at a glance, that we cannot more
than see through when he explains them to us




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AN AMERICAN GIRL.


" The boys call him 'Old Ironclad,' from his traditional severity in examinations, but yet every faithful
student feels that he will be justly dealt with when
Prof. Noyes has him in hand. A fine demonstration
makes his face kindle with pleasure, while a poor or
badly-worded one jars on his fine mathematical nerves
like the striking of a wrong note on a musical instrument.
" Now I must tell you about our lovely Dr. Golding,
who has the chair of Moral and Mental Plilosophy.
The old doctor has had a checkered life.. IIe was
born in England, educated at Oxford, and destined
by his father for the ministry. But this did not suit
the young man, who decided that mercantile life
would be more to his liking than the sacred calling,
and he accepted an offer from a business-house in
Australia.
" After several years he failed in business, and
took to the sea. Once he was thrown among cannibals, and they drew lots between Golding and his companion for their dinner, and the lot fell on the other
man. Before another meal he was rescued, and this
incident set him to thinking that he had been spared
in order that he might bear witness for the Lord, and
he entered the ministry.
" For several years he had charge of a congregation




ORTONVILLE VERSUS VASSAR.


125


in Sydney, Australia, where he married the daughter
of an English merchant.
"After a while, upon starting for America, their
ship was wrecked in sight of land, and the Rev. Caleb
Golding, with his wife and children, was saved by
the life-boat. They came to Ortonville with nothing
in the world but the clothes on their backs and love
in their hearts.
"As they walked up the street, whom should they
meet but an old college friend of the doctor's? And
in less than a week he was established as the pastor of
the Methodist Episcopal Church of Ortonville, where
he continued for several years.
"Then the chair of Metaphysics in the university
was made vacant by death, and he was called to fill it,
and that is the way our dear Dr. Golding became a
college professor.
" He has been, now, fifteen years here, and no one
would guess from his saintly face that he had ever
been a wild, somewhat reckless youth. But we love
every hair of his white head, and we love his oldfashioned vest and coat.  Iis very 'Good-morning'
carries a blessing with it. I think he is just what
Christ would have been had he lived in this age of
the world-the embodiment of truth and goodness.
It is strange about him, too, for when he gets into the




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pulpit in the Methodist church he can shout as loud
as any one, and talk about the wrath of God against
sinners.
" He is only himself in the class-room; there he becomes as wide as the universe itself, and belongs to no
sect, but includes them all. I don't think it would be
a surprise to any of us to see a real halo of light around
his head, or to see a white dove hover about him, or
any such token of his kinship with the world of
light.
" Have you ever seen Nast lecture? You remember one of his first pictures is man as a laughing animal. I never saw any one that looks so much like that
caricature as Prof. Markham. IIis great, round face
is ornamented with a fringe of short, black hair; this
meets his beard on both sides, thus completing the
magic circle. IIis anterior development is such as
yearly to threaten him with Falstaff's fate in regard
to his knees. But here the comparison between Prof.
Markham and man as simply a laughing animal ceases,
for he is master of the most sublime of sciences-astronomy. Although his body is doomed to earth
by the attraction of two hundred and seventy pounds
av., yet his mind lives among the stars. lIe is always busy in the observatory sweeping the heavens
with his telescope, and no poor, innocent asteroid can




ORTONVILLE VERSUS VASSAR.


127


lay claim to legitimacy without first reporting itself to
the ever-watchful professor. Planets and comets are
his playthings, and he speaks of the changes that will
take place in the heavenly bodies millions of years
from now, according to computation, in as matter-offact a way as if he were speaking of to-morrow or
next week. Oh, such a memory as be has! HIe can
fill a whole blackboard with logarithms so fast that it
makes one dizzy to watch him, and carries the figures
of long computations in his head in a way that seems
nothing short of miraculous. We wish sometimes
that he would not be so wrapped up in his celestial
thoughts, for he hasn't much time to spend on classes,
although he is destined by the curriculum to waste an
hour a day for three months over the sophomore class,
trying to initiate them into the simplest mysteries of
his science, and we feel considerably aggrieved when
he is too busy to let us have nothing but a hurried
peep through the big telescope. What is the pleasure
or profit of a set of striplings when compared with
an entanglement of Jupiter's moons, or a transit of
Venus? So we settle back upon the conclusion as
previous classes have done, that the observatory was
built for the benefit of the university in general, and
Prof. Markham in particular.
" Prof. Schlotterbach is our teacher of German.




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AN AMERICAN GIRL.


I shall have that next year. Iis immense schmeerbauch and large round face are a living example of
the health-giving properties of lager-bier, pretzels,
and Limburger cheese, however much that last-named
article has been defamed by sensitive nostrils. HIe is
generally good-natured, but, when angry, he is terrible. Iis first exclamation on seeing our class was,
'Mein Gott! poys, dees class must pee deevide.'
" The boys sometimes take unfair advantage of his
imperfect knowledge of our manners and customs,
and of his English, which he speaks sehr mangelhaft.
If I should attempt to give you in full the virtues and
excellences, and I must say the faults, of our faculty,
Gabriel's trumpet would still find me bending over
my unfinished task, but I must tell you of Prof.
Leclere, the French master, with his delicate little
cigarette always between his lips when out of the
class-room, and his irresistible accent of English-his
reciprocal, probably, impossible, etc.-which we would
not have him correct for anything. And Prof. Gray,
emeritus, who, after serving the university for thirty
years, has retired to private life. He comes among
us sometimes, leaning upon his cane, and sheds upon
us the mellow beams of his declining sun. Then,
there is a long line of tutors, each with his budding
wings of genius-and you have in brief our faculty.




ORTONVILLE VERSUS VASSAR.


129


" Now, you wanted to know about the boys-whether they pay us much attention. You old girl, don't I
know what a flirt you are? What clover you would
be in here, where there are thirty boys for every girl!
Well, I'll just tell you that you could not carry on
many flirtations, and keep up your standing in class
too. Some of the girls tried it, but found they must
give up one or the other; and, with remarkable good
sense, they chose their books instead of the boys. Yet,
from the way the wind blows, I should not wonder if
one or two matches were made in our class. Well,
what could be more natural and fitting? Where can
men and women learn to know each other better than
by reciting in the same classes? Why did not your
father let you come here with me, instead of sending
you off to an old boarding-school, where you don't
see a fellow once a month, and are always watched
by some old corridor-spy?
" I never could stand such a system of espionage
as that, and would, no doubt, be expelled before one
term was out; while here, where we have the most
unbounded liberty, I am a pattern of decorum.
"I see that you shy at the word 'club,' and say
some pretty things about home-life, and I want to
set you right on one or two points. I have not tried
club-life yet, though I expect to next year; but I




130


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


know what it is from those who have tried it. It is
simply this: a company of students, boys and girls,
club together and get a woman to cook for them, and
have a steward to attend to marketing. In this way
they can make their expenses as much or little as they
choose. It is just going out to meals. Next year we
will have our rooms at Mr. Lewis's, just the same,
but they cannot board us, so we are going to club it.
We have the best motherly woman to cook for us,
and our company is very select-made up of boys from
our class (the best ones, of course), ourselves, and some
freshman girls. That is a great beauty of clubbing;
you admit those only whom you want, and make your
club just like a family. The only difference between
your table and ours is, that instead of a lot of girls,
with a pair of spectacles at each end of the table looking to see that-you eat what is digestible, and that you
behave decorously in the mean time, we have a jolly
set of girls and boys, and flatter ourselves that we behave a great deal better than if some one were watching us. You want to know, then, what I would have
in place of boarding-schools for girls. I would have
the girls distributed around into as many good families where it is taken for granted that they will conduct themselves properly without surveillance, and
have the college provide for nothing but their intel



ORTONVILLE VERSUS VASSAR.


131


lectual wants. For those who cannot stand such liberty, if they must be sent from home to learn something, I'd send them to the house of correction. But
I am growing too didactic, and I hope you will not
consider my comparisons odious, since you asked for
everything in full. You ask if all the boys are reconciled to our being here yet? Most of them, I think,
are willing, now that we are really established, to
'give the thing a trial.' It is very amusing to hear
a boy of nineteen or twenty years define woman's
sphere, and mark the line which she shall walk or
ought to walk.
"Boys know a great deal from fifteen to twentyone. Of course, the boys here do a great many silly
things for our benefit-for example: when we have
experiments in physics, the room is often darkened,
so that there is not a ray of light for some minutes;
then some boy makes the sound of a loud kiss, which
will pass round the room. It is suggestive, but
harmless; so we pay no attention to it. They do
lots of outlandish things, and go to a great deal of
trouble to tear up sidewalks and move gates, and,
don't you think, one day they managed to get a live
donkey up-stairs and set him on the platform in the
chapel, and, when we came to prayers, he stood looking over the Bible as solemn as if he were reading a




132


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


funeral-service instead of eating the hay they provided for him. It is the Fresh and Sophs who do
such things. Juniors and Seniors are too elegant
and dignified to engage in that kind of sport, and
they generally have flirtations enough on hand, with
the girls in the city, to occupy their extra time. You
want to know if there are still ' disagreeable' things
that we have to encounter. We have outlived the
most of them, I guess. There is one disagreeable
thing, though, that I must speak of. I hope that,
before I have a daughter old enough to go to college,
they will have expunged from the classical course
some of the selections from authors to which they
now cling, and it will be well for them to use a little
carbolic acid as a disinfectant in the process. I know
they say people ought to be pure-minded enough to
read those things and still not have any definite idea
of wrong suggested by them; but I want to know
where the good is in trailing classes along, year after
year; through the indelicate thoughts of certain authors because they are considered good examples of
the idiomatic use of the language when there are
plenty of other selections that might be taken, and
that would illustrate just as well.
"Now, my dear, if you will pardon this ridiculously long letter, you will give an illustration of




ORTONVILLE VERSUS VASSAR.


133


your usual amiability. If you do not have time to
read it all at one sitting, you can keep it by you for
light reading. Tell me all about your life there at
Vassar, and forgive me if I have been too hard on
boarding-schools, but I can't believe in any of your
one-sided institutions, Matthew Vassar to the contrary
notwithstanding. Write to me very soon, and believe me, ever yours,
" WILIIELMINE ELLIOTT.
"P. S.-What do you think of Dr. Clarke's
book   The way he makes you Vassar girls faint and
lop around on all occasions is perfectly funny. In
my opinion he makes a great ado about nothing, and
fails to hit the point. 'It's flat burglary, and I go to
prove it.'                            W. E."
"VASSAR COLLEGE, March 15, 187-.
"MY DEAR WILL: I received your splendid long
letter more than two weeks ago. If it were any person but you, I vow I would resent some of the things
you said, but you always have a way of saying what
you please, and everybody lets you. Some of your
assertions are based on ignorance; therefore you are,
to an extent, excusable; for, when you speak of this
institution as nothing more than a 'boarding-school,'
it simply shows that you know nothing about it.




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AN AMERICAN GIRL.


"Your theory about having the girls put out in
families to board might be a good one, but it is exceedingly unpractical. You are so carried away, dear,
with the idea of co-education that you only see one
side. Well, you know that I never was radical in
anything, and least of.all on this subject. I do not
believe in mixed schools, for, as you yourself admit,
both the boys and girls might be tempted to neglect
their work by being together. For all you protest
that you are a' pattern of decorum,' I can't imagine
it; and I doubt not a little judicious watching would
be good for you.
" But we are as free here as it is possible to be in
an institution of the kind. I'd like to see you put
four hundred girls together, and leave no particular
rules and no one in particular to see that they behave! I would not trust even ' patterns of decorum '
in such a case. Oh, no; with all your fine talk you
cannot make me believe in your precious hobby. You
can't make me believe that it is a good thing for a
few stray girls to be mixed up with such a tremendous crowd of boys as you have there, and the unequal proportion will exist for a long time, and maybe
always. Their 'refining influence upon the ruder
sex' is purchased at too great a cost to themselves.
How preposterous to think of seven girls in a class




ORTONVILLE VERSUS VASSAR.


135


of one hundred and fifty boys! As to the competition between the male and female mind being the
best incentive to study, that, again, is all talk, for you
can't find more competition and enthusiasm, in study
than we have here among the girls. Again, you say
that, since we have to live all our lives with them, it is
absurd to be separated in education.
" Bless me! that's just an argument in favor of
one-sided institutions, as you are pleased to term
them; when we are destined inevitably by the Fates
to eat three meals a day with some John, George, or
Thomas, the four years of college when we see nothing of them ought to be counted clear gain, and I
prefer to put off the comparison of the relative merits
of the male and female intellect until my education
is finished. I'm glad to be informed about 'clubs,'
though I can't help shivering a little at the word yet,
but hope to get over it.
"I feel tolerably safe about you now; but at one
time I expected to hear that you girls at Ortonville
were playing foot and base ball, hazing freshmen,
and engaging in other manly sports. I'm glad there
is one thing we can agree on-Dr. Clarke's book. A
lady-physician, who lectured for us the other night,
said that he had drawn very sweeping conclusions
from very narrow premises, and that most of the evil




136           AN AMERICAN GIRL.
he lays at the door of the school could better be traced
to the improper training and habits of young children; in other words, that it is in the nursery where
the foundations are laid for failing health in womanhood. I don't dare to say a word to the folks at
home, though, against Dr. Clarke; for, you know, he
was our family physician when we lived in Boston,
and mother and Aunt Jane swear by him in everything.
"Don't stop telling me things because I scold
you, for that is one of my privileges.
"Ever your loving friend,
" MARY PALMER."




CIAPTER VII.


A CALL FROM THIE MINISTER.
"I do not believe it; God's kingdom is something wider,
Else let me stand outside it, with the beings I love."
GEORGE ELIOT.
"You tell me, doubt is devil-born;
I know not; one, indeed, I knew
Perplexed in faith, but pure in deed:
At last he beat his music out,
He faced the spectres of the mind,
And laid them."-In tiMemoriam.
ONE day Will came in and threw herself down
upon the sofa in Nell's room with a very disconsolate
air, exclaiming, "I just wish I were dead, so I do!"
Nell looked up from her work with a smile, for she
was accustomed to Will's moods, and did not think it
worth while to stop then, but intended, at her leisure,
to find out the cause of her recent disgust with life.
By-and-by a great sob came from the sofa, which decided her, at once, to look into the merits of the case;
so she came and knelt down beside her, and said, coax



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ingly, "What is it, dear? Tell your old auntie all
about it."
No reply, but another sob. Nell was an adept
at managing such things; she pressed the question
no further, but stroked the hair from her forehead
gently, and said nothing. Ere long a voice came
from the depths of the pillow:
"I want to be like other girls; I'm tired of being
odd and queer."
" Why, we would not have you different for the
world; we all like your oddities, and, as to wishing
yourself like other girls, it's quite stupid."
"Maybe you girls do like me, but the boys don't."
"Oh, as to that, the boys who know you do like
you, and the others are afraid of you; but they all
admire you sincerely."
"Admire! I'm tired of being admired. I want
people to love me-I can't live without love;" and
the voice was choked by an application of the pillow,
and again there was silence. The intermittent grief
soon found vent again in speech: "As I was going
down-town to-day, I saw Randolf coming up the
walk, and I thought, 'Now I'm going to speak to
him;' but, don't you think, he sailed by and never
looked at me!"
" Have you ever had an introduction to him "




A CALL FROM THE MINISTER.


139


"No; but it seems to me, if three or four daily
recitations together for a year and a half do not
give one license to speak to a classmate, fifty introductions would not either. I have spoken to several
of the boys without having been formally introduced
to then, some of the good, brotherly sort who did not
seem to stand on ceremony. Why, we meet them
constantly everywhere, and it seems so silly, for instance, to stand and warm your fingers for half an
hour over the same register with a classmate, and
never say a word, because you have never been ceremoniously presented to each other. Oh, it is clear in
Randolf's case that he does not want to speak because
he does not like me;" and again there was a resort
to the pillow.
"Do you want me to state your case as it seemns to
me " said Nell.
"Yes, go on; I can bear anything, I s'pose."
"Well, in the first place, you say you are tired of
being called odd; now, there is no denying that you
are odd and different from the majority of girls, but
let us see if that is to be regretted: you have better
health than most girls, and an amount of life and vivacity that leads you sometimes to indulge in extraordinary gymnastics, but they are done in your own
room and before those who understand you. I can't




140


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


see any earthly harm in turning a hand-spring or coming up-stairs four steps at a time if it isn't before a
miscellaneous crowd. Your manners in company are
unexceptionable, as far as I see. The next point is
your physique.  There is truth in the charge that
your features are strongly marked, and might be even
called a little masculine, but you can't help that, and
would not want to, for you know that your face is
striking and your features handsome, and that you
would not exchange for one of the hcavy-eyed, pale
faces we see every day. I must confess that your little eccentricities in dress, although they would never
be noticed in another girl, do give you an appearance
of oddity. For instance, you wear a hat that will
stay on your head without an elastic, and you pull it
off on many occasions when other ladies would not
do the same; but where is the merit or demerit in
that? I like it because it is you who do it; in another
girl, very probably, it would not be becoming. Then
you wear your dresses short enough to keep out of
mud and dust; and who is there that would not commend you, although they might not have the courage
themselves   Now we come to that intangible, indescribable, irrepressible something-your very own self.
You ungrateful girl, to talk about no one liking you!
when there is no girl of my acquaintance who has the




A CALL FROM THE MINISTER.


141


warm love of women and girls as you have. You get
as many love-letters from your different girls as a belle
of the period from her suitors, and I know of no better recommendation for a woman than to be a favorite
with her own sex. As to boys, they all like you when
they know you, but, until then, they stand in awe of
you, unless they happen to be geniuses like Charlie
Burton, who can read character and interpret it correctly. I don't think there is any great misfortune
in so inspiring the average male biped with awe that
lie admires at a distance; it is pleasanter, in nine
cases out of ten, to have him there than to risk a
closer encounter, because it saves you a great deal of
trouble that we of the less striking sort are liable
to-"
"But I would prefer to be of the less striking sort,
and would risk the trouble," interrupted Will.
"But," continued Nell, in a tone of playful raillery,
c your weariness of life all seems to hinge on the fact
that Guilford Randolf takes no notice of you: why,
you are as bad as Haman, who was so upset because
Mordecai would not do him homage, when he had all
the rest of the kingdom at his feet. Here we all are
bending the knee to you, but you count it as nothing
because Randolf is not marching in your triumphal
procession. You must make allowance for the young




142


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


man, for he has been brought up with a mother and
sisters who are leaders of fashion, and always stand
upon ceremony; you appear in his horizon as something entirely new, with your independence of dress
and manners, and you must not blame him if he cannot take you all in at once. But, bless me, what a
lecture I've given her, to be sure! " and she kissed
Will's check, where the tears had gradually dried, as
she became interested in Nell's delineation of her
character, and she now threw her arms around her
neck as she said:
" You dear old gospel, you always make me think
better of myself when you take hold of me in earnest.
By-the-way," continued Will, after they had sat silent
a few moments, " they are going to have a revival in
the Students' Christian Association, and I've promised
Clara that I would go with her to-night."
" Yes, she has been asking me to go, but she knows
that I am as firm in my belief as she is in hers, so she
does not press the question with me," replied Nell.
"They need not try to convert me by it, for I long
ago made up my mind that if I am ever converted it
shall be in calm weather, and not during any religious
excitement; I don't believe in those religious whirlwinds one bit, for they never last; one thing that I
have to be ashamed of is that, when I was very young,




A CALL FROM THE MINISTER.


143


I was really worked up so that I went out to what
they called the anxious-seat. I was visiting my aunt
at the time in a little country town, where they were
all Methodists, and they were right in the midst of a
revival in which everybody was converted: all the
young people with whom I was acquainted, without
one exception, "' got religion,'" as they called it, and
they all went to work at me; I went to meetings with
them, and one evening, with their shouting, groaning,
and praying, I was so upset that, when they asked
those who were seeking to come forward and kneel at
the altar, I yielded to the coaxing of friends and went
out. I was not fairly fixed on my knees at the altar,
when I was ashamed, and wondered what I was there
for. When I saw the bishop making for me, I got up
quickly and said that I had made a mistake, and went
back with a very red face, to the great disappointment of my friends. They took more than a hundred people into the church, but in six months they
were all following the ways of the world worse than
ever, and, in my opinion, you scarcely could have
guessed that there had been a revival."
"What did your Presbyterian friends think of
that?"
"<My mother did not like it much when she heard
that I had been out, for Presbyterians are cold-blooded,




144


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


you know, and don't believe in excitement. I like
that in them, too, for there is not so much danger of
being mistaken about the coming of the Ioly Spirit
when the temperature is not allowed to rise above a
moderate height."
"I think it is so strange," said Nell, "that you
have been led by your reason in a path so widely
apart from the one in which you were brought upwhen you are so young, too. Now, I go right along
as I've been trained, and if I'd been brought up in
orthodoxy it would have been just the same-I should
have stuck to it; but you seem to have cut loose from
everything, and made your own way. I don't quite
understand it."
" Well, I sometimes wonder at myself," said Will,
" and think that perhaps, after all, it is a pity. I don't
want to feel so cut off and apart from people; I don't
want to be looked upon by all the sweet, pious folks
as a dreadful, dangerous heretic, as I suppose I am;
but what am I to do about it? I can't make their
theology seem reasonable, and they won't let me be
pious unless I take their creeds and speak their shibboleth. If they had just let me alone, I presume I
should have fallen into the traces."
" But you are not out of harmony with God and
the great and good minds, my dear, and some day




A CALL FROM THE MINISTER.


145


you'll find your path leading up to theirs, where you
can join them."
"Do you think so? I don't know, I'm sure; the
world has always been made so black to me outside
the pale of the Westminster theology, that I am not
more than half emancipated yet. I do want to believe something positively, and that is what I can't say
that I do. I presume I'll swing round, and finally,
like Heinrich IIeine, be seized with a heavenly homesickness, and die clinging to the old faith in which I
was born."
This conversation will serve to show the uncertain
state of mind in which Will was at this time. She
had been unable from constitutional inability to accept the old faith, but had nothing in place of it, and
her nature was not such as to be contented long with
a mere negative belief; for, perhaps more than most
others, she needed something to cling to and believe
with her whole heart. Neither Nell nor Clara could
quite appreciate her state of feeling, for, although
they believed so differently from each other, still each
was faithful to her home training, and Will found
that, after all, she must have her struggle alone. It
was in this frame of mind that she was met again
by the wave of a religious revival.
All the various denominations of Ortonville were
7




146


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


bending every energy to the awakening of religious
interest, hoping it would culminate in a glorious
work of grace, such as had never been seen there before. They had meetings every evening, and Will
was at last persuaded to go, to please some of the
girls, for this freethinking, independent girl was at
the same time one of the most coaxable and yielding;
while by her mental constitution she found herself
stepping outside of all sorts of boundaries, social and
religious, to be left out by the will or even the indifference of those about her was a grievous thing. Like
most strong heads, hers was fed by a warm, tender
heart, and her desire to please the girls was at once
her weakness and her strength.
The meetings were impressive, and great numbers
of students, among whom Will recognized "hard
cases," arose and requested the prayers of the meeting. She was silent and respectful, but not impressed,
for she had constantly in mind the time when she went
up to the altar and had been ashamed of it afterward;
and, however deeply she craved some rest for her
faith, she felt now, more than ever, that there was
nothing offered her by this storm of sentiment. Some
took her silence for a token that she was thinking
deeply, and the girls, without her knowledge, asked
one of the ministers to call upon her next day and




A CALL FROM THE MINISTER.


147


talk with her. So she was greatly surprised when
the door-bell rang and she was told that the Rev. Mr.
Allison was waiting to see her in the parlor.
" To see me? " said Will; " I guess there is some
mistake, for I never met him. I had a letter of introduction to him, but I never presented it."
" There is no mistake," said Clara, " for he asked
me yesterday where you lived, and said he was coming."
Will hurriedly smoothed her hair, and with a lit.
tle fluttering of the heart went down to the parlor.
As she entered, a tall figure in black arose and
gave her his hand. Edmund Allison was a man of
not more than thirty-five years, but he looked fully
fifty, for from continued ill-health his face was sallow, and his long beard streaked with gray.  His
dark hair was parted away from a broad pale forehead, and the hand he gave to Will was slender, cold,
and feeble; yet his eye burned with fervor, for lie
had come to speak in the cause of his church. Mr.
Allison had entered the ministry at twenty-four, with
shattered health partly inherited, partly contracted
during the years in which he had toiled through his
academic and theological course, with insufficient
food, and without any of those social pleasures that
youth needs for building up a healthy manhood.




148


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


Ife stood at this time of his life, with all the sternness of his will and the strength of his intellect, one
of the few stanch defenders of the ark of the covedant in the midst of all sorts of assaulting Philistines.
"3 Miss Elliott, I was requested by some of your
friends to call upon you for the purpose of talking
with you on religious subjects, and I gladly embraced the opportunity, for I have known you by
sight and reputation for a long time, and have hoped
to see you a faithful worker in the cause of Christ;
I believe that you have unusual ability, which, if
turned in the right direction, would make you a
great power for good."
" Thank you," said Will, blushing deeply, partly
from embarrassment and partly from indignation, that
the girls had thus without her knowledge planned
a religious conference for her, into which she had been
innocently led; "if I had known of their design, I
should not have allowed them to trouble you."
" I was led to think from what they said that you
were thinking deeply upon the subject; indeed, Miss
Elliott, I had strong hopes of finding you under conviction."
" I have given them no reason to think that I am
in any such state," said Will, trying to be respectful,




A CALL FROM THE MINISTER.


149


while the same old bitter feeling of rebellion came
back that she had not known since she left home for
the first time.
"I learn that you have been brought up in a
Christian family."
" Yes, sir, I was brought up a Presbyterian."
"  ave you found anything better-anything that
satisfies your spiritual needs more fully, may I ask?"
"I am only trying to find something to believe,"
said Will.
" Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved."
" But, sir, must I not also believe in all the articles of the catechism? "
" It would be impossible to accept Christ openly
without subscribing to the articles of faith as held by
some branch of the Church, and I believe you can
nowhere find God's justice and mercy, in his great
scheme of redemption, more correctly stated than in
the catechism adopted by the Westminster Assembly, and accepted by the Presbyterian denomination
in all parts of the world."
Will hesitated to reply.  She felt in one moment all the stinging sense of injustice to a world
of striving, aspiring, though erring mortals, which
was the one conviction she had ever brought away




150


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


from her study of the Shorter Catechism, every line
of which was engraven in her memory. She felt as
if she could blaze into a defense of God against it,
but respect for his age, and the clerical habit, which
Mr. Allison wore in all its old-fashioned precision,
restrained her.
"But I have notfound any satisfaction in thinking
of God's scheme of redemption, by my study of the
catechism-it always repels me," she said, gently.
" Oh, my young friend, let me assure you that
you are standing on the most dangerous ground, and
I pray God that I may be the humble instrument of
bringing you back to the fold from which you have
strayed."
" But, so far as I know, I am only yielding to the
perfectly honest conclusions of my own reason and
sense of justice. Is it so dangerous to think? I am
compelled to think about everything else; it seems
to me that this is a subject upon which I should not
decide rashly."
Miss Elliott, you are wrong in saying that it is
not a subject to be decided at once, for every moment
you hesitate makes your chances of salvation less:
now, now is the accepted time, and now is the day of
salvation.  It is not a subject for the exercise of
reason, but of faith-faith in the God of Abraham,




A CALL FROM THE MINISTER.


151


and his Son, who was sent into the world to save
those who are lost. There is no objection to your
looking at the question from all sides, if first you are
firmly rooted and grounded in the truth, for then
there would be no danger of being led away from it,
but, in your condition of mind, it would be fatal for
you to read works on infidelity, for the heart, naturally prone to evil, will turn to unbelief as the sparks
fly upward."
Will's keen sense of the logical was so much
amused at this argument that she smiled a little as
she said, looking hard at a small copy of the " Last
Supper" that hung behind the minister's chair,
" But how can I search and try the truth, if I must
first accept some statement of it that binds me sacredly to fixed conclusion a"
Mr. Allison began to feel the pique of an unexpected firmness and clearness of opposed convictions
in his questioner, notwithstanding the quiet repression of her manner and words; but, with no intention
of intellectual contest, he waived a direct answer to
her remark, saying only: "It is safest for erring
human nature to throw aside reasoning, and accept
by faith the Saviour crucified. You know the alternative he offers, ' Ie that believeth shall be saved, but
he that believeth not shall be damned.'"




152


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


Will began to grow restless under this gospel fire.
A door of unpleasant memory was suddenly opened.
Having avoided the Presbyterian church since she
had been at college, she had not heard the stern statements for nearly two years, and they recalled sickening scenes of mental conflict and the only unpleasantness that she remembered of her home-life.
She began to feel that she had grown so much in
the interval that she could clearly and completely
refute the clergyman, but she was very unwilling to
take up the contest. Nevertheless, it was not in her
nature to hide, or to seem to accept, what she disbelieved or doubted, and, if the minister continued to
press her, she felt that she must offend him by her
replies.
" You know these texts, Miss Elliott; you are familiar with the Bible?"
" Yes, sir, I am very familiar with those texts,"
she said, and out of the struggles of the past how
could she command a tone that had not in it a shade
of irony? The keen sense of her questioner caught
it at once.
" What!" he exclaimed, " do you mean to imply
that you have gone so far as to disbelieve the Bible,
Miss Elliott? " and he gave her a searching look.
" I have gone so far as to wonder if it is the only




A CALL FROM THE MINISTER.


153


word of God to man, and the only rule of faith; yes,
I'm afraid I should not agree with your definition of
its inspiration."
"How is it possible for a student, who is daily
weighing evidence in all departments of science, to
withhold assent to a truth so self-evident as the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures," exclaimed Mr. Allison, "of which they bear the most overwhelming
proof in the faithful portraits of life and manners, in
their unswerving truth to the foibles of the men they
paint, their evident freedom from all glosses, to say
nothing of fulfilled prophecies?  IIuman nature
stands before us in the Bible with its weaknesses and
crimes unconcealed, as profane writers would never
have dared to portray it."
" But, Mr. Allison," replied Will, in a long pause
which the minister made, as if to take in a full sense
of her heresy, "it appears to me that the Bible ought
to be valuable in proportion as it helps to nobler
views of life and offers us examples for imitation, and
inspires us with a love for what is high and pure; it
does not seem to me that the Bible helps me very
much in these respects. I have gained more, I think,
of such inspiration from history than from the HIebrew Scriptures."
" History and modern philosophy, my dear young




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AN AMERICAN GIRL.


lady, are ignes fatui that have led thousands to destruction; but one of the greatest facts of history is
the fact of the power of the Scriptures, which have
brought life and immortality to light, and have shone
upon a people sitting in darkness and the shadow of
death, until a modern civilization has sprung up under its beneficent beams. But, since you have made
up your mind about the Old Testament," said Mr.
Allison, with a slightly perceptible sneer, "you have
hardly been so bold, at your age, as to fling aside the
inspiration of the New also?"
" 01h, certainly, I think the apostles were inspired
with a love of their Master; I think they were very
heroic and true; but then," she added, after a moment's doubt whether to say it or not, for she perceived the growing heat of her antagonist, " so was
Xenophon who wrote of his master, who was also
a great teacher, and suffered for the truth he
taught."
"But Socrates did not leave a record attested by
the combined testimony of a band of disciples. It is
in the remarkable agreement of our four evangelists
that we find our source of proof of our New Testament story. The harmony of the four gospels is a
rock of strength, such as no heathen teacher has ever
boasted."




A CALL FROM THE MINISTER.


155


" Is it? " replied Will, musingly. She was listening not to Rev. Mr. Allison, but to the voice of her
mother's pastor, whose reasoning on the harmonies,
whose defense of every outpost of his faith, had been
the chief food for her youthful skepticism.
" Iere we find the highest proof of the complete
inspiration of the sacred Scriptures, in the story of
his miracles, the record of his sufferings and death;
but what think you of Christ? "
"I think he was a teacher come from God, and I
try to follow his example, but I come far short of it.
I like to read his life-"
" But if you do not think him God himself, then
you make him a mere impostor, for in his own words
he claims oneness with God."
"You have made the Bible your life-study, Mr.
Allison, and of course you are perfectly familiar with
it; but I somehow feel as if I could get at other
meanings of Christ's words, which I take from them
just as they read, and it does not seem as if he claimed
divinity for himself; but then there are so many
chances for different constructions to be put upon the
leading passages that one becomes confused. I have
heard the best and most sacred texts denounced as interpolations by learned men, until it has finally seemed
to me that I must judge of the meaning of the Bible




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for myself. I think it is a privilege every one ought
to be allowed."
The clergyman was surprised and disappointed, but
the sweet reasonableness of the girl was as little provoking as any species of resistance could possibly be;
and, interested in her frank, lively mind, he set himself to the task of conviction, little doubting that he
could easily break down the slight fortifications of unbelief her short experience had set up, so he recommenced in a dry, pulpit tone: " My dear young lady,
I have come to set forth the claims of God in Christ
upon you, and to urge you to make your own the
merits of that atonement by which alone you can be
justified. You believe that all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, and that he hath sent forth
his Son to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.
Without the shedding of blood there is no remission
of sin, and by the offering of the Lord Jesus is prepared the open and manifest way by which God may
be reconciled to men. Should God forgive sinners
without an atonement, justice would be sacrificed, the
law would cease to have any terrors, and its penalty
would be annulled; but God has appointed his Son to
be a substitute in the place of sinners: what he endured on the cross was such as to accomplish the same
ends as if those who shall be saved by him had been




A CALL FROM THE MINISTER.


157


doomed to eternal death. ' What he endured no tongue
can tell!'"
"Mr. Allison," interrupted Will, in a tone of excitement that she could no longer repress, "I can't
bear this doctrine of atonement-I long ago rebelled
against it, and nothing can make me think that I
shall be better by believing that an innocent being
bore a load of penalty and shame for me; it degrades
me, however it may exalt him. I can find comfort
and inspiration in his teaching, however, and I mean
to try to obey his precepts."
" What right have you to find comfort in his teachings, when you reject his divine atonement? "
"What right have I? Would you take him away
from me simply because I do not believe on him as
you do? Do you not want me to have help in my
daily life from his example? It is a great deal more
to me to think of him as a brother man than as God
incarnate. That answer to justification in the catechism always disturbed me even when I was a child,
and I've never since been able to see any fairness in
it. You know it says,' Justification is an act of God's
free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins and
accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the
righteousness of Christ, imputed to us and received
by faith alone.' The catechism gives me nothing but




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unlovely ideas of God and heaven. Do you think
that people can be happy in heaven without their
friends? " she said, softening a little, and appealing to
the heart of the man by her almost childish earnestness.
"I have no expectation of deriving my happiness in the eternal world from any earthly fountains;
I am not sure but we will be so constituted that our
joys will be heightened by the contrast of the miseries of the lost, even as we are sensible, on earth, of a
keener enjoyment of comforts, when we reflect that
many are deprived of them."
"0 Mr. Allison," said Will, shuddering, "that is
really the most dreadful thing I ever heard."
"We do not know-we do not know what God
has prepared or what is included in his future; we
only know that he that believeth shall be saved, and
he that believeth not shall be damned."
"I beg to be spared firther persuasion, Mr. Allison," exclaimed Will, with a face full of indignation.
"I shall never be brought to become a Christian on
the terms you present; they only repel my affections
and degrade my reason."
Mr. Allison rose to go. Ile had expected to find
a young lady in a very troubled and anxious state of
mind-one to whom he could tell the old, old story




A CALL FROM THE MINISTER.


159


with his own comments, and finally pray, and leave
her in penitent tears over her depraved nature; but
to find instead a youthful antagonist who had decided ways of expressing herself, and who asked questions and said things that were hard to refute, was
not at all to his liking, and, when he saw that his talk
had had no effect but to arouse her opposition, it was
too much for his Christian grace.
"Miss Elliott," he said, as he slowly walked to
the door, "never in the whole range of my ministry
have I met with such a confirmed case of unbelief as
I find in you, and, considering your youth and early
training, it is marvelous how you came to stand where
you do. You profess to be a seeker for truth, and
yet you are firmly determined that you won't see it.
I would rather bury my daughter than have her as
you are to-day! You have adopted the egotism of
the party you represent."
" I did not know, sir, that I represented any party.
I do not claim to, at least."
"You belong to those who are serving Mammon,
who are trying to pull down daily what we are trying
to build up; and, Miss Elliott, if it were not for the
protection which we of the Church throw around you,
you would to-day be classed among the immoral and
lawless of the land, for thither your conclusions lead.




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It is simple truth," continued the man, growing more
and more angry, "and I say again, count up your
friends and see how many of them, who believe as you
do, are examples of true grandeur and nobility of soul,
and how many of them would stand by you in times
of need. The smallest number, I can tell you, for
your true friends all belong to our side; but there
will come a time when even they ought to leave you
to the destruction you have chosen, and withdraw
their protection from you."
IIis persuasion had not succeeded, so he thought
to try intimidation by drawing a frightful picture of
her future.
"You do not mean to say that such men as Mr.
Bingham and Mr. Hart are not noble examples? " she
said, referring to two men of high standing in the
Unitarian Church.
"They, doubtless, are good men, but I say that
we protect them from the consequences of their own
beliefs. Ah, Miss Elliott, look at the death-beds of
unbelievers if you want an awful proof of the truth
of Christianity-their ravings of despair, and the
worm of remorse gnawing at their hearts, because of
their denial of the truth."
"I have seen the death-bed of an unbeliever," said
Will, quietly, and in a few words she told of the




A CALL FROM THE MINISTER.


161


beautiful life that she had watched pass calmly out
into the great unknown, and for the moment she forgot the reverend gentleman as the face of her grandfather passed before her mind.
" How do you know that he did not repent on his
death-bed?"
Repent of what?" asked Will.
"That he had rejected the Saviour all his life.
Such a case as that of your grandfather is hard for us
to judge, Mliss Elliott, but, if the Bible is true, we
must believe that he is lost forever."
"Then I don't want to be saved, sir; but somehow I feel that the Lord will judge him better than
any one else can," and there was a tender expression
in the gray eyes that the minister could not see, for
the gathering twilight.
"It is needless to say, Miss Elliott, that I feel
deeply and earnestly interested in you, not only for
yourself, but for the great good you might do for the
cause of Christianity if you were only one of the
chosen; and then I think of the great harm you will
do if you continue in the present state of rebellion
and opposition to the light. I will bear you to the
throne of grace in prayer."
"Thank you," said Will, mechanically, and they
shook hands and parted.




CHAPTER VIII.


HEAVY AND LIGIT SIADING.
" Give me a look, give me a face
That makes simplicity a grace,
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free;
Such sweet neglect more taketh me
Than all the adulteries of art;
They strike mine eyes, but not my heart."
BEN JONSON.
"For her physician tells me she hath pursued conclusions
infinite of easy ways to die."-SnAKrESrEARE.
ONE day in early March of Will's sophomore year
the university was electrified by the report that IIattic Worden, a girl in the freshman class, had committed suicide by shooting herself.
" Iow could she? " "Whyl should she? " " What
was the matter?    "She was a splendid scholar!"
were the bursts of astonishment as the girls hastened
to inquire concerning the truth of the report, and
offer any assistance that might be needed. They




HEAVY AND LIGHT SIADING.


163


found a frightened group around the bed upon which
lay the unfortunate girl, while the doctor was trying
to ascertain whether life was entirely extinct. Two
round, dark spots, one on the neck and the other on
the temple, showed the path of the cartridges, while
on the stand was a small revolver, the innocent cause
of the tragedy. IIer room-mate sat crying, with her
face buried in her hands, as she moaned, "If I had
only come a moment sooner, I might have prevented
it! " A little note was found on the table, which explained after a fashion the unnatural deed. It said:
"MY DEARF FRIENDS: You have never suspected
that, while I have been going in and out among you,
I have been a monomaniac on the subject of suicide,
and no one has ever known it, not even my precious
mother, whose heart I will break by the deed that I
have at last been compelled to commit. I had an
uncle once who shot himself, and I know that I inherited the tendency to suicide, so that my life has
been one constant, silent struggle with that temptation; but I can bear it no longer. Do not go to
searching for a cause for this act; there is none except this hereditary taint, for I have the kindest of
parents and friends, and God knows that I would not
give them this sorrow if I could help it. Often and




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AN AMERICAN GIRL.


often when I have been apparently studying and
seemingly absorbed in my books, I have been wrestling with the wish to put an end to my existence. I
thought that by coming to college, and throwing myself wholly into a busy student's life, I might forget
it; but, like a stern Nemesis, it has followed me.
The college-girls will feel disgraced, I know, and I
would gladly save them from it, but I cannot. Telegraph, please, to my uncle, John Worden, in Madison
County, and let him break the news to my mother.
Once more begging you to deal kindly with my memory, I am, truly yours,      IATTIE WORDEN."
" Very extraordinary, indeed! " said the doctor,
after the letter was read; and, stepping across the
room, he began a conversation in a low tone with
Miss Easton, the room-mate of Miss Worden, in
which he asked if she knew anything of Miss Worden's previous life; whether she had not been disappointed in love; for, he said, "you will find that at
the bottom of trouble like this nine cases out of ten."
Miss Easton professed her ignorance of any such
condition of affairs. The afflicted parents arrived
the next day to accompany the remains to their home,
which was in the western part of the State. The
mother said that Hattie had always been peculiar




HEAVY AND LIGHT SHADING.


165


from a child, but that they had never suspected any
predisposition to suicide.  The self-upbraidings of
the mother for not having better understood her
daughter's nature were painful to hear.
The newspapers took it up, and there were various
reasons assigned for the deed. Some said that she
had studied too hard to keep up with her class, and
thus the evil effects of co-education were early becoming manifest. Others said that she had fallen in
love with a classmate, and, because it was not reciprocated, she had found life too great a burden to be
borne; and another moral was drawn concerning coeducation. A few accepted the truth, which was that
Iattie Worden was the victim of an hereditary mental disease which shows itself in a continual wish to
take one's own life.
Following close upon this sad event came another
not so tragical, but none the less sad. It was the
death of one of the girls in Will's class from typhoid
fever. She was quite a favorite, and had particularly
endeared herself to the girls by her lovely, winning
ways. She was ill for two weeks before the disease
proved fatal, and every morning the girls, with anxious hearts, heard the president pray for the sick one,
for they were not allowed to see her lest they might
be infected with the contagion. One morning it was




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whispered from seat to seat that Alice Winthrop was
dead, for the president prayed for the bereaved family this time. It was the first break made in the
class by death, and was deeply felt by all.
The class was excused from recitations for one
day, and accompanied the remains to the depot with
the relatives, and all wore crape on their hats for two
weeks. Again it was said that the evil effects of the
higher education of women were proved by this
event, but this assertion seemed to be offset by the
fact that a brother of the young lady had died, a few
years previous, of the same disease, being also a member of the sophomore class, and then of the same age.
This satisfied some that sex had nothing whatever to
do with it, while the majority maintained their first
opinion.
To be entirely candid, it must be confessed that
toward the end of the sophomore year one or two of
the girls did give evidence of having worked too
hard, and the pale cheek and hollow eye pointed to
an early decline. But it would hardly be fair to attribute it to the fact that they were studying in a
" boy's way," for had they been in a female seminary
the same thing would have happened. The same
pale cheek and sunken eye were to be seen here and
there among the boys at this period in the course,




HEAVY AND LIGHT SHADING.


167


which only proves that neither the delicate boy nor
girl should attempt a college-course, but should leave
it for those who have brain and muscle in more equal
proportions. But four more healthy girls than the
soplimores in Clinton Avenue were not to be found.
Will came into the waiting-room one day (the waiting-room was a refinement that had sprung up since
the admission of the girls, by which they were saved
the tedious delay in the cold halls) with the announcement that she was going to have her hair cut. A
burst of disapproval came from all sides of the room.
" Will Elliott, you are not in earnest! You would
look like a fright; don't do it, please! " and they
formed a supplicating circle around her.
"It's just this way," she said: " I've been coming
to it for a long time, and this morning, when a hair-pin
got crosswise and spoiled the whole lecture for me, I
tlought things had come to a crisis," and she drew
off her switch and flung it across the room, while she
shook down her own heavy but not very long hair.
" I suppose the fashion will change before long, so
that my own hair done up in a little pug behind would
not taboo me from fashionable society; but when I
tried leaving off my switch the other day you all made
so much ado that I had to put it on again. Now,
girls," she continued, smiling, "you know that I'd do




168


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


anything to please you that is not a sacrifice of principle, but this hair takes too much of my time-it
shackles me, abridges my freedom, and I must be
free; so come off it must! " This declaration was met
by a groan from the girls. " I don't believe I'll look
so bad, either; for it will wave round my head like
Harriet Hosmer's, and, besides, if you don't like it I
will wear a wig till it grows out; but you know you'll
have to like it. I'll hurry home and leave my books
and rush to the barber's while the voice of the at'lwov
is still fresh, or you will lure me on to the rocks of
destruction by your siren songs," and she bounded
merrily away.
Acting from impulse, as she so often did, she
hastened to a barber and gave him directions, just
how short she wanted it3 how it was to be on top and
behind; to all of which he grinned a "Yes, miss; all
right." What possessed the dusky son of Hiam has
never to this day been made clear-whether it was
temporary mental aberration or malice aforethought
that prompted him to use his scissors as he did. After
giving directions, Will sat in the chair with perfect
faith that he would do as she had told him; she gave
herself no further thought; and, in fact, the whole time
she was repeating a Latin ode that they were to commit for the next day. When, finally, he said, " It's




IEAVY AND LIGHT SHADING.


169


all right, miss," she hastily threw her scarf over her
head for fear of taking cold, and hurried home, not
daring to look in the glass until she should reach her
own room. Arriving there, she found all three girls
anxiously awaiting her. As she threw aside her scarf
they all shrieked, " Will Elliott! what have you done?
-you're ruined!" She gave a hurried glance into the
mirror, and all her courage forsook her at the sight.
He had actually cut it so short that one could not
catch it with thumb and finger-the style the boys
call " dead-rabbited." She threw her arms round her
head and sank into a chair, with the despairing cry:
O girls! he has ruined my head for life-ruined!"
she repeated, in a perfect frenzy of disappointment.
" I told him how to cut it, and see what he has done! "
The girls, seeing that she was as much astonished as
they, came to the rescue, and, as it could not be helped
by any earthly means, tried to make the best of it.
" Oh, it will soon grow out again," said Nell; " but
how will you go to recitations? " and they all looked
at each other as if to say, " Sure enough, how will
she? "
"' Can't we contrive some sort of a head-dress? "
suggested Laura; " they will think that something is
the matter with your head, and that the doctor ordered
it cut."
8




170


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


But how lame and impractical seemed all the suggestions to Will, who sat with her poor, cropped head
bowed, the very embodiment of wretchedness! IIer
great resort in time of trouble was to go to bed,
and she soon buried her dishonored head in the pillows, but not to sleep.  What should she do tomorrow? H ow could she face the whole class with
that head, and yet how could she miss a leason for
such a cause? Meanwhile, the girls were discussing
the case among themselves with no less interest, and
they could see no better way than that she should
plead a slight indisposition for two or three weeks
and remain at home.  That thought had not once
occurred to Will as she lay tossing on her bed until
her face burned with feverish excitement and dread
of to-morrow's ordeal.  They brought up her supper, while Mr. and Mrs. Lewis came to condole, and
there was as much mourning over her as if she were
dangerously ill. Not a word of blame or reproach
came from any one, for they saw how much she suffered.
" You are all so kind to me that I can't stand it,"
she said, with quivering lip; " if you'd only scold me
thoroughly, I would feel better."
" We have been thinking," said Nell, quietly, "that
you had better not think of going to recitations for




HEAVY AND LIGHT SIIADING.


171


two or three weeks, until your hair has come out a
little; we will make a satisfactory excuse for you."
Will sat bolt upright at this.
"Stay at home?   Miss recitations for a month,
and have them all think me sick or something? Indeed, I'll do no such thing! I'll go if it kills me, and
take the full consequences of my own foolishness!"
and, she added, with a burst of petulance of which
she was instantly ashamed, " If you girls are afraid
to be seen with me, you can go alone, and so
will I!"
" Come, my dear," said Nell, while a flush of
anger tinged her cheeks for a moment, that Will
should attribute to them such motives for the suggestion, "you are doing the unfair thing by us when you
suspect that we will be ashamed of you. Every one
of us is glad to stand by you whatever you may do,
and you know it."
" Forgive me, darling! " said Will; and she laid
her hot cheek against Nell's, whose neatly-brushed
hair formed a striking contrast to the shorn head
where the white scalp shone through with almost
ghastly clearness. Mr. Lewis declared that he would
go and horsewhip the barber; but, as that could not
restore the brown, wavy locks nor bring peace to the
troubled mind, it was given up.




172


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


Charlie came down in the evening, but Will would
not see him.
All night she dreamed about beautiful heads with
long, curling hair, but when she put out her hand to
touch them they vanished, and she awoke with her
hand on her own bristling head. As often as she fell
asleep there was a repetition of this dream, until finally, when it first began to grow light, she arose, determined to bury herself in her lessons, and forget if
possible. She succeeded so well, as she sat poring
over her Sophocles, that finally she said: " There, I
can scan that choral ode perfectly; and now I'm going
to comb my hair! " and she actually went to the bureau to get her switches, when a glance in the mirror
brought it all back. The cunningest feminine art
could not fasten a switch on now. The knowledge
that she had no hair to comb as she had yesterday
morning-the fact that one of the simplest acts of
every-day life was now beyond her power to perform
-brought a feeling of desperation entirely aside from
the other disagreeable features of it. She had aimed
at freedom; but she now felt that it had its disadvantages.
The girls made no allusion to it in any way, but
quietly waited to see what she would do. As nine
o'clock approached, Will put on her cloak, and finally




HEAVY AND LIGHT SHADING.


173


tried her hat; it fell down over her eyes, and looked
very strange. She flung it aside, and wrapped her
head in her scarf. When they entered the waitingroom, the freshman girls were already there, and the
rest of the girls in her own class.
" Now, girls," she said, standing before them,
" when I unwrap my head I don't want you to say a
word in my hearing. There has been a mistake, and
talking won't help it."
This was said in a stoical tone, but, when she saw
the looks of sympathy and real friendship as they
crowded around hler, her stoicism failed; and tears
sprang to her eyes as a little freshman threw her arms
around Will's neck and said:
" I love you anyway; and your head is handsome
without any hair! "
They all smiled at this, as did Will herself. But
the hardest trial was yet to come, for she had all the
boys to face. When the bell struck they went in, and
as Will passed down the aisle there was an instant of
terrible silence; then a murmur and buzzing, as one
and another looked at his neighbor and asked:
"What under heavens has she done that for? "
"By Jupiter! wouldn't epaulets become that
crop? "
" Let's call her Captain Elliott!"




174


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


" Gee-rusalem! she heads us off at the barber's as
well as in class."
" Well, I'd like to wring that barber's neck!" said
one or two, who had heard of it from Charlie.
The professor gave just one glance, and went on
without further notice.
As she sat down, a tiny note came to her, passed
from seat to seat, saying,
" Never mind, Will; it's a step inll the right direction-only a trifle too short!        CHARLIE."
In a few weeks Will's hair had grown out, and
fell in graceful waves over her head, so that the girls
said:
" She does look a great deal better with her hair
short, for all we made such a hue and cry when she
talked of having it done."
Will kept up her gymnastics faithfully (for she
had improvised a sort of gymnasium), and frequently
declared that she would have been in her grave had it
not been for the parallel bars and rings. But that was
not her only exercise. One day in the early spring,
still in the sophomore year, Mr. Lewis came home
leading a large, beautiful bay horse, and the girls
rushed down to look at him.




HEAVY AND LIGHT SIIADING.


175


" What is his name? " they asked.
" I'll let you name him. I've just bought him, for
his style pleases me."
" Yes, he is magnificent," said WTill. " Let's call
him Lord Chesterfield; for he is so proud, and carries
himself so grandly. We can call him Chester for
short."
They all thought it was a good name.
" And you will let me ride him? " said Will, in
her most coaxing tone.
" You ride him! " echoed Mr. Lewis, looking at
her in astonishment. " Why, he'd never let you get
on him. The man of whom I bought him told me
particularly that he did not like women around him."
Will turned red with vexation at the reply, but
stepped up to pat Chester's neck without making any
answer. HIe gave an impatient toss of his head, and
his eyes looked fiery, seeming to prove the truth of
Mr. Lewis's statement of his disposition toward women. She withdrew her hand, saying, "You foolish
f llow! I won't hurt you."  But there was a determined look on her face which said plainly, "I'll tame
you yet, see if I don't!" and her eyes sparkled with
the anticipation, while she pretended to be reconciled
to the fact that she could not ride Chester.
Next morning she was up at the usual time; but,




176


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


instead of going into her gymnasium, she went to the
stable to try and make acquaintance with the new
horse.
As she approached the manger he started back
with a snort, as if he would break the halter. She
spoke soothingly to him, and offered him a wisp of
hay, of which he took no notice; but, after a time, he
stopped tugging at the halter, and even let her stroke
his nose, while she talked to him all the time, calling
him pet names. She went cautiously around him
and stood by his neck. IIe did not mind it much,
and she left the stable well pleased with her success.
She felt just a little guilty when Mr. Lewis, at the
breakfast-table, said, with fatherly solicitude:
" Girls, if you ever go into the stable when Chester is there, be sure and don't go round his stall, for
he is not to be trusted."
Mr. Lewis sometimes turned him out in the field,
and there Will tried her hand at catching him. It
was a different thing from petting him irrthe stable,
for now it depended entirely upon his royal pleasure
whether he would allow her to come near or not. She
walked slowly up to him, and he watched her curiously until she came within a few feet, when he
threw up his heels and bounded off in the most tantalizing equine style. But he did not seem quite sat



HEAVY AND LIGHT SHADING.


177


isfied with himself, for pretty soon he came trotting
up again, and walked round and round her as if attracted by some unseen power, and yet not daring to
come closer.
When she tried to approach, he would toss his
head coquettishly and go away a few steps, yet never
far. Soon the circles he made around her grew smaller and smaller, until he was within reach of her hand.
"Come," she said, "we've had enough of this;
why can't we be friends? "
lie seemed to understand the spirit of her remarks,
for he allowed her to put her arms around his neck
and lay her head against his glossy mane. A pretty
picture they made as they stood in the early morning
sunshine-the grand horse, with his tremendous muscles, submitting to the caresses of the slight girl! She
finally tried fastening the saddle upon him, and waved
a skirt round his heels to see how he would take it.
She fixed the next Saturday for her ride, and so
adroitly had she managed her visits to the meadow
and stable that no one knew of her friendship with
the horse. Saturday came at last. Her habit was of
dark-blue cloth, with close-fitting basque, that set off
her figure to good advantage. Her cap was of black
velvet, which fitted close to her short curls, giving her
quite a dashing air. After Mr. Lewis had gone down




178


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


for the noon mail she hurried on her habit and ran to
the stable. Her fingers trembled with eagerness as
she fastened the girth and adjusted the bridle. For a
moment, and for the first time, a feeling of dread
came over her. Was she doing right? What if she
were thrown and killed? But when Chester laid his
head lovingly against her arm her courage returned,
and she said:
"Forgive me, old boy, I'll never wrong you by
doubting you again."
She opened the door' and led him to the fence,
from which, with a bound, she was in the saddle.
The grand animal trembled with eagerness for the
race, but waited for her word. She gave it, and he
sprang forward. As they dashed by the open window
she shouted, " Good-by, girls! " and touched her velvet cap.
" If there isn't Will on Chester!" cried Laura.
" Oh, it can't be! " said Clara, starting up with a
frightened look; but there was no mistaking the merry laugh that floated back on the breeze. "She will
certainly be thrown and killed!"
"I have an idea that Will knows what she is
about," said Nell, " or she would not have tried it."
The pair created quite a sensation as they dashed
through the streets, Chester performing all sorts of




HEAVY AND LIGHT SHADING.


179


pretty, graceful curvetings, and looked as if he intended to throw his rider over his head; but she
knew that he had no such intention.
Mr. Lewis heard, while on the street, that a young
lady was riding his new horse, but he thought it must
be a mistake. However, he came home sooner than
usual, and immediately went to the stable, where of
course he found an empty stall, with saddle and bridle
gone.
IHe came into the house in great excitement, exclaiming, " Where is Chester? "  The girls told him
all they knew. At first he was very angry. "Just
like the harum-scarum girl, to go and get her neck
broken! " and he paced the floor a moment or two,
then went down-stairs, and out on the street, where
he gazed up and down in hopes of seeing her; but, at
the moment, she was trying Chester's speed more than
three miles from the city limits.
A little before tea-time she came cantering up,
her face aglow with pleasure and triumph. They all
came down to meet her, when they heard hoofs on
the gravel-walk, Mr. Lewis being too much relieved
~at her safe appearance to be very angry, but he wore
a very stern look, until Will came and threw her arms
round his neck, saying:
"Papa Lewis" (the girls called him  papa), "I




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AN AMERICAN GIRL.


knew that you had given Chester too bad a name
when you said that he did not like girls."
Ile kissed her flushed face, and only said, when
he saw the horse follow her to the stable like a kitten:
"I never saw the like!
It was about this time that the university received
a visit from the State Legislature en masse. They
came unannounced, for the purpose of making investigations which it was perfectly proper for them to
do. In the first place, they wish to see if there were
any sectarianism taught in the institution; then they
wished to learn for themselves how the girls were
doing; and, besides, they had some business pertaining
to the financial department. The first object, however, was the most important. Since the revival it
had been rumored that several of the professors had
been trying to inculcate their own religious views
with their teaching, and that the State would not
permit.  Not that the State in which Ortonville
was situated was a godless one, nor were the legislators godless, but they all felt that the surest way to
prevent any one denomination from getting the upper
hand was to establish and maintain the university on
purely non-sectarian principles. They all filed into
chapel that morning just as the singing began, and




HEAVY AND LIGHT SHADING.


181


a very imposing assembly they made. Like State
Legislatures in general, they included men of every
stamp. There was the smooth, slippery, many-sided
politician, side by side with the hard-handed rustic
who had becb taken from the plough and sent to represent his district because of his well-known integrity.
The hymn was" Stand up for Jesus! " and, as no
mention was made of any particular church in which
it was best to stand up for him, they could scarcely
find an objection. The prayer was wide and universal enough to suit the most liberal. It was asked
around, from seat to seat, " Would they visit the recitations? "  Why, certainly they would; and perhaps
there was a little sinking of the heart here and there
as the vision of an unsolved problem or an untranslated passage came to a student's mind. After the
chapel exercises, the Legislature resolved itself into
squads of half a dozen each, to visit the different
rooms. Dr. Golding's room was suspected of being
the place, above all others, in which some particular
ism might be taught, so they went there, expecting
to confront it on the threshold.  But they found
the class quietly discussing the composition of mind,
the coordination and integration of correspondences,
the nature and growth of intelligence, instinct, and
memory.




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AN AMERICAN GIRL.


Another half - dozen went to the Greek-room,
where Will's class was reciting. Randolf sat in front
of Will, and, as the recitation went on, he saw that
the last passage in the advance was coming to him,
and this, by some accident, he had neglected to look
up. Hie leaned over to ask Russel, but Russel had
been sick and absent, and so was not prepared. Randolf's uncle was one of the visitors, which made him
dislike more than ever to fail. " Bother it," he muttered, "it is the very first time that I ever neglected
a passage, and to think it must come to me! I don't
want to flunk before my uncle, but I s'pose I must."
Will saw his perplexity, and, although they had
never spoken to each other, she ventured to tear the
margin from her book, upon which she wrote the
translation of the passage, and timidly touching his
arm she gave it to him. He took it, and was complimented for the fluency of his translation by the professor.
The girls did themselves credit, and the six legislators retired well pleased. After they were dismissed, Randolf came to Will and thanked her very
warmly, saying that she had saved him a great mortification; he explained that he had been interrupted
the evening before, and had not had time to finish
his lessons. On the way home he thought, " She is




ITEAVY AND LIGHT SHADING.


183


a kind-hearted girl, and has quite the girl's way of
blushing, after all, when a fellow speaks to her."
That evening Charlie said to Nell: "Do you
know, I think that if Randolf were only acquainted
with Will he would like her exceedingly; and can't
we manage in some way to have them meet each
other r"
Clarlie's engagement with Nell was a settled
thing, so that they had time for a little innocent attempt at match-making among their friends.
"Oh, yes, we call manage it easily, I guess; he
plays croquet, does lie not  The weather is getting
warm now, and Mr. Lewis says we can put up the
arches any time. There is nothing like a croquetground for getting acquainted. Let's ask him down
to-morrow evening."
So Charlie conveyed the invitation to Randolf
with all due ceremony. Oh, yes, Randolf said that
he played croquet, and was glad of an opportunity of
meeting the young ladies. Charlie rather wondered
that he did not say something uncomplimentary about
Will, for he did not know of the little incident in class
that morning. -
Perhaps Will took unusual pains to look well,
and possibly it never entered her head; but she did
manage to look very pretty that evening on the




184


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


play-ground.  She wore a white cambric trimmed
with light blue, and her slippers each had a little bow
of the same shade. One would never have supposed,
to look at her then, that she believed in woman-suffrage, or had decided to study medicine. Yet the
tout ensemble was odd. There was an inexplicable
something that made her different from the others.
Perhaps it was the superior grace and symmetry of
her figure, which was never embarrassed by any tightfitting garment; it might have been in the pose of
her head, from which she now and then raised her
hat to run her fingers through her curls, a trick that
she had acquired in defiance of the remonstrances of
the girls, and one which displayed her unusually fine
form with a remarkable effect of which she was entirely unconscious.
All the sweetness and brightness of a June day
was around and above them as they came gayly to the
croquet-ground. The old locust in the corner of the
lawn was gay with its blossoms, and roses of many
hues were blooming luxuriantly, while robin - redbreasts hopped saucily upon the grass with a familiar
air, as if they felt perfectly at home.
"Will is our champion here, Mr. Randolf," said
Nell, as they took up their mallets; " I hope you will
bring down her pride by beating her, for all last sea



HEAVY AND LIGHT SHADING.


185


son she never lost a game, and her contempt for the
rest of us grew quite noticeable: long continuance in
power is sure to make one impudent, you know," she
continued, laughing. At heart she was proud of
Will as she remembered her masterly strokes.
"Don't believe it, Mr. Randolf, for I'm not at all
formidable; occasionally I make a good shot, but it
is more accident than skill."
"I used to play a good deal with my sisters, and
they called me a fair player; but what you say of Miss
Elliott makes me very timid about entering the lists,"
said Randolf.
It was decided that Will and Charlie should play
against Nell and Randolf.
"Well, Charlie, you and Mr. Randolf pink to see
who goes first."
" Pink-how's that?"
"Oh, you both take balls and place them about
the same distance from the stake on opposite sides,
then the one that strikes nearest the stake has the
choice of going first or last; otherwise we can't decide
readily."
" Oh, Mr. Randolf's stopped nearer than Charlie's."
" Well, I suppose there is some advantage in going
last, which of course we must take-so, Burton, lead
off," said Randolf.




186


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


Charlie was a fair player, but did not get farther than the centre wicket, where he stopped in position. Next came Nell; she was a nervous player,
sometimes making brilliant strokes and sometimes
very poor ones. She took Charlie's ball out of position and came to within one arch of the turningstake, but struck the side of the wicket without going through. Will came next. She shot through the
first two arches, then made for Nell's ball.
" Croquet, like war, makes monsters of us, for it
obliges us often to abuse those we love best," she
said, as she sent Nell's ball flying away out of bounds:
then she took Charlie's and played upon it until she
went clear round, and became a rover, after which she
sent him into position and stopped near him. "I
think that is the very first time in my life that I ever
went clear round at one stroke," she said, apologetically.
"Croquet is like marriage," said Charlie-" you
take your partners for better or worse; and yours,
Will, is for the worse, for you see, if you hadn't me
on your hands, you'd have gone out on that stroke:
so much for working double with a poorer half."
" Oh, how very modest we are!" said Will, mockingly.
PRandolf's play was almost equally brilliant, for he




HEAVY AND LIGHT SHADING.


187


scattered the enemy's balls, put his partner in position,
and was confident of making the last two arches at
one stroke, but only went through one, then away
out of position for the other, so he had to come back.
Randolf had sent Will so far that he thought it impossible for her to hit any of the balls at one stroke, but
she took a rapid aim at him as she said, "I feel it in
my bones that I am going to hit, and that never fails."
"By Zeus!" said Randolf, involuntarily, as the
ball sped across the ground and struck his with a
sharp, decided ring.
" You see, my only hope is to keep you from being
a rover, Mr. Randolf."
As she stood with the toe of her slipper on her
ball ready to croquet Randolf away out of bounds,
Charlie stepped up close to her and said, with a mischievous smile:
" What monsters croquet does make of us, to be
sure, causing us to abuse those we love best!"
" You impudent boy! you almost made me miss
that, and I did not send it half as far as I intended;"
and she snatched a rose from the trellis and threw it
with such good aim that it struck Charlie on the tip
of the nose, which was a remarkably large one.
" Oh, I surrender, if you take to missiles!" he
cried, " and most humbly beg your majesty's pardon."




188


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


" You may prove your sorrow by holding an umbrella over me until the sun goes behind the house,
for I'm getting burned."
Randolf liked to see that she cared about her
complexion, and, when it was Charlie's turn to strike,
he gallantly offered to hold the umbrella, which ofler
she gracefully accepted. The game lasted more than an
hour, and Will and Charlie came out ahead. It was
too late to play another, so they stopped, with the
understanding that they were to have another very
soon. When Charlie and Nell were alone, he said:
" Who ever would have supposed that there was
so much artfulness in Will Elliott? Why, she acted
the perfect coquette there this evening, with her
smiles and blushes, and I know Randolf is smashed.
Did you notice how he took every opportunity to chat
with her under that umbrella? Ille hcabet, as Terence
says, and I'd have it myself if I did not know somebody better," and he kissed Nell's hand."
" Oh, it can't be called artfulness; it is a feminine
virtue, and Will has all the feminine virtues, besides
many of her own manufacture. You see, her pride has
been wounded for a long time because Randolf seemed
to ignore her, while he was pleasant to the rest of us
girls, and it is human nature to want to conquer an
enemy and bring him to your feet."




IEAVY AND LIGHT SHADING.


189


The Legislature, after visiting a few days, went
away highly pleased; and, when that body convened
in the State Capitol, many eloquent things were said
about the university being the pride of the State;
toasts were drunk at many dinners to its long life
and'success, and liberal grants of money were made
for additional buildings. During their visit they had
had a private interview with the president concerning the girls, the result of which was not definitely
known, but it must have been, on the whole, favorable. Very probably the president said that, as scholarship went, they were a decided success; but as to
the mooted question of health, as far as he could yet
tell, too much had been made of it. Not long after,
the president overtook Will on the street, and, after
greeting her in his usual pleasant manner, he said:
" Miss Elliott, I've been using you as a sort of
trump-card, for, when the legislators asked concerning
the health of the young ladies, I pointed to you, and
asked them if they wanted a better answer than that;
and now you must not fail me, for I'm relying on you."
"I wish I felt as sure of everything as I do of
my health," said Will, as she came to her own gate.
" And I wish all the young ladies took as much
pride in their health as you seem to," he replied, as
he tipped his hat and passed on.




CHAPTER IX.


A POSSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.
' The sense of the world is short,
Loud and various the reportTo love and be beloved:
Men and gods have not outlearned it,
And how oft soe'er they've turned it,
'Tis not to be improved."-EMERSON.
A YEAR has passed since the events of the last
chapter. It is again June, and the roses bloom on
the trellis in Mr. Lewis's yard, and the croquet set is
again on the front lawn, whence it had been taken
during the long winter. In the house things looked
about the same as we left them a year ago.
The pictures of " Pharaoh's Iorses " and " Youth
starting on the Voyage of Life " still hang on opposite sides of Will's and Clara's room, and the four
girls are there busy with their studies, as when we
saw them last. It has been a year of hard work.
They have wrestled with the conic sections; they have




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.


191


begun to enjoy the masters of classic literature, besides having had a little French and German. Two
ladies have graduated from the law department, of
whom one was admitted to the bar in a Western
State, while the other went into an office with her
father, both having passed their final examinations
with honor. Several ladies have also taken diplomas
from  the medical department.  Among the number was Miss Lane, the object of Will's rapturous
admiration, who went as a missionary to India, but,
her health failing, she returned, and died not long
after.
Others went immediately into practice, and today are respected physicians, having fought their way
through all sorts of bigoted opposition from men, but
more particularly from women themselves, who, above
all others, one might suppose, would hail the advent of
women physicians with unbounded delight. The first
ladies who entered the medical school of the University of Ortonville had harder battles to fight than
those of either of the other departments. The character of their work, which had hitherto been considered as preeminently man's work, made their position peculiarly trying. People were slow to believe
that a woman could be truly womanly and work in
the dissecting-room, attend clinics, and hear lectures




192


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


on all sorts of dreadful subjects. It was once darkly
rumored, too, that a woman of actually bad character
had smuggled herself into the department, but had
been promptly expelled by the officials.  That, of
course, was charged as a direct consequence of the
admission of women; for, if they had not been admitted, she never would have come.
Think of it! One solitary, misguided woman had
actually strayed into the medical department of the
University of Ortonville, where yearly, without censure, are harbored dozens of male profligates, who
are turned out at the end of the course to poison public morals. Iow much those will have to answer
for who made such a condition of things possible by
the admission of women!
The girls in the literary department had steadily
maintained their reputation for scholarship.  They
had joined the literary societies, but the secret fraternities were something to which they could never
hope to attain. The mysteries of the Psi U's, the
A K E's, the Alpha Deltas and Sigma Phis, must
remain to them forever sealed. But, notwithstanding
this inherent disability, they manage to have pleasant
times, and are even quite happy over their work and
prospects for the future. Just now Will is sitting by
the open window, with a German reader in her hand




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.


193


and lexicon in her lap. Soon she breaks out impatiently:
" This ' Diver' of Schiller's is a bothersome thing
to translate smoothly; it is easy enough. to see
what he means, but when you want English to express it, the words are hard to find."
Let us take her face in a monent of repose, and
see if it has changed. There is the same fine profile, the dark eyebrows and lashes, and the same
bright smile, as she turns to answer some pleasantry
of the girls. Perhaps the expression is a trifle more
thoughtful than that of a year ago, and maybe even
sad for a moment, as she gazes out of the window.
She is not thinking of the landscape without, but
of the future, and how in one more year her class
will be making preparation for their entrance into
the world from the sheltering arms of their alma
mater, as the seniors now are doing. She used often
in those last days to say: " I don't see how I lived,
girls, before I knew you; and how I'm going to give
you up and sally out into the world alone, is more
than I can tell." She turns from the window now,
and, laying her books on the table, says: "I've finished the 'Diver,' but that ' Chamountfal 'of Goethe's
is too much for me to-night. I have not done anything improper for a long time, girls; I'm afraid
9




194


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


I'll forget how; I am actually spoiling for a scrape.
Come, my old blessing, can't you help me?." and,
throwing herself full-length upon the sofa, she put
her head in Nell's lap.
" I guess you will not have to call in help to get
up some mischief," said Nell, as she played with Will's
hair. " I should think that you were in a sad decline
if you needed help for that."
"I have it," said Will, as she came quickly to a
sitting posture.  "The man who works in the museum told me, the other day, that if I would bring
him some birds he would stuff and mount them for
me; and I'll write a note to Randolf requesting the
pleasure of his company on a shooting-excursion next
Saturday. It's leap-year, and what's the good of having it, if we don't use it?."
"Aren't you    afraid of shocking his delicate
nerves? " asked Clara.
" Precisely what I want to do, for it must come
sooner or later-as I am destined to give each of my
friends a shock some time or other, it seems, and the
sooner it is over the better. I think I'll write in
French; that is the language of diplomacy, isn't it?
It will be good practice; besides, such an invitation
will not sound so bold in French as in English. Come,
help me with it. Let me see-how shall it begin?




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.


195


" MONSIEUR RANDOLF: Est-ce que j'aurai le tresgrand plaisir de vous accompagner Samedi prochain
d'aller faire tour a la campagne pour tuer des oiseaux?
La votre,
" WILIIELMLNE ELLIOTT."
Randolf was not shocked-w hich showed the
ground they had gained in acquaintanceship.  IIe
was amused and pleased; in fact, he was pleased with
almost everything, lately, that Will did. They had
seen a great deal of each other in the last year;
they had studied, walked, and rowed together, and
rumor had been busy coupling their names for some
weeks. Randolf liked her; yes, he more than liked
her, yet he could not say that he was in love. IIe
was in that uncertain state in which some sudden
crisis was necessary to show him where he stood.
The young man has changed more than Will in
the years that have passed. Ihis face has lost the
sarcastic expression, and he is handsomer and more
manly-looking.  But he is still impetuous and boyish, which is not an unpardonable sin in a youth of
twenty-one. He criticises Will a good deal mentally,
but in a very different spirit from that of a year ago.
If he had put his thoughts into words, he would
have said that lie liked Will best when she was the




196


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


most womanly; and he meant, by that, in her quieter
moods, when she was gentle and confiding, when she
clung to his arm as they passed some rough-looking
character on the street at night, and lie would silently wish, in a general way, that she felt the need of
protection oftener. In her gay, brilliant moods she
dazzled him, but he did not like her then so well.
Yet, with all her faults, he preferred her to the others.
IIe was as much a skeptic on matters of religion as
she, yet he often half wished that Will were a Christian, for he had an idea that a woman needed that to
soften her. IIe answered Will's note in French that
compared very well with hers, saying that he would
be most happy to accompany her.   They were to
start promptly at eight o'clock, for they had a long
ramble before them.  Randolf was there on time
with his gun and game-bag, looking quite sportsmanlike. Will, dressed in a suit of dark-green plaid,
fashioned something like the page's costume of Robin
Hood's Maid Marion, seemed half boyish; yet, from
her arching foot to her hunter's cap with its floating
feather, there was only bewitching girlishness and
grace.
" We would ask the rest of you to go, but we know
you could not stand the walk and would faint by the
way," said Will, as they stood on the veranda ready




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.


197


to start. "We will not find any scarlet tanagers
this side of Barker's Woods, and that is four or five
miles at least."
"Oh, you're welcome to your tramp!" said Nell.
Slie was glad that Will could walk and shoot, although
she had no ambition for herself in that direction.
"Let me carry your gun until we get out of town,"
said Randolf.
"Well, I had intended to carry it myself," said
Will, teasingly, for she knew he would not like it;
"but, after all, I guess you had better take it. I don't
want to wound Mrs. Grundy needlessly, for the old
lady has been quite considerate toward me of late."
With a basket of lunch that Mrs. Lewis had put
up for them, they strolled out into the bright June
sunshine, forming a part of the joyous young life that
throbbed on every side. There was one peculiarity
in Randolf's treatment of Will, and that was, he never
objected to anything she did in the way of overstepping the bounds of conventionality when they were
alone. IIe would say:
"I don't care what you say or do when you are
with me, for I understand you."
" You are not the only one that understands me.
Charlie Burton was my first friend among the boys,
and I think he knows me better than any one of




198


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


them." She was a little vexed at Randolf's masculine
self-assertion and conceit, in thinking that he understood her better than any one else. "Do you remember how you used to treat me and talk of me
in our freshman year? "
" I don't think it is quite kind of you to bring
that up."
" Well, I did not mean any harm, only I wanted
to show you how long it took you to do me justice.
But don't let's quarrel. Will you hold my gun, please,
while I vault that fence? " and she darted on ahead
of him, and was over with one bound, leaving him to
follow.
" Where did you learn that vault? " he asked, in
surprise at the feat.
c" Oh, my brothers taught it to me long ago, and I
see I have not forgotten it."
They had by this time walked far from the sight
and sound of the town, and had struck across the
green fields into the woods.
" I've heard so much about your skill in shooting,
now let's see if you can hit that squirrel yonder on
the white oak," said Randolf.
" Oh, we've started out for birds, and I don't want
to kill anything that we have no use for; it's hard
enough to kill them for scientific purposes."




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.


199


" Yes, but I want to see if you can hit the squirrel," he persisted.
It was a little red squirrel, that had run up an oak
and now sat peering over one of the topmost branches, with nothing but his head visible.
"I can hit him, if the gun is good for anythingand his blood be upon your head," she said, as she
took aim and fired.
The squirrel fell from branch to branch until lie
reached the ground.
"Splendid shot! " exclaimed Rlandolf, in genuine
admiration.
"I never feel a bit of satisfaction in anything killed
without a purpose," said Will, "although I confess
that slight excuses have sometimes satisfied my conscience."
" There is the bird we are looking for! " cried Will,
as a little scarlet tanager flitted across the arching
branches above their heads. " Iow pretty it looks,
darting among the green leaves!-and there is his
mate; let them die together. You take one, and I'll
take the other."
The reports were simultaneous, and two little lifeless bodies fluttered to the ground at their feet.
" Oh, your shot are too large! " said Will. "You
lhave completely riddled yours, and broken its legs




200


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


and wings. I had fine shot, and look, you can't
see where it was hit. I don't believe yours can be
mounted, but we'll take it for the sake of its mate."
And the birds were rolled carefully in paper, and put
in the game-bag.
By this time the sun was overhead, and, as it was
very warm, they decided to rest and have their lunch.
They found a spot where a cool stream meandered
through the heart of the forest, and fallen trunks covered with moss offered inviting seats.
"I wonder what Mrs. Lewis has given us," said
Will, as she began to unpack the well-filled basket.
"' Well, if she hasn't put in coffee, and sugar, and a
little bottle of cream! She seems to understand picnicking. Do you like coffee, Mr. Randolf?"
"Yes, immensely; but can you make it?" he
asked, doubtfully.
" Why, of course I can. Do you suppose my precious mother would let me grow up without knowing
how to make coffee, and bread, and such things? But
you don't deserve any for doubting my ability to
make it. However, it was a sin of ignorance, and
I'll forgive you if you'll bring me a pail of water."
"I'm your most obedient servant," he said, making a low bow, as he took the little tin pail and
started for the brook.




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.


201


A fire was soon crackling on a flat stone, and
when there were coals enough she put the coffee to
boil in the pail while she went to spread the table.
Randolf threw himself upon the grass, and pretended
to be much absorbed in his memorandum-book, while
in reality he was watching Will as she flitted to and
fro from the fire to the mossy log where the table
was to be. Now and then she lifted the cover to see
how the coffee was doing, then gathered wild-grape
leaves from a vine that hung low from the branches
of a tree, and upon these she placed the sandwiches
and other articles with which the basket was filled.
Randolf, like most men, was easily brought to a
tranquil state of mind by the immediate expectation
of something good to cat; and as the fragrance of the
coffee was wafted to his nostrils, he fell into a dreamy
reverie, in which he pictured himself in a home of
his own, and some one moving to and fro preparing
things expressly for him because he liked them; some
woman with light hair, long-yes, it must be long
hair, he guessed, and yet short, curly hair was prettymaybe it would be short, after all; then a soft, white
hand would bathe his head when he was tired; and
he glanced up at Will, half expecting that she would
read his thoughts. But she was busy ornamenting
the table with green boughs, and displaying a great




202


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


deal of artistic taste in the arrangements, as far as
the appliances within reach would allow.
With a burst of boyish enthusiasm Randolf said:
"Let's pretend that we are Adam and Eve, and
I'm resting after my work in the vineyard."
" Yes, I dare say it was one of Adam's principal
employments, resting around to see what Eve was
getting for dinner. The Lord used to come down and
call on them in the evenings, too; but I don't feel
ready to receive such distinguished company." It was
just such speeches that Randolf could not bear to
hear her make.   " There is one thing," continued
Will, " in which Eve had an advantage over us, and
that was, she had no abominable skirts to bother her,"
and she gave hers an impatient twitch, which, short
as it was, had caught upon a fallen limb. " I'll never
be happy in skirts," she went on, her face flushing
with anger as she saw that the braid was torn from
the bottom and dragged along in an unsightly string
behind.
Randolf's luxurious dream was broken, and he sat
upright with cloudy brow.
"I do wish you would not scold so much about
woman's dress. I never am withl you an hour that
you do not say something against long dresses and
hating woman's way of doing things. What under




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.


203


heaven would you do-wear pants? What will you
be happy in 2 Other girls are not always complaining as you are, and I do wish you would give it up!"
IIe wanted to add, "for my sake!" but did not quite
dare to; for why should she stop it for his sake 2
"Oh, yes; you like to see a woman like Mrs.
Guild, with trains a yard long wiping up the dust.
Well, I hope your wife will be all your fancy paints
in the way of long skirts, Mr. Randolf. But come,"
she said, suddenly realizing that she had allowed her
temper to get the better of her, " our coffee will get
cold. Don't let's say any more about it, for it doesn't
make me feel a bit different on the dress-question,
and only spoils my temper, which is none of the best."
The coffee was pronounced delicious, and Randolf's spirits returned as he took cups of the steaming
beverage from her hand, and heard her talk with a wise
air about making bread and biscuits. Ite forgot the
unpleasant affair of the dress, and thought how charming she was. The sunlight played through the branches
over her hair, which seemed prettier than any chignon
or waterfall that he had ever seen.
" We have not brought anything to read while we
are resting after dinner," observed Will.
" Can't you recite something? " asked Randolf.
"Let me see: I've just been learning Tenny



204


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


son's 'Voyage,' in odd moments, and I like it very
much."
Randolf was not familiar with it, and, of course,
would like to hear it; so she repeated that charming
little poem with great spirit, and evidently to the satisfaction of her auditor, who applauded her at the
end. There was a silence of a few minutes, when Randolf said:
" That's the whole of life in a nutshell, isn't it? "
" Yes," said Will; " what vision are you chasing
-what are you going to do for a life-work? "
" Oh, I'm going to be a lawyer; I decided that
long ago. What are you going to do  In this era of
woman's rights you can enter one of the professions
with perfect propriety, I suppose," he said, with a
slight air of raillery.
"I don't know what I shall do, I'm sure," said
Will, looking fixedly on the ground.
Why did she not speak of 'er intention to study
medicine? Was it because she knew that he would
not approve it-because it would shock his sense of
propriety, so that he would like her less? She was
hardly willing to make this admission. At all events,
she did not speak of it. They were so busy with their
talk, they did not notice that the sun no longer shone
through the tree-tops and made shadows with the




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.  205


leaves, nor did they see the great black clouds rolling
up in the west, until a rumble of thunder made them
sensible of an approaching storm.
" I think I know a shorter way home than the one
we came," said Randolf, as he hastily caught up the
basket and guns, while Will followed close after him,
and they hurried through the wood. They walked in
silence some distance, when Randolf stopped suddenly and looked around with a bewildered air, as he
said: " I don't remember this hazel copse at all. I'm
afraid we are not on the right track; but if you will
wait here a little while, I'll see if there isn't a house
somewhere.   I don't like to take you around on
an uncertainty."  The thunder had, all this time,
grown louder and nearer, and lightnings began to play
through the sombre shadows of the forest that they
had just left, giving the trees a strange, unearthly
aspect.
Will did not like to stay alone, for, although she
was naturally brave, she had the instinctive dread of
solitude that braver natures than hers have felt at an
approaching storm. She wanted to follow Randolf,
but was afraid he would laugh at her for being so
timid. She congratulated herself that they had gotten out from under the large trees of the forest, but
she did not notice the tall poplar that stood near the




206


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


spot where Randolf left her. The storm now burst
in all its fury. There was a blinding flash, and the
poplar was shivered from top to bottom, but Will did
not see nor hear it, for she lay very pale and still
upon the ground. Randolf had gone to the edge of
the thicket, where he saw a log-house set in a little
clearing-the same one at which he had stopped a
year or two before when he was hunting with some
of the boys; but, approaching it from another side,
he had not recognized the locality till now. IIe
started back for Will as fast as the thick bushes
would allow. lie shouted, but there was no answer
save the dismal creaking and groaning of the treetops swayed by the wind. A vague terror seized
him as he reflected that the lightning had struck
somewhere very near. IIe parted the bushes with
desperate haste, and his breath was almost suspended
with apprehension lest something dreadful had happened to her.
"Ah, there she is! But, my God, she's dead! "
he gasped, springing forward.
Had the circumstances been different, he might
have paused to admire the artistic beauty of her position; but it came back to him, long after, with great
vividness. It was the easy attitude of one having
thrown herself down to rest. The right arm, from




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.


207


which the sleeve had become unfastened at the wrist
and had fallen open to the shoulder, was thrown over
the head, the tips of the white fingers just touching
the damp curls. The left still grasped a little bunch
of forget-me-nots that he had given her on the walk.
One foot was drawn under her, while the buttoned
boot of the other was just visible through the leaves
of wild-columbine among which she had fallen. Her
wet garments clung to her in folds like marble drapery, as they shrank to the still form. The face was
very white, and the long, dark lashes looked darker
still as they lay upon the bloodless cheek.
Randolf had never been able to say, up to that
moment, that he loved Will Elliott; now he did not
say it, but felt it. I-e snatched her from the ground
as if her weight were nothing-for he was a powerful
fellow, and now his feelings helped to make one hundred and twenty pounds imperceptibly light. He
strode over the brush like a giant with his burden, for
he had a gleam of hope that she might yet be restored with proper care.
The woman in the log-llouse was somewhat startled when she saw them enter the clearing, and called
to her daughter, a girl of twelve, " Mlirandy, I b'lieve
somebody's been struck when the poplar went, for
here comes a young man a-carryin' something;o" and




208


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


she hastened to undo the fastening of the door, which
had been closed when the storm began.
Randolf laid Will upon the clean but homely bed,
and begged the woman to do what she could. For
this she needed no urging, for she had already brought
some brandy, with which she began to rub her limbs.
"Young man, make me a fire in the kitchen-stove,
and get me some hot water," she said to Randolf, who
sprang eagerly to do her bidding; for action of any
kind was better than waiting in suspense.
The mother and daughter worked over Will with
intense energy.
"She's a-comin' to," said the woman.
A faint color began to steal over WVill's face.
Randolf, hearing the words, came and bent over her.
She opened her eyes with a dreamy expression, and the
color deepened into a blush when she recognized him.
IIe turned away, murmuring, "Thank God!"
and, following the woman into the kitchen, he poured
forth his thanks with boyish eloquence.
" Tut, tut, young man! She's your sister, likely? "
" No," he answered, simply.
Randolf then said that he would go home and
bring a carriage for Will in the evening. So, taking
one more glance at her, as if to reassure himself that
she really was alive, he started.




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.   209
Mrs. Curtiss-for such was the woman's nameafter performing several little needless offices of kindness, such as smoothing the pillow and tucking down
the spread, sat down with her knitting near the bed.
She was very curious to know about the strangers,
for their coming was quite an event in the monotonous life of the log-house. The bright young girl
with her odd hunting-suit, the tender devotion of the
young man who was not her brother, was material
enough for the imagination of as practical a woman
as Mrs. Curtiss.
Will lay very quietly looking about the room. A
wide fireplace was on one side, the outlet of whlich
was a clay chimney built on the outside of the house.
On a rude mantel was an old-fashioned clock, withl a
picture of a woman's head on the door with her hair
done up in the style of Martha Washington. Just
over the bed were some woodcuts of Grant, Colfax,
and other worthies, cut from the illustrated papers.
Slowly it all came back to her: how they hurried
to get shelter from the storm, and how she wished
Randolf would not leave her alone, but was ashamed
to say so; then the rest was all blank, until she awoke
in this queer room. Her eyes finally settled upon
Mrs. Curtiss and her knitting.
" I've put you to a great deal of trouble," she said.




210


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


" What was the matter? Did I fall? " And she passed
her hand over her forehead, as if trying to remember.
" No trouble at all," said the woman, glad to begin the conversation; for her curiosity was worked
up to such a pitch that she would soon have begun it
herself if Will had not opened the way. " You see,
you was too near the poplar when it was struck, and
you got sort o' stunned-like. Do you live far from
here? "
" In Ortonville. Iow far is it? "
"Five miles, my man calls it."
There was a pause, in which Mrs. Curtiss was revolving the best way of broaching her relations with
Randolf.
" The young man looks a heap like you-enough
to be your own brother."
" Does he? Ie is only my classmate in college."
Ah! here was new light.
"What! be you one o' them girls as has come to
the college in Ortonville, that they made such talk
about a year or two back?"
Will replied that she was, smiling at the woman's
new interest.
"La, now! I've been a-wantin' this long time to
get a sight o' them; for, from all I heerd tell, I
thought they must be queer-lookin' things. But I




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.


211


don't see that you look so powerful strange," she continued, looking Will over from head to foot. " The
huntin' is a little odd, but I don't see no harm
in it."
" I'm the only one of the girls that uses a gun,"
said Will, anxious to put the college-girls in the best
possible light. " I learned to shoot at home, with
my brothers."
" Where was you brought up? " asked Mrs. Curtiss, anxious now to know Will's antecedents.
"In C."
" Have you parents?"
"I have a mother, but my father was killed in the
army."
"Do tell! Is it so? What a pity! My brother
Enoch was killed, too! Heap o' sufferin' that war
made!"
There was another pause, after which Mrs. Curtiss
said, assuming a facetious air:
" You'll be a-fallin' in love witll some of them
young men in college, of course."
"That is not what I came for," said Will, laughing.
" Well, there's somebody thinks a heap o' you, I
can tell you. The way that young man hung over you
to-day, pretty nigh crazy when he thought you was




212


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


dead; then, when he found you wasn't, almost wrung
my hand off, he was so glad! "
" Oh, of course it would have been awkward for
him to have taken me home a corpse," she said, indifferently, while in her heart she wanted the woman to
go on and tell her more about Randolf. Had lie really
hung over her with more interest than he would have
shown for any girl thus thrown under his protection
And had he really carried her all the way to the house?
"It's my opinion you'll know it 'fore long how
much he thinks o' you. And you'd better take him,
too, for he's mighty handsome."
Will would not have borne it under ordinary circumstances to have her affairs thus probed, but now
she was only amused at the curiosity of the woman;
and, besides, these assurances of Randolf's love for
her were far from unpleasant, though coming from
the hostess of the log-house.
"Then you believe in women being married? "
said Will, not caring to drop the subject.
" La, yes! XWhat else would you have 'em do?
Now, my man ain't no great shakes, but he's a heap
better'n none. I hain't no kind o' patience with
women as wants to vote, and do everything men does.
I believe in the Scriptur', that women ought to stay
at home, and not go preachin' around in public."




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.


213


"You at least believe in women being doctors?."
said Will.
" Indeed I don't! It's man's work, and a woman
that'll do it is not modest."
Will did not care to enter into a discussion of the
point, so she only said:
" Do you think so?
She was able to sit up after a while, but her head
felt dizzy and strange. She grew impatient for Randolf's return, for it seemed so long since she had left
home in the morning; but when she reflected that
he had to walk there, she knew that he could not get
back with the carriage until evening, so she passed
the hours as best she could.
Mrs. Curtiss was quite won to her by the interest
she took in duck-raising, the price of eggs and potatoes, and the probabilities of the wheat-crop. Meanwhile, Randolf was making his way to the town.
The sun had come out after the storm, and again the
shadows played across his path, while sparkling drops
hung from every leaf and branch. As he passed the
place where Will had fallen, he saw a little black-velvet bow that she had worn at her throat lying on the
grass. He picked it up, and, pressing it to his lips,
thrust it in his bosom. If any one had told Guilford
Randolf, the year before, that he would ever go into




214


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


raptures over one of Will Elliott's ribbons for the
owner's sake, he would have considered nothing more
impossible.  Iow very different were his feelings
now compared with those of a few hours ago, when
he had come along that very path! Then the bright,
impulsive girl at his side, while she charmed, yet perplexed and annoyed him with her outbursts against
conventionalities and woman's way of dressing. Now
he thought of all those things, not exactly with approval, yet with a tender feeling in which there was
no reproach. IIe was happy in thinking of her just
as she was, with all her oddities of speech, dress, and
manner.
In this frame of mind he reached the town, and
told the girls at Mrs. Lewis's, who were thrown into
a great state of excitement at the narration, and could
scarcely wait until Will was with them again.
Randolf procured a carriage, and, well provided
with robes and wraps, returned for Will. The sun
was sinking behind the log-house when they bade
their kind-hearted hostess good-by, and Will was
handed into the carriage. She was yet very weak,
and it was a novel situation for her, leaning on some
one for support, and she said, smiling:
" What sort of an invalid would I make? Is it
becoming?"   They rode in silence for some time,




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.


215


when Will said: " I wonder how it would have been,
now, if I had been killed to-day "
"I should have nothing to live for, then," said
Iandolf, frankly.
She was a little startled by the reply, and she
knew from the tone that lie was in earnest; but, not
noticing it, she went on:
"Mlr. Lewis would have telegraphed to my mother before this time; our class would have a holiday,
and the president would say beautiful things about
me in chapel; then half a dozen of you boys would
be appointed to take me to my mother; then —"
" Oh! don't talk that way," he said, with a deprecating gesture; "it makes me desperate. I could
not live without you, Will."  It was the first time
he had ever called her that.  "I love you better
than anything else in the world;" and his handsome
face glowed with earnestness as he leaned toward
her.
She was looking at the landscape as it lay spread
out in the moonlight, with here and there a farmhouse, in which moving lights glimmered through
the trees. She answered, calmly:
"I wonder-if what you say can be true-I
wonder if it is possible to love one whom you have
once disliked, as you certainly have me?"




216


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


" Oh, why will you speak of that? " lie asked,
very much pained by the allusion; but she went on,
unheeding:
"I was here two years before you ever spoke to
me, and all that time I heard of unkind things that
you said about me. Now, is it possible for one to
change so utterly in so short a time? "
"It is possible," he said. "I was blind those
years; I did not know you. You are as different from
my first impression of you as day is from night. But
it is very cruel to doubt me, when I have repented in
sackcloth and ashes."
"Have I been cruel?" she asked, kindly. " I
am sorry, and will never be so again."
Randolf hardly knew whether his repentance had
been accepted or rejected, but the feeling that prompted him to say thus much was now beyond control, for
he felt that everything depended upon winning her,
and, yielding to the moment's impulse, he drew her
closer to him and kissed her lips.
The next evening, at twilight, Will lay on the
sofa in the parlor listening while Nell played Beethoven's " Moonlight Sonata." She was yet weak from
her experience of the day before, and she lay rather
pale and languid, very unlike herself. When Nell
was through, Will said:




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.


217


"Won't you stay with me to-night, instead of
going to church? I want you."
" Why, of course I will! for how could I refuse
anything to my precious girl who was so nearly taken
from us yesterday? " and, bending over, she tenderly
kissed her.
"I want to tell you something, Nell," said Will,
as she drew a bassock close to the sofa and sat down:
"Guilford Randolf is in love with me."
"Yes? I admire his taste; in fact, I've seen
it for some time.  Are you going to tell me all
about it? "
"Yes. IIe did not seem to care so much for me
until after the accident yesterday."
"Oh," said Nell, laughing, " Venus's son had to
bestride a thunderbolt before he could reach the
young man effectually. Well, are you in love with
him?
" Yes, I'm afraid I am, and that is what troubles
me. You know that I had made up my mind to
study medicine, and now here I am drawn off the
track like any other girl. Somehow I feel as if it
were very weak, but I can't help it. Like old Bishop
Somebody, I hereafter count nothing human foreign
to myself, so I shall do the very natural and proper
thing of forsaking a professional career for the one
10




218


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


I love, and give up dreams of fame as master of the
healing art."
"I suspected as much, and, on the whole, I'm glad
of it, for a professional life would be so lonely for
you, grand as it would be. But why can't you take a
course in that, while he is in the law department?
What did he say when you told him of your intention
to study medicine?"
" I-I-have not said anything to him about it,
for I know he can't bear anything of the kind."
" Well, I should broach the subject the next time
you have a chance, and find out what he thinks. Ile
has no right to be too exacting. I think it would be
splendid for you to study a profession; then, if you
are ever left a widow, you can support yourself."
The girls talked far into the evening about their
hopes for the future. Nell told how she and Charlie
were to be married at the end of the course; then they
were going to live in one of the Western States, where
Charlie had had a position offered him in a college as
soon as he was through.
Will determined to tell Randolf about the medicine at their next interview, and an opportunity came
in a short time. They were out rowing, one evening,
on the river; they had started with a party, but soon
found themselves alone in one of the little skiffs.




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.


219


They pulled up the river for a while, keeping near
enough to the other boats to join in college-songs,
whose meaningless words and rollicking measures,
mellowed by the water, floated softly across to either
shore. Will sat in the stern, with the tips of her
fingers in the water.  She had entirely recovered
from the accident in the wood, and now her laugh
rang out merrily as the boats hailed each other in
passing. After a while, becoming separated from the
others, Randolf rested his oars, and they floated down.
"I think I never told you, Guilford," said Will,
as she caught a water-lily in passing, "that I had
fully determined to study medicine before I knew
you."
"You had!" he exclaimed, and looked at her.
"Well, I'm glad to be your savior from such a fate."
"I was wondering," she went on, "if you would
not think it nice for me to go through the medical
department while you are in the law; we could be
together then, you know."
A strong expression of disgust came over his
handsome face, as he said:
"Do you suppose that I would ever have a wife
who had been familiar with all the disgusting details
of a dissecting-room? Bah! she would never get rid
of it."




220


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


Will felt a hot flush of indignation at this reply;
his arbitrary tone and utter want of sympathy with
her cherished plan hurt her deeply. landolf evidently had no perception of the sacrifice it might be to
her thus to submit to him a darling scheme, and the
bluntness of his reply shocked her extremely.
(" You have no right to talk to me in that way,"
she replied, "and I can't understand your continued
prejudice against professional women, when you see
such noble examples as Miss Lane and Mrs. IIartly.
After all the avowals of devotion you have made to
me, I don't see how you can treat with disrespect a
thing that once lay so near my heart, and which I
should have carried out had I not loved you well
enough to give it up."
The closing part of the speech pacified him.
"Forgive me! " he said; " I'm an old bear, to speak
to you so." Yet, while he thus rebuked himself for
having wounded her, the thought uppermost in his
mind had been that he would save her from a life of
hardship, and he wondered that she did not see this.
Her eloquent talk about the grandeur of a life spent
in healing the sick and smoothing the paths of the
dying made no impression upon him. It might do
for some women, but the one he cared for must never
hold a scalpel or know anything about diseases.




A POSSIBLE RESULT OF CO-EDUCATION.  221
Yet he was not more selfish, perhaps, than most
men, in being unable to see that the woman he chose
could wish to indulge any plans or wishes that might
conflict with him. Will did not feel quite happy, for
she was disappointed. Randolf had not met her confession with the frankness and generosity she had expected, and, notwithstanding his apology, she still felt
uncomfortable. But he talked very gayly as they
strolled up the bank, arm-in-arm, and during the remaining days of the term he was so devoted, that she
almost succeeded in forgetting this disturbance of her
feelings.




CI1APTER X.


ANOTHER PIIASE OF THE STORY.
"She is cunning past man's thought;
Would I had never seen her."-SHAKESPEARE.
"My eyes are open to her falsehood; my whole life
Has been a golden dream of love and friendship,
But now I wake."- lbid.
THREE years after Will had left home for the
first time she is again in the westward-bound train,
on her way to Ortonville. Familiar faces are now
seen at every station, for it is the day before college
opens, and the students are gathering in from all
directions.  Instead of a freshman, trembling with
dread of examinations, she is now a senior, returning
to college after her junior vacation spent at home. It
is not as a stranger that she is now whirled along the
streets, for all things, even the buildings, look like
old acquaintances, and the hackman knows where to
drive her without any directions. She knows, too,
that warm hearts are waiting for her on Clinton




ANOTHER PHASE OF THE STORY.


223


Avenue, for Clara and Nell were to have come yesterday.
Randolf and Will have kept up a lively correspondence during the vacation.  He had spent the
summer with his mother and sisters at Newport, and
his letters were full of amusing descriptions of the
people he had met; but Will was most pleased with
his last letter, in which he said: " All the women
I've met this summer are so tiresome compared with
you, and I long to be with you once more." Will
had spent a pleasant time at home. Mrs. Elliott had
slowly learned to respect her daughter's independence
of thought, and they had long, earnest talks in the
summer twilight, so that Will became happy as a
child in her mother's confidence. She told her mother
about Randolf, and read his letters to her, so that
the mother grew young and lived over again the
happy days of her own love, as she watched this devotion to an absent classmate, only known to her
through Will's descriptions. They found that they
had many points of common faith in their struggles
after the better life, and Will spoke of her doubts in
a frank, fearless way, that once could not have failed
to call forth the most bitter reproofs from the maternal lips. What had so changed Mrs. Elliott?  She
held the articles of her creed just as faithfully, and




224


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


prayed as earnestly for Will's conversion, but the
hardness that had so repelled her child in previous
years was gone. Hally's death had begun the change,
for almost the last words she said to her mother were,
"Promise me, mother darling, that you will be gentle
with Willie, when I'm gone, about believing things in
religion, for she means to do right;" and she had
promised, as she held one of the little dying hands.
The softening effect that advancing years have,
upon a nature in which there is real sweetness, had
made the keeping of the promise easy, and Will felt
that this last vacation spent at home was the happiest
time in her life.
The future looked very bright to her this beginning of her senior year. She had won a place of high
standing in her class; she had been restored to her
mother's trust and confidence; she was so well and
strong, that simple existence was joy and every breath
a pleasure. Then, over all these causes of happiness,
Randolf's love for her shed a rosy halo, that consciously or unconsciously heightened every other pleasure.
Their studies were to be elective this year, and
she and Randolf had decided to take nearly the same
things, that they might study them together. The
first semester she took Theoretical and Practical Astronomy, because he wanted her to; and he took Greek




ANOTHER PHASE OF THE STORY.


225


and German, because she wished to keep up those
studies.
The class of 'TO was once more visited by death,
and this time the victim was Arthur Dennison, a
young man greatly beloved by the faculty and his
classmates. It was a month after the opening of the
year that lie was taken with some kind of malignant
fever, and in one short week from the time his
manly voice was last heard in the class-room the
news came that he was dead. His home was in the
country, ten miles from Ortonville, and his classmates went out in carriages to pay the last offices of
love and respect to their departed brother. It was
in October, when the trees were gay with their autumn dress-when summer, even yet loath to take its
leave, looked back regretfully, and still poured its
wealth of golden sunshine upon the shorn meadows
and shocks of yellow corn.
Charlie and Nell drove out in a large double carriage with Will and RLandolf.  Arthur's home was
an old-fashioned country-seat, with a wide veranda
running across the front; over this flowering vines
had climbed, but now they were yellow and withered, and the leaves fell to the ground with every
breeze. There was the swing in the big apple-tree,
that Arthur had put up for the younger children in




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his last vacation. IIow they all looked forward to
Arthur's vacations! They were the events of the year
at the farmhouse. But that is all over now, for he
will never come home again at the holidays, although
he will be no farther away than the little churchyard
just down the road.
The procession had already left the house and
gone to the church when the carriages from Ortonville arrived. They were to have a sermon, and a
large crowd had assembled, for the young man had
been a universal favorite in the neighborhood, and
many of the good people had looked forward to the
time when they would see him stand in that pulpit
and proclaim the way of life, for he was intending to
be a minister. Dr. Golding conducted the services.
Ie spoke of the lovely Christian character of the
boy; of the mysterious dealings of Providence in thus
taking away a life that already in the bud gave promise of such eminent usefulness in riper manhood.
Then they sang,
( How blest the righteous when he dies! "
And when they sang the last verse"So fades a summer cloud away;
So sinks the gale when storms are o'er;
So gently shuts the eye of day;
So dies a wave along the shore "



ANOTIER PHASE OF THE STORY.


227


Will thought that Death was not the grim, terrible
spectre her childhood had fancied, for Dr. Golding
made it so certain that Arthur was not dead, but only
gone before, and they could almost see him standing
on the other side, smiling, and beckoning them to follow. Then the soft air came in at the open windows,
and gently rustled among the immortelles which the
girls of the class had brought and laid on the rosewood casket; while the tinkle of a distant sheep-bell
and the cooing of doves in the forest-trees near the
church completed the peacefulness of the scene. The
class, walking two-and-two, led the procession to the
grave, and, there parting, the bier was borne between
the rows of young, uncovered heads, the usual burialservice was said, then the gray-haired sexton began
to throw in the clods of earth, and their dull, hollow
sound fell on bleeding hearts, just as it has ever fallen
in years past, and will in years to come.
Dr. Golding rode home in the carriage with Will
and Randolf. Will always felt as if she were in the
presence of a saint when she was near him, and today she could almost see a halo around his venerable
head as they left the graveyard and drove homeward.
Not a word was spoken for some miles, for each was
busy with his thoughts; finally Will said, suddenly,
"Dr. Golding? '"




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"Yes, my child," and the silvery head turned
toward her with fatherly interest.
" How do we know that there is anything more
of Arthur Dennison than that we put in the ground
to-day?"
"In other words, you wish to ask what proofs
there are of the immortality of the soul? "
" Yes, sir-whether there is any beyond, and how
it can be proved outside of the Bible."
" That which comes first to my mind as an answer is, the indestructibility of force. We have all
heard the ringing voice and seen the sparkling eye
of him whom we followed to the grave to-day, and
we have all loved and honored the mind and soul
that were behind them; that force still lives somewhere, since it is indestructible."
"Yes, but does that prove that we have an individual existence, where we remember the things of
the past?."
" No, not exactly; but let us see if we cannot find
something that will touch that point. Take again the
young life that has just gone from us, with its unfulfilled hopes and longings: does it seem reasonable to
you that these should never have a chance to be satisfied or realized? Then take the millions whose lives
are a perpetual struggle for bread, whose every aspira



ANOTHER PHASE OF THE STORY.


229


tion has been crushed under the iron heel of poverty:
can you believe that there is nothing brighter for
them  beyond —no place where their better selves,
which now lie dormant, will bloom and expand under
the genial warmth of a heavenly clime? Oh! there
must be a real heaven for the poor, if for no others.
You have had friends die, Miss Elliott, have you
not?"
" Yes, sir."'
" Do you think that your hopes and desires of seeing and loving them again have been given to you
by some superior Being, that he may mock you with
their fruitlessness in the end? It cannot be."
Nothing more was said, and they all again relapsed into silence, which was unbroken until the
horses' hoofs resounded on the Ortonville pavements.
Randolf was very tender and loving as he drew the
robes around her, for fear the night-air would be
chilly, and Will was happy in spite of her doubts
concerning immortality. It seemed as if she could
face any possibility with Randolf by her side. The
idea of death was not pleasant, but then it was so far
away, and would come only at the end of long years
spent with the one she loved. The thought of any
possibility more unpleasant than death did not enter
her buoyant mind.




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Not long after this, Randolf said to Will, one day:
" I have an acquaintance here, a young lady, who is
taking special studies; she is a particular friend of
my younger sister, and as such, of course, I am bound
to pay her some attention, and I want her to know
you very soon. When will you go with me to call
upon her? "
" Oh, 'most any evening."
So they went to see Helen Durant. Will found
her a very gay young lady, of about her own age,
with brilliant black eyes, and dark hair done up d la
mode, abounding in the most approved of society
small-talk. Will felt that she was being weighed in
the balance, as she several times found the black eyes
trying to read her with a gaze full of curiosity, which
was politely withdrawn when she saw that it was noticed. She felt kindly toward Miss Durant, because
she was a friend of Randolf and his sister, but there
was an inexplicable something that she did not like;
the glances from tie black eyes did not make her feel
at ease, and there was something in the tone of voice
that impressed her as not quite sincere.
The next time Randolf saw the young lady he
asked, affecting indifference, how she liked Miss Elliott. She laughed as she said: " Isn't she funny?so odd, I like to look at her and study her, as a natu



ANOTHER PHASE OF THE STORY.


231


ralist would a rare specimen. She is magnificent, and
all that, but, in my opinion, she is living a century or
two in advance of her age, she is so ultra in everything. Of course, she believes in woman's rights? "
" Well, I don't really know, for I think she has
modified her views since coming to college, and I take
a little credit to myself for having brought it about,"
said Randolf.
" Io, ho! she has been under your tutelage, has
she? Now, really, that grows interesting; but I advise you to influence her to let her hair grow and
wear her dresses longer."
Randolf's face flushed with vexation as he replied,
quickly: " I would not have her style of dress changed
at all; she is the most sensible girl I know."
" Oh, yes, indeed-sensible to the last degree, you
know! and that is against her ever becoming a woman
of society. She is splendid to talk to, but she is not
such a one as a man would want for a wife-for no
man wants to marry an oddity, you know; and, since
the making a fine match is the chief thing in a woman's life, I call her style unfortunate."
Randolfs greatest weakness was a dread of ridicule, and it often had the effect of overmastering entirely, for the time being, his better judgment. In
reply to Miss Durant's last assertion, however, he




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said, with warmth: "If you call it unfortunate to
have a true heart, a fearless love of right, and unflinching courage in carrying out principles, then MIiss
Elliott is indeed unfortunate."
Poor Randolf! that was the bravest Speech that
he was destined to make for some time before his
sister's friend, in defense of the woman he had asked
to be his wife. After this first talk with her there
was no difference in his treatment of Will, only, perhaps, he was more devoted than ever, as if to assure
himself that criticism had made no difference in his
feelings.
Miss Durant returned Will's call, and seemed
very pleasant, but she always left an impression of
insincerity, so that Will did not have any inclination
to pursue the acquaintance further than exchanging
formal calls.
Randolf said to her, once or twice," A Why don't
you cultivate Miss Durant? You can learn a great
deal from her that is useful, for she is a perfect lady
of society;" and Will answered:
" I don't know why it is, Guilford, but I can't believe in her very much, and, somehow, I feel that she
does not like me; in short, there is no congeniality
between us whatever."
Once he ventured to say to her, when they were




ANOTHER PHASE OF THE STORY.


233


going out somewhere in the evening, " Why don't
you wear your dresses long, as the rest do? And can't
you contrive to put your hair up in some way, like the
others? "
" Why, Guilford, you've told me so often that you
liled my hair! " she said, looking at him in surprise.
" Yes, yes, I do; but it's odd, you know, and we
owe it to society to conform to its ways."
"Well, I'll let it grow, if you like it better; but
wouldn't it be well to wait, now, until the end of the
year, for there will be an uncomfortable period when
it is neither long nor short, and it will be quite unmanageable."
"Maybe it is best," he said, reluctantly, "but I
should think you might contrive some way with a
switch, as they call those things they pin on."
" Oh, but they are so heavy, Guilford, and make
my head ache so!"
" Well, well, don't do anything that will make you
wretched; but you can at least wear trains, like tho
others."
" I have such a horror of trains; I feel so crippled
in them! "
"But we must conform to the rules of good society, and I hope, the next time we go out, you will
wear a longer dress."




234


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


Will felt intuitively that Randolf had been listening to recent criticisms of her, and she said, with considerable feeling:
"You are an apt pupil of Miss Durant; she is
always talking about conforming to the usages of
society."
At the end of the first semester's work the president gave a reception to the senior class, as was his
custom. The president's receptions were always regarded as the great affairs of the season, and, when
the evening came, the brilliantly-lighted rooms were
gay with the assembled beauty and fashion of Ortonville. Miss Durant was radiant in corn-colored silk,
which glistened and shone beneath the folds of a
black lace over-dress, looped and draped in an indescribable manner by elegant artificial flowers; her
diamonds flashed in the gaslight, and her magnificent
hair, gotten up after the latest Parisian mode, set off
to advantage her really aristocratic face.
" You are most intensely yourself again to-night!'
said Randolf, in a not unpleased tone, as he gave Will
his arm at the door of the dressing-room.
She wore a white cashmere, cut square in the neck,
and the lace around the throat softened her stronglymarked features. Her glorious head, free from " all
the adulteries of art," was a marked contrast to the




ANOTHER PHASE OF TIIE STORY.


235


elaborate head-gear of the ladies in the parlors below.
A gentle, pleased light shone in her eyes as Randolf's
gaze rested on her, for she could see thathe admired
her, although he had so often remonstrated because
she was not more like others.
" Ah, there goes the Valse a deux temps and
Galop! We are too late for it, and I am engaged for
the next dance to Miss Durant," said Randolf.
"And I am engaged to Tomlinson," said Will.
"Seems to me you dance with him a great deal
lately," replied Randolf, with a slight twinge of jealousy, as he remembered how Tomlinson had monopolized Will at Mrs. Foster's party, the week before.
" Yes, he says that he likes to waltz with me better than with any one else.9
"( He does? The villain! I'll fix him! " was the
laughing reply, as they entered the parlor and were
presented to the president and his lady.
After the waltz, while Tomlinson stood fanning
her, Will glanced across the room to where Randolf
and his partner were standing in earnest conversation
before a small photographic copy of Nydia. Will
noticed an expression on Miss Durant's face that she
had never seen there before-a look of unconcealed
devotion, of which, up to this time, she had not had
the faintest hint. The truth flashed upon her: Helen




236


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


Durant was in love with Randolf, and that was the
reason of her dislike and continual criticism of herself. It is aJl so plain now; why had she not seen it
before? She tried to see Randolf's face, but his back
was toward her. She was s6 occupied with the
thoughts that came with this new revelation, that she
forgot her partner, who had been talking away to her
very busily, while she said " yes " to everything mechanically, until Tomlinson showed himself injured
by her evident abstraction and lack of interest in his
conversation. Watching for a moment when she
could go unnoticed, she stole out into the yard, for
she wanted to get away from the lights and music,
where she could be alone and think.
There was no snow, and she walked around the
w inding paths until the house was hidden by the
evergreens. It was not moonlight, but the sky was
very clear, and myriads of stars looked down upon
her as she wandered on, unmindful of her slippered
feet and uncovered head.   She felt sorry for her
rival, because she thought it must be hard to love
any one and not have it returned; and she felt so
certain to-night of Randolf's faithfulness to herself,
that there was scarcely room for any feeling of jealousy. She could not pardon the way in which Miss
Durant had tried to injure her in his eyes, yet she




ANOTHER PHASE OF TIHE STORY.


237


had great pity for her, which she could well afford to
give, feeling sure that she herself stood first in his
affections. Iearing voices, she stepped into a summer-house, which was still covered with dead vines
and leaves, and where she could not be seen by those
passing on the walk. As they came nearer, she recognized Miss Durant's laugh, and her heart leaped to
her throat as she heard her own name spoken by that
young lady.
Yes, it was she and Randolf, and they were talking about her. Would it be honorable to listen?
She could not now get out unperceived, for they were
very near, and she would not have Randolf see her
wandering out there all alone, for he would be vexed
at the impropriety.
They were talking very low and earnestly, and,
when near the summer-house, paused before turning
around.
"Yes, yes," said the girl, "she is very artistic,
but so odd. Why don't you induce her to do and think
as people of society do, since you have so much interest in her? It would be a missionary-work, really,
Mr. Randolf."
Randolf answered, in a hurried and rather impatient tone:
"I don't see, really, Miss Durant, why you find




238


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


so much fault with Will Elliott. She seems to have
the benefit of all your excellent criticism. Aro there
no others whose style you can disapprove, snd give
her a rest for a while? "
The reply was in a still lower tone:
"It is my interest in you, Mr. Randolf, as the
brother of my dearest friend, that makes me wish
Miss Elliott were a different style of woman, for I
know of your warm interest in her." Then assuming
an air of raillery, she continued: "Imagine yourself,
now, the husband of a woman like Miss Elliott! Bless
me, wouldn't I like to see it! She would come home
from her woman-suffrage conventions, where she had
been presiding, and ask you how Johnny's whoopingcough was, and what you were going to have for
dinner. You would have to turn your attention to
domestic economy, for there must be one such in a
well-regulated household, you know. By-the-way, if
you want any recipes for cakes, custards, and such
things, I shall be happy to supply you, after you
have become well established as a housekeeper."
She had touched the weak point, which she always
did when she resorted to ridicule.  Will waited
breathlessly for the reply, for she knew that the
arrow had struck home.
"Miss Durant, your remarks seem to imply that




ANOTHER PHASE OF THE STORY.


239


my interest in Miss Elliott is more than that of a mere
friend, and I now, once for all, beg to set you right
on that point. I have a great respect for Miss Elliott
as a girl of rare talent, but as to ever marrying her,
the idea is absurd! "
Ile said this all in a hurried tone; then there was
a low reply, as they started back again toward the
house.
Will rubbed her hand slowly across her forehead,
as if to assure herself that she was not dreaming;
then she stepped out again into the starlight. How
strange everything looked now! The very stars twinkled mockingly, and the waving pine-tops seemed to
whisper to each other Randolf's last words, " The idea
is absurd! "
It had only been a few minutes since she left the
parlor, and yet it seemed so long. She felt ten years
older as she slowly ascended the stone steps; her face
is very white and her lips are tightly closed. They
were going to dance the Lancers, and she had promised to be Randolf's partner, but she could not do it
now. She never wanted to see him or take his hand or
touch his arm again. Seeing Nell in the conservatory,
chatting with Phelps, she went to her and whispered:
" Won't you please ask Charlie to take me home
quick?-my head aches so!"




240


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


Nell-looked in surprise at the pleading face, and,
seeing that she really was suffering, replied:
" Certainly; and I must go, too, and get something
for your head."
"No, I want you to take my place in the Lancers,
and excuse me to my partner and escort. Do not feel
alarmed; I'll be better in the morning," she said, trying to look cheerful.
So Charlie took her home, and left her with many
regrets on account of the headache, though he felt
sure that something had happened between her and
Randolf, for he had a wonderful way of knowing
things without being told.
Randolf's feelings, after he had denied his love
for Will to Miss Durant, were those of a traitor; and
yet he did not hasten to correct the impression made
upon her, but listened silently to her playful congratulations as they walked toward the house. Ite
thought, " I'll go down to-morrow and tell her the
whole truth, and she can sneer as much as she pleases,"
and thus he satisfied his conscience for the moment;
and it was with his usual composure of manner that
he came in, and went to find Will for the Lancers.
TIe was a little startled when Nell met him and delivered Will's message, but the real cause, of course,
did not cross his mind; and, with some expression of




ANOTHER PHASE OF THE STORY.


241


anxiety in regard to her health, he gave his arm to
Nell and led her to their place in the quadrille.
The next morning he went to call on Will, and
was met by the servant with a note addressed in her
well-known hand. What could it mean? Was she
too sick to see him? It had never happened so before.
Ile turned to go, and opened the note as he stood on
the steps. It said:
MR. RANDOLF:" [" By Hercules, that's cool!"]
"I cannot see you any more, so please do not take
the trouble to call for me. Your book of logarithms
I'll send by Charlie.   WILHELMINE ELLIOTr."
He tore a blank leaf from the " CEdipus Tyrannus" that he had brought to translate with her for
Monday's lesson, and wrote:
" For God's sake, Will, what do you mean? Can't
I see you a moment    I must-you owe it to me I
I'll wait in the parlor."
Maggie, the Irish servant-girl, looked very much
interested as she took the note from the hand of the
young man, who bade her take it instantly to Miss
Elliott, and wait for an answer. It came:
11




242


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


" No further words will be needed, when I tell
you that, by an accident, I was in the summer-house
last night when you and Miss Durant walked by.
Do not take the trouble to explain, for my mothertongue needs no translation.           W. E."
Here was a new situation for Guilford Randolf,
and a painful one; for, when out of reach of Miss
Durant's fire of sarcasm, he loved Will as devotedly
as when he had carried her in his arms to the loghouse during the thunderstorm. Now, in the clear
light of this Saturday morning, he had felt so stronghad vowed that no woman should ever say another
word against Will in his presence. Will's figure had
flitted before him, too, when he first awoke, in white
cashmere with the soft lace. The classic head, and,
above all, the unassuming manners, in striking contrast to the affectation of other girls, never appeared
to him so lovely as now, in this mental picture the
morning after the party; and he was impatient for
nine o'clock to come, that he might take his books
and spend the forenoon bending over them with her
by his side. Now, it was all dashed to the ground,
and worse than that: he stood in the light of a deceiver and liar in the eyes of one who, he knew, scorned
any compromise of truth in word or deed. He read




ANOTHER PHASE OF THE STORY.       243
the note slowly several times, as if to find some other
meaning less hard and unbearable; but the decided,
bold hand could only be read in one way, and each
word stood out almost in relief against the white
paper, like the very sentence of doom. IIe took his
books and left the house.




CHAPTER XI.


END OF THE PREPARATION.-BEGINNING OF THE CAREER.
"'Large interests keep the soul free; like the great oceancurrents which interchange the climates of the globe, they balance the nature and modify all excess."-Anon.
WHIEN the second semester began, Will elected
her studies without consulting any one except Nell.
She secretly hoped that Randolf would not be in the
same classes, for then she would rarely see him, and
that, she thought, would be a great relief. She decided to take history and analytical chemistry, and
she kept on with Greek and Latin. When she went
into Professor Roemer's room to get the list of historical questions, the first one she saw was Randolf,
who had come for the same purpose. "Why, of
course," she thought, " I might have known he would
take history! And maybe, after all, it is a little cowardly for me to be unwilling to meet him in recitations."
Nell took chemistry also, and they made themselves
large aprons, and engaged tables at the laboratory side




END OF THE PREPARATION.


245


by side. The first morning, when they were arranging the bottles on the shelves and washing test-tubes,
Will glanced across to the next row, and on a card
above one of the tables she saw Randolf's name, which
meant that he had engaged it for work.   It was
rather a coincidence that Randolf should have chosen
practical chemistry too, and she was more amused than
annoyed at the fact that their tables were so situated
that she would see the back of his head whenever she
looked up. Randolf had chosen a course in toxicology a aa probable help in his future work, so that
Will's motives and his were the same in electing work
in the laboratory; for she had returned to her original
intention of studying medicine, and for this a course
in chemistry was the first requisite. Will had not
spoken to him since the reception, and had returned
his notes unopened.
One day, in the history-class, the topic for discussion was the policy of the Tudors. The class was resolved into a kind of debating-club, of which the professor was president, and the questions were all historical. Each day some one was appointed to present the question in the form of an essay, giving at
the same time his or her own views, after which each
member was expected to speak, and either approve or
condemn the essayist. This time it was Randolf's




246


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


turn to open the discussion, and he read an essay in
which he defended the mendacious policy of Elizabeth-that policy by which, as a recent historian
says, she hoodwinked the statesmen of Europe for
fifty years. He contended that the security of England and the prosperity of her reign were brought
about by her artfulness, and he praised the duplicity
which in another would have seemed a mere vice.
When he was through, the professor turned to
Will with a smile, and said: " I see that your view is
somewhat different from Mr. Randolf's, Miss Elliott;
will you favor us with it? "
She arose, and, looking steadily at Randolf, said:
"Mr. President, I cannot listen calmly to a defense
of lying. I believe that lies, either political or social,
are wholly evil; and it pains me to hear a classmate,
usually distinguished by his championship of everything that is noble, thus defend a wrong. Perhaps
he has never suffered from  the effects of a lying
tongue, that he so eloquently pleads its usefulness.
In spite of the brilliancy, eloquence, and dash of this
celebrated queen, her falsehoods, as well as those of
less distinguished women, were her weakness, and not
her strength. I believe that Elizabeth's strength lay
in a different direction. It was her real love for her
people and her deep sense of their dependence upon




END OF THE PREPARATION.


247


her, and an overruling purpose to bring about their
good, which was the basis of her policy; and it was
this loyalty to her people that was the main-spring of
the prosperity of her reign."
She went on at some length with growing enthusiasm, to the great delight of the class, who always felt sure of something good when Will grew interested in a discussion.
Randolf was rather pleased than otherwise that
she had thus taken him up, although he winced under
her allusions; for anything almost was easier to bear
than the cool, total indifference with which she lately
regarded him. He wondered if she would not speak
to him about the discussion after class, but she sat
down; and when they were dismissed her face wore
again a look of haughtiness, so that he did not dare
to be the first to break the silence.
Do not think that, because Will entered into her
college-work with apparent enthusiasm, the experience through which she had just passed was anything
but a most trying one, and one that required all her
strength of character to endure.  To give up her
bright dreams of the future, that she was to have
spent with Randolf, cost her many a struggle, for
she had loved him with all the warmth of her impulsive nature.




248


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


Almost an equal source of pain was the disappointment that arose, on finding that one whom she
had believed to be true was false at heart; for, although she knew Randolf's weakness, she could
not think that his dread of ridicule could ever have
led him to deny his love for her in that way, if he had
loved her truly. She determined, by throwing her smul
into her work, to forget her disappointment; and she
hailed with joy the return of the old enthusiasm as
she was introduced to the mysteries of the laboratory,
and delved among the musty volumes of the library
to look up references on historical questions.
Several weeks after the discussion in the historyclass, Will was working diligently in the laboratory,
one afternoon, over her little boxes of " unknowns."
She was looking for iodine, that she felt sure was in
one of them, but the test would not bring it out
clearly enough until she had tried several times.
Finally she held up the test-tube in great glee, exclaiming, " See, Nell, there it is-there are the purple
globules!" and she tapped the tube with her finger,
to see them rise and fall. Hearing no reply, she
glanced at Nell's table, which was all cleared up, as
they were accustomed to leave them for the day, and
her hat and cloak were gone. Why, to be sure-Nell
had told her that she must go at four, and now it was




END OF THE PREPARATION.


249


after five. Only a few scattered ones were left, who,
like herself, were working over puzzling boxes, and
could not bear to leave them unsolved.
Just then there catne a crash of shattered glass,
but as that was a very common sound in the laboratory, she did not even take the trouble to look around
to see whence it came, but hurriedly emptied the tube,
and began to clear away her table.
Soon she heard a suppressed groan, and, on looking across to the opposite row, she saw Randolf
leaning against his table, looking deathly pale, while
he tried with his handkerchief to stanch the blood
flowing from his arm.
A glass retort with which he had been working
had burst with great violence, and a piece of the
glass had been driven into his wrist, severing the
radial artery. Will was by his side in an instant.
She knew that the first thing was to stop the flow of
blood; so, pressing her fingers tightly over the wound,
she held it while she called to some ladies at the farther side of the room, who were in the pharmaceutical department, and who had also remained later than
usual.  They came hurriedly; but one, seeing the
pool of crimson that had already begun to coagulate
on the table, became faint, and was obliged to go
away, while the other helped Will to tear her apron




250


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


into strips, which she tied around the arm, drawing
the knots with all her strength. Then they supported him to an old sofa that stood near the entrance,
having already dispatched Thomas, the janitor, for
Dr. Jewitt, whose office was in the next block. IHe
came puffing in, and, on examining the bandaging,
asked:
"Who did this?"
"I did my best at it, sir," said Will.
"Well done! well done!" and, as he proceeded
to make a ligature preparatory to tying the artery, he
added, " You have saved his life by your prompt action, Miss Elliott."
" This is my first surgical operation, doctor. Do
you think that I will be a disgrace to the profession
if I study hard? " asked Will, laughingly.
"Do you really intend to study medicine a " he
asked, pausing a moment in his work, while he looked
at her in surprise.
"Yes, sir."
"I am heartily glad of it, and I welcome you to
our ranks," he said, cordially.
When it was all done, and the wounded arm carefully adjusted in a sling, the doctor said he would
take Randolf home in his carriage, as he was yet very
weak from loss of blood. When she could help no




END OF THE PREPARATION.


251


more, Will turned to go, and had almost reached the
door, when Randolf raised himself on his elbow, and
called:
" Wi-Miss Elliott! " but his voice was weak, and
she did not hear.
"l Miss Elliott! " shouted the doctor, " this young
man has something to say to you; " and, suddenly remembering that he had some business at the other
end of the room, the good doctor strode away, muttering, " It's plain enough that young man is in love
with her; his pulse was quicker whenever she came
near. I guess her practice of medicine will be limited to one household."
It was with great reluctance and embarrassment
that Will came back. She had sprung to his rescue
without a thought of anything but saving life, but
now, when that excitement was over, the old personal
feeling of wrong returned, and made it very hard for
her to turn and go toward the sofa to hear what Randolf wished to say, and she was sorry that Dr. Jewitt
had left them alone. Randolf's pale face flushed as
Will came near, and he said, in a low voice:
" I thank you, Will-I beg your pardon!-Miss
Elliott. I-I did not deserve this from you, and
I-t
" Oh, I should have done it for any one; there




252


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


was nothing personal in it," she said, with a shade
of sarcasm in her voice.
Randolf would have given worlds if he could,
then and there, have had a reconciliation with her
and have obtained her forgiveness; but there was
something in her manner that made it impossible to
utter the words of affection and remorse that sprang
to his lips.
Will, on the other hand, while she looked at the
handsome, boyish face, knew that she loved him as
truly as ever; but, not being willing to betray any
weakness, she choked the feeling, and her pride
helped her to assume an air of indifference, while she
said:
"If I can be of any assistance in a professional
way, Mr. Randolf, I hope you will let me know,"
and, without another word, she left the room.
Randolf fell back upon the pillow with a hopeless groan, as he murmured:
" I have lost her! She seems so far away, that,
while I look at her, the words freeze on my lips. And
yet," he gasped, as with sudden energy he arose and
staggered across the room to the window, hoping to
get another glimpse of her, " she shall know that I
am true, if it takes my whole life to prove it."
The doctor came up at the moment, and said:




END OF THE PREPARATION.


253


" IIow's this? You'll start that to bleeding again
if you are not quiet."
lIe saw that it was some mental trouble that
caused Randolf's agitation, and he only said, as he
helped him into the carriage, "Don't worry yourself
into a fever, for the arm will be all right in a few
days."
Randolf was put to bed, according to the doctor's orders, and soon fell into a troubled, restless
sleep, in which the gay figures of an evening party
flitted before him. Among them were two whom he
recognized: one with black eyes and flashing jewels,
who stood talking to him; the other with frank,
happy eyes, that looked confidingly into his as she
passed and repassed in the figures of the dance, her
loveliness of form and complexion set off by the soft
folds of her white dress. IHe was blinded for a moment by a flash from the black eyes, and when he
again looked for the trustful face it was no longer
there; but instead was the stern, proud form of an
injured woman, whose glance seemed to chill his very
soul. Then he awoke, unrefreshed and feverish, to
find his arm out of the sling, and his chum asking,
"What under the canopy'are you dreaming about,
that you thrash around so? "
It was drawing on, now, toward the end of the




254


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


term, and each senior was beginning to wonder how
life would seem outside of college. Some would imnmediately go into professional study, some into mercantile life, while a large proportion expected to
teach, as a stepping-stone to some other life-work.
Clara was going as a missionary to South Africa, under the auspices of the Methodist Church; one of
the girls intended to study law with her father;
Nell was to be married; and Will was looking
eagerly forward to the study of medicine, and her
return, the next year, to the university for that
purpose.
One day she came into Nell's room, and threw an
open letter upon the table, saying, " Read it, Nell;
my plans are upset, as usual," and she paced the floor
in an excited manner.   Tie letter was from her
uncle, who had been appointed her guardian at her
father's death, and who still continued to manage her
finances. It said:
" MY DEAR NIECE: The enterprise in which, with
your consent, I had invested your money, has failed
on account of financial pressure.  It sweeps away
your little fortune, and I am left worse still, being
many thousands in debt. It is with the greatest sorrow that I write you this, for I. know of your plans




END OF THE PREPARATION.


for the future, and would gladly have saved you this
disappointment had I been able.
" Your affectionate uncle,
" JOHN ELLIOTT."
"Poor Uncle John! My trouble is small compared with his, because he has a large family depending upon him! " said Will.
" You will not let it discourage you so that you
will give up medicine, will you?." asked Nell. " Just
think of your glorious health, and now your splendid
education! With far less material many have worked
their way to success and distinction."
" I ought to be ashamed, that is true, to be so
easily discouraged; I was intending to go right on
without stopping, you know, but I can teach, or do
something, and it will only postpone the medicine;
for I am determined to put it through, in spite of the
frowns of Dame Fortune."
A The only honor conferred by the University of
Ortonville for scholarship and general standing was
an appointment to speak on commencement-day.
The faculty were accustomed to select ten from each
graduating-class for this purpose; but from a class
like that of '70 it was a difficult task to choose
ten who stood preeminently superior to all the others,




256


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


and were therefore entitled to the honor of being asked
to speak. The class had, as freshmen, contained one
hundred and fifty members; but, as the years had
passed, they had dropped out from one cause or another, until now, a month before graduation, the
number was one hundred and fifteen men and five
women. Probably there was not a man in the class
who did not feel sure of getting an appointment, for
each one thought that the faculty could not be so
blind as to overlook his merits.
There was much laying of wagers among the boys
as to who the lucky ones would be, and the excitement grew more intense as the last of May approached, for that was the day for the announcements. The boys all felt sure that Will Elliott would
be one of the speakers, and they did not see how they
could fairly take more than one girl, when the number
of girls was so small in proportion. The work of deciding the rival claims of one hundred and twenty
ambitious students might have appalled any ordinary
body of men; but the faculty of the University of
Ortonville was no ordinary body, so it undertook it
with the full assurance that justice would be meted
out to the expectant scores. Each student, on the
other hand, was ready to uphold the decision of the
faculty if he were one of the chosen, and ready,




END OF THE PREPARATION.


257


on the contrary, to be sorely injured if he were not
among the elect.
On the evening of the 31st of May the august
body convened, and the next morning Jacob, the
postman, was almost mobbed by the boys as he took
the letters to the office; but he withstood their assaults by a judicious use of his cane. The letters
reached their destination, and were ready to be taken
from the hand of the postmaster in the orthodox
way.
At noon Nell burst into the room with:
"Oh, Will, there is your faculty-letter! You're
the only girl that got one, and I'm so glad they have
taken you! You will represent the girls splendidly!
We'll all be so proud of you, for you are such a magnificent speaker! "
Will listened to this torrent of compliments with
remonstrance, as she opened the letter and read:
" Miss Wilhelmine Elliott has been chosen by the
faculty as one of the speakers for Commencement,
and she is requested to report at once at the president's room, No. 9.
"Signed, by order of the faculty,
"    JAMES MORRISON, Secretary."




258


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


" I don't deserve it any more than the rest of the
girls; and, besides, how can I do it? Won't they excuse me, Nell?" and Will leaned her head wearily
upon her hand.
"Excuse you! I should think not. Why, it
will be the thing of the day-the only lady! And all
the girls are so glad that they've taken you, for the
rest of us could not do it at all. No, indeed; you
must hold up the cause of the girls by making.one of
your masterly strokes. But why don't you ask who
your distinguished company is to be-the other fortunate nine? You have no curiosity at all."
" Well, who are they? "
" Oh, Randolf, of course-and Charlie, Pendleton,
Hooker, and I don't remember the others.  Now,
what are you going to write about?"
"I'm sure I don't know. What do they expect
in a Commencement-speech? "
" Oh, don't take the Union of the Saxon icptarchy, nor the Rise of the Dutch Republics, nor the
Fall of the Roman Empire. Take some topic of the
day, into which you can throw your whole heart."
"Well, since you girls wish it, I'll try and do my
best," said Will, as she folded the letter mechanically
and laid it on the table.




END OF THE PREPARATION.


259


It is now the Sunday evening before Commencement, and Will is lying on the sofa in the parlor,
while Nell is playing snatches from Haydn to her in
the twilight. The soft June air and the breath' of
roses came in at the window, just as they did a year
ago.
" Nell, do you remember you stayed at home from
church one night last June, to talk to me?"
" Yes, I remember;" and she came again and sat
beside the sofa. " Do you want me to stay with you
to-night? "
" Yes, please; I want to have one more talk with
you before we go, and the last few days there will be
such a rush that I will not be able to have you alone."
" Have you decided what you will do when college closes? " asked Nell.
" Yes, I have been offered a position in Wisconsin
as instructor in Greek and Latin, and I am to go
there immediately on the close of college. Do you
know, that fine position at Colton, that was offered
me, they refused to let me have when they found
that I did not belong to any church, and I hear they
have given it to Roberts; he is a member of the
- Episcopal Church, you know."
"To Roberts!" echoed Nell. "Why, he has
ponied right through every recitation since he came




260


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


to college, and he has no standing among the boys
at all."
" Oh, well, I'm well enough satisfied as it is, and
I'm glad I'm not to go there," said Will.
"Is your mother willing for you to go off so far
alone?"
"Yes, mother is very considerate; and she has
confidence in me, I guess, that I will do about right."
"I'm glad that your mother understands you better now," said Nell. "I used to be sorry for you
when you told me how you were opposed in your
religious beliefs."
Yes, that is all over now; but, Nell," and her
voice grew sad and bitter, "I don't believe much in
anything now; I don't believe there is a loving God
who feels sorry when we suffer. If I believe in any
almighty Power, it is in one who delights in our
wretchedness-who loves to make us trust in people,
and then show us how foolish we are to do so. You
are the only hold I have on truth and goodness, and
soon you will be gone-then I'll have nothing," and
she clung to her as if it were, indeed, the last goodbye.
"Will, dear, you must not talk so! it is dread-.
ful-it makes me shudder! "
Will had never mentioned Randolfs name since




END OF THE PREPARATION.


261


the reception, and, although Nell understood it all in
a general way, she know nothing of the particulars.
" Don't you want to tell your old Nell all about
it? " she asked, coaxingly, thinking that it would be a
relief to her feelings to talk it over, instead of keeping it so closely to herself, and affecting indifference.
" Yes, I can tell you;" and, nestling her head on
Nell's shoulder, she told all the incidents of the reception, from the time she left Randolf at the parlordoor until his conversation with Miss Durant. Her
voice was calm and steady through the whole narration until she came to Randolf's last words, "The
idea is absurd!" when her lips quivered, as she said,
" I don't want to hide anything from you, Nell, and
I know it is very weak, but I love him as much as
ever, and I'm afraid I always will;" and, burying her
face in Nell's lap, she gave way to a passionate flood
of tears. Nell did not try to check this outburst of
grief, but waited quietly until the sobs became less
frequent, when she raised the bowed head, and, holding it close against her cheek, said:
" I think that you are just a little unfair in not
giving Guilford a chance to explain."
"Do you think that I could ever believe him
again?" cried Will, flashing up, while all the time
Nell's words only echoed a hope in her own heart




262


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


that somehow, after all, he might be made to appear
less blameworthy.
" You must remember what a jealous woman can
do when she determines to; and I have no doubt but
that woman's tongue has been like a fly-blister to Randolf, and in a moment of irritation he said that for
which he would feel the most bitter remorse. You
know how impulsive he is."
Will listened to this with a secret feeling of satisfaction, while at the same time her pride would not
allow her to admit, even to herself, the possibility of
an explanation. Nell told her of talk that she had
heard among the girls, that Miss Durant was in love
with Randolf, and how it was believed that she came
to college with the intention of breaking his engagement with Will. Then their conversation turned
upon Commencement-day, and Nell asked:
" Have you finished your speech?-and what is it
about? "
"I took ' Women in the Professions.'"
"Good! I knew you would choose something
that would take well with an audience."
" That is a subject upon which I have thought a
good dealsince I took up the idea of medicine; but
I dread to speak, and I don't have the enthusiasm
about it that I ought to have."




END OF THE PREPARATION.


263


"That will come with the occasion, and we are
all expecting you to cover us with glory, as a representative college-girl, you know."
Never did June sunshine play over a greener
campus, and never were June skies more soft than
on the Commencement-day of the class of '70. Long
before ten o'clock seniors might have been seen
hurrying to and fro, big with importance; while the
gay uniforms of the band, who were to supply music
for the occasion, gave a holiday-air to the scene.
The large hall was rapidly filled, for every one in
Ortonville was anxious to attend the exercises, and
especially to see the first girls graduate.
There was to be no distinctive salutatory or valedictory, and the speakers were to be taken in alpha
betical order; but, as Will was the only lady, she was
allowed to select her own place on the programme,
and she chose to come about the middle of the list.
When the programmes were distributed, the exclamations and remarks were something as follows:
"Ah! we have one girl-speaker, Wilhelmine Elliott. Who is she?"
" Oh, she is a sort of brilliant oddity-very talented-a splendid scholar!  I used to hear of her
often when she was a freshman. She thought nothing
of taking her gun and bringing in a brace of quail for




264


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


breakfast. There is a sort of romance about her lately, but I do not know how true it is. They say one
of her classmates fell in love with her, and, because
he did not like it, she gave up her gun and made concessions to society for his sake; but something came
between them, and now she has gone off on a tangent
about studying medicine, and they don't even speak
to each other. There she is now!" said he, as the
procession entered, the girls coming first, "the tall,
handsome one on the right. What a superb head she
has! Let me see, what is her subject?-'Women
in the Professions.' Whew! that will be 'woman's
rights,' of course."
The ten speakers passed into the waiting-room at
the back of the stage, upon which the faculty had
already arranged themselves.  The band played a
spirited air, and the day began.
The anticipation of the audience seemed to centre
around Will's name, and curiosity was on tiptoe as,
after the music which came between the speeches,
she advanced to the front of the stage.  She was
dressed in black, with only roses for ornament; and
as she came forward there was a modest, half-timid
air about her, very becoming to her girlish face and
form, which won the hearts of the audience before
she opened her lips.




END OF THE PREPARATION.


265


Those who expected from the subject a torrent of
invective against the "gray preeminence of man"
were disappointed, for it was only a calm, earnest
argument for an "open career for talent." She made
it appear so suitable, and even desirable, by her clearness of statement and straightforward eloquence, that
women should occupy places in the professions hitherto monopolized by men, that even the sternest opponents of such a movement yielded to the spell, and acknowledged, for the moment, the truth of her conclusions.  She won her hearers not more by her
words than by the richness and pathos of her voice.
There was in it a sympathetic quality which could
only have come from a deep personal feeling. The
experience of the last six months had, unconsciously
to herself, developed the tender part of her nature,
which only those realized who knew her best.
Randolf made a brilliant and effective speech on
the " Hellenism of Modern Thought." His was the last.
Then came the conferring of degrees, a short address from the president, and one hundred and twenty
B. A.'s and B. S.'s were given to the world, for better
or worse.
An admiring crowd of friends gathered around
Will for congratulations, but she prized, more than
all, the words of affection that came from the girls
12




266


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


in the class, and she felt repaid when they expressed
their unbounded satisfaction with her speech.
"Where are all your bouquets? " asked Nell.
"They are in the waiting-room, and I am going
to send some one to carry them home; but there is
one basket that I must carry myself," and she went
to get it.
The basket in question was one that had been arranged with the most exquisite flowers by her classmates, and she did not want to trust it in any hands
but her own. As she stood a moment inhaling the
fragrance that came from the mass of flowers, there
was a hurried step on the stairs, the door opened, and
Randolf stood before her.
"They say you are going away to-night, Will.
You cannot deny me a last word. I must have a
chance to redeem myself; I must know there is hope
for me."
" Guilford Randolf," she said, looking steadily in
his face, "you have been the cause of the happiest
and the most wretched moments of my life; and now,
to-day, when I was beginning to realize that there
may be pleasure aside from living with and for you,
when I was learning to forget you, it was cruel for
you to come and bring up again the past that is so
painful I "




BEGINNING OF THE CAREER.


267


There was something in her voice that gave him
encouragement in spite of the bitterness of her words.
" God knows your words are just, Will, but not
merciful. I can scarcely dare hope to be taken back
to the place I once held, but I want you to believe
that I am true at heart-that in a hasty moment I said
something that I would gladly have wiped out with
my life's blood. Do you believe me?"
The longing to be reconciled to him almost overmastered her; but pride,  and a yet lingering suspicion
of his truth-the one sentiment she could never
reconcile with love-struggled still.
Her trembling lip and pale face showed to the
young man how intense this struggle was; but this
only aroused his fears that, after all, he should lose
her.
"Do you believe me? " he repeated, passionately,
as he caught her hand, that rested upon the basket of
flowers she was holding.
" I want to believe you, Guilford," she said, looking steadily into his eyes.
" You must, you shall, believe me! You must not
go out of the reach of my hope. Will you? "
"I am going away to teach-going into a distant
State, where you would not care to come. Good-by!"
she said, gently withdrawing her hand from his grasp.




268


AN AMERICAN GIRL.


" No, I will not say ' good-by.' I will follow you
until you can again give me the place I lost by my
dastardly conduct.  Don't be unmerciful, Will!
You will write to me?"
"Yes," she said, frankly, now offering him her
hand, but this time she did not dare to meet his eyes.
Then she hurried after Nell and Clara, who were still
waiting for her below.
That evening a little group stood on the platform
of the railway-station, bending to catch the last glimpse
of a disappearing train. Among them are Mr. and
Mrs. Lewis, Nell, and Clara.
"May the Lord bless her!" said Mr. Lewis,
dashing something like a tear from his eye.
" Well," said Clara, "that's the last we will see
of Will Elliott, until she comes out a splendid physician."
" She is a dear girl," said Nell, " and will be splendid, whatever she does."
" Bless my soul, does that girl think she is going
to study medicine? " said Mr. Lewis, with an amused
laugh. " If she don't marry that pair of handsome
eyes that used to be forever coming to study off the
same book with her, I'll miss my guess!"
"Oh!" said Mrs. Lewis, "you men are so con



BEGINNING OF THE CAREER.       269
ceited! You think a woman never has an aim in life
that she won't leave to go at your beck and call. I
have more faith in our Will than that, and we'll see if
I'm not right."
The next year other girls were in the upper rooms
of Mr. Lewis's house in Clinton Avenue, but for a
long time the old people thought that there could
be no girls like those of '70.
THE END.




I




SAMUEL BROHL AND COMPANY.
From the French of VICTOR CHERBULIEZ.
Paper, 60 Cents; Cloth, $i.oo.
From the New York World.
"The book is one of the best of even Cherbuliez's novels. No
one needs to be told that this is high praise.... Nowhere has
the ideal adventurer been portrayed with more skill, more art, more
genius even, than Cherbuliez has portrayed him in this novel."
From the New York Evening Post.
"The story illustrates anew what has been illustrated a thou.
sand times, namely, that in the art of story-telling the French are
masters, whose skill we English-speaking folk can never learn. It
is not as novelists that they excel us, for there are English novels
enough to contradict that; but as deft-handed story-tellers and
deft-handed playwrights the French are much superior to any other
race."
From the London Examiner.
"M. Cherbuliez is a very clever novelist, certainly one of the
cleverest of the second rank of living French novelists. A new
novel from his pen is always something to be looked forward to
with pleasure; and if of late his novels have not been so remarkable as formerly, they are always exceedingly readable. But ' Samuel Brohl et Cie' is more than merely readable; it is as good in
its way as anything that M. Cherbuliez has ever done."
From the New York Express.
"The Appletons have commenced the publication of a ' Collection of Foreign Authors,' which is destined, we think, to be a
success, and which certainly will be a success if its forthcoming
volumes are as good as its first one, which is entitled ' Samuel
Brohl & Company,' and is by that adroit story-teller, Victor Cherbuliez. We do not intend to give away the plot of this remarkable novel, which is a marvel of ingenuity from beginning to end."
From the Philadelphia Item.
"'Samuel Brohl & Company' is a powerful work, possessing
a strong, skillfully-constructed plot, and is admirably elaborated
in all its details."




SPIRIT E:
A FANTASY.
FROM- THE FRENCH OF TH~OPHILE GA UTIER.
(Forming No. 3 of the " Collection of Foreign Authors.")
Paper cover, 50 cents; cloth, 75 cents.
"The third volume of the Appletons' popular ' Collection of Foreign Authors' is one of the most remarkable books that we ever
remember to have read. It is written by a great master of romance,
the late Theophile Gautier, and is characterized by him as 'A Fantasy.'  It belongs to the same class of imaginative creation as
'Undine,' and is managed with most extraordinary skill.... An
exquisite prose poem, as glowing and pure as Keats's 'Eve of St.
Agnes.' "-New York Express.
" The artistic effect of this fantasy is very fine. It appeals to
that love of the supernatural which exists, active or dormant, in
almost every human heart."- Utica Daily Observer.
" The glowing, picturesque style of the author makes the story
very attractive reading."-Boston Gazette.
" It exercises a subtile spell, a fascination over the reader, which
compels him to go on to the end. Although it deals with the supernatural, it is filled with the beautiful things of earth and of human
life."- Utica Herald.
"A very interesting little story, in which what is now called materialization is very gracefully idealized, and in which communion
with departed spirits is shown in its most attractive aspects."Boston Courier.
" The story is very cleverly woven, and, when once in the reader's
hands, we venture to say that it will be perused to the last line before it is laid aside."-NV. Y. Commercial Advertiser.
"The ethereal grace and subtilty of this sparkling fantasy lift
it into the fairy realm, and give to it the liquid beauty of the diamond."-Albany (N. Y.) Argus.
" Now we have Theophile Gautier's matchless fantasy of 'Spirite,'
full of sweet mysticism, of revelation, of personality, and of gorgeous
language and imagery."-Sunday Herald (Washington).
"Gautier tells the fantastic story with an inimitable purity and
grace that will delight readers of cultivated imagination, especially
those whose metaphysical tastes find interesting material for thought
in the shadowy realms within the gates that lead to the life immortal."-Providence Journal.
D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, Broadway, N. Y.




GERARD'S MARRIAGE:
A NOVEL.
From   the French of ANDREt      THEURIET.
(FORMING No. II. OF "A COLLECTION OF FOREIGN A UTHORS.")
I6mo.   Paper covers, 50 cents; cloth, 75 cents.
"As exquisite in its form, color, and delicacy, as a choice piece of Sevres
porcelain."-Literary World.
" This lovely idyl of French provincial life introduces to the notice of American readers Theuriet, one of the most quietly enjoyable among modern French
novelists, and one who holds rank among the highest for his portraiture of the
charms of country landscapes, and the sweet peace and happiness clustering
around country-life."-Providence Journal.
" Its chief merit lies in the admirable skill with which it is told, the skill in
apt narration, which seems to be a birthright of all Frenchmen, and which
men of other races never fail to admire, and never succeed in imitating."New York Evening Post.
" There is much charm in the narrative, the characters are vigorously sketched,
the descriptive portions, especially of out-door life, are picturesque and animated, and the whole is distinguished by grace and delicacy."-Boston Gazette.
"' G6rard's Marriage' is as exquisite of its kind as Tennyson's ' Princess,'
and its moral is that of the old song, 'Love will find out the way.' "-New
York Express.
" The use of these simple materials is so artistic, and the story is so deftly
told, that the book is delightful from beginning to end."-Detroit Post.
" The story is pleasant, the characters drawn with that light, firm touch, peculiar to a Frenchman; the colloquy, if not brilliant, always to the purpose, and
about the whole there plays a poetic light that is not the less charming because
it is so wholly French. "-New York World.
"Andr6 Theuriet excels in the painting of rural scenes, and the skillful
management of romantic comedy."- Chicago Inter- Ocean.
" The story is told, particularly the trials of the lovers, with great vivacity
and brilliancy, in which particulars the French seem to excel all other nations."
-Boston Commonwealth.
"Affords a charming illustration of the exceeding elegance, refinement, and
delicacy, that mark the romances of Andre Theuriet, one of the most graceful
and popular French novelists of the present time."-Providence Journal.


NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO., PUBLISHERS.




META HOLDENIS.
From the French of VICTOR CHERBULIEZ,
Author of " Samuel Brohl and Company," etc.
Paper, 50 cents.     -    -    -     Cloth, 75 cents.
From the New York Evening Post.
"The story is a good one in itself, wholly unlike the story we expect in a novel.
M. Cherbuliez is an artist, a genius, to whom all things are possible; else his success
in writing this story in another than his own personality-creating a distinct individual,
and then making his creature tell it from his own point of view, with perfect verisimilitude-would have been impossible. It is admirable in itself, and as an example of the
high art of narration."
From the New York Express.
"A powerful story, whose characters are clearly portrayed, and whose accessories
of landscapes and the like are beautifully painted."
From the New York World.
"Cherbuliez is, after Balzac and George Sand, the first novelist of France. He is
more of an artist, and has more insight into human motives and actions, than other contemporary French novelists."
From the New York Sun.
"A companion-piece to 'Samuel Brohl and Company,' and a book which should
renew the notable success gained by the English version of the latter novel. In the
present volume we trace the fortunes of a winsome and insinuating governess, so happily fashioned by Nature for strategy and wiles as to continually delude herself. As
we have previously spoken of Cherbuliez in connection with 'Samuel Brohl and Company,' we need only add that the action of 'Meta Holdenis' is somewhat more fervid
and vigorous, and the development of the plot more piquant to curiosity. We commend it to the reader as the most captivating translation from the French which has
been printed in a twelvemonth."
From the Philadelhia Item.
"' Meta Holdenis' holds the attention of the reader throughout, as the analysis of
character; the dialogue, the descriptions, and the details of the novel, are all in Cherbuliez's most animated and sparkling manner."
From the Hartford Courant.
"Anything more skillfully wrought out than the character of ' Meta Holdenis' we
have not met in a long time."
From the Boston Courier.
"The story is artfully contrived and graphically told, with that genius for the dexterous management of details which all Frenchmen seem to possess in some measure,
but which M. Cherbuliez has in an eminent degree."


D. APPLETON & CO., 549 & 551 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.




THE TOWER OF PERCEMONT.
From the French of GEORGE SAND.
Paper, 50 cents; cloth, 75 cents.
From the New York World.
"It is characteristically charming. In it love-that passion all of whose manifestations and varieties George Sand has shown us better than any other novelist, perhaps
-is treated with a delicacy and sweetness that recall 'Monsieur Sylvestre;' and the
grace inseparable from George Sand's wiitings marks the work throughout."
From the New York Evening Post.
"Characteristic of its author. The narrative is full of action, and the dialogue is
sprightly, and often spirited. There is enough both of interest in the incidents and
variety in the characters agreeably to beguile an hour stolen from the ordinary fatigues
of life."
From the New York Commercial Advertiser.
"As a story of French provincial life, it introduces us to the middle classes, and to
many strong and interesting characters. The book will be widely read, and its simple
naturalness treasured."
From the New York Sun.
"So boundless were the stores of observation accumulated by this writer, and such
the expertness acquired by the incessant practice of a long life that, during her last
years, she was able to throw off stories of more than average charm with extraordinary
celerity. 'The Tower of Percemont' was well worth translation."
From the Springfield Republican.
"The heroine of this 'Tower of Percemont' is a new variety of the womanly character which George Sand spent her long life in delineating, without ever reproducing
the same exact type. The story is interesting in itself, and continues so until the end,
while the characters are clearly drawn."
From the Boston Commonwealth.
"It was the last work of the famous novelist, and is worthy of her fame. The story
is essentially French, and displays the author's sparkle and grace of manner, being
full of love and romance, while there is a skillfully-constructed and ingenious plot."
From the Providence 7ournal.
" It is a charming transcript of French provincial life, glowing with the inspiration
of a keen sense of natural beauty; the characters are vigorously outlined, the coloring
is vivid and artistically blended, and the plot is ingeniously developed, and full of
touches true to life."


D. APPLETON & CO., 549 & 55I BROADWAY, NEW YORK.




LIBRARY OF CHOICE NOVELS.
IN UNIFORM OCTAVO VOLUMES, IN PAPER COVERS, VARYING
IN PRICE A CCORDING TO THICKNESS.
PRICE.
I. LADY ALICE; or, The New Una....................................$         6
2. COMETH UP AS A FLOWER. An Autobiography...................               60
3. NOT WISELY, BUT TOO WELL....................................  6
4. MARGUERITE; or, Two Loves.......................................          25
5. TWO LIFE-PATHS.         By LOUISA MUHLBACH..........................     60
6. THE MAN WHO LAUGHS. By VICTOR HUGO.................... 25
7. THE DEAD GUEST. By HEINRICH ZSCHOKKE......................              50
8. THE LOST MANUSCRIPT........................................  75
9. MADEMOISELLE FIFTY MILLIONS.               By the Countess DASH.......    60
Io. THE WOMAN       OF BUSINESS....................................   75
II. THE THREE BROTHERS. By Mrs. OLIPHANT...................... I00
12. RED AS A ROSE IS SHE......................
13. MRS. GERALD'S NIECE. By Lady GEORGIANA FULLERTON...........   60
14. THE POISON OF ASPS.         By FLORENCE MARRYAT.....................      30
15. A RACE FOR A WIFE. By HAWLEY SMART......................... 50
i6. BREEZIE LANGTON.          By HAWLEY SMART........................         75
17. HENRIETTA TEMPLE. By the Right Honorable BENJAMIN DISRAELI..               50
18. VENETIA. By the Right Honorable BENJAMIN DISRAELI................         50
i9. THE YOUNG DUKE. By the Right Honorable BENJAMIN DISRAELI...               50
20. ALROY. By the Right Honorable BENJAMIN DISRAELI..................         50
21. CONTARINI FLEMING. By the Right Honorable BENJAMIN DISRAELI.               50
22. VIVIAN GREY. By the Right Honorable BENJAMIN DISRAELI..........           60
23. CONINGSBY. By the Right Honorable BENJAMIN DISRAELI............           60
24. SILVIA. By JULIA KAVANAGH..........................................    75
25. VERA; or, The Russian Princess and the English Earl...................  50
26. GABRIELLE ANDRE. By S. BARING-GOULD..........................             60
27. GOOD FOR NOTHING. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE.................  60
28. NIGEL BERTRAM'S IDEAL.            By FLORENCE WILFORD................     50
29. VIVIA. By FLORENCE WILFORD........................................  50
30. MARQUIS AND MERCHANT.              By MORTIMER COLLINS..............      50
31. JAMES GORDON'S WIFE............................................           50
32. ALMOST FAULTLESS. A Story of the Present Day...................            60
33. SARCHEDON. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE............................           60
34. M Y   HEROINE.......................................................  50
35. TANCRED; or, The New Crusade. By the Rt. Hon. BENJAMIN DISRAELI.           50
36. THE DIAMOND ON THE HEARTH. By MARIAN JAMES...........                    50
37. THE GLADIATORS. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE.....................              60
38. TWO PLUNGES FOR A PEARL. By MORTIMER COLLINS............                 75
39. GOOD-BYE, SWEETHEART! By RHODA BROUGHTON................                 75
40. CHRISTINA NORTH. By E. M. ARCHER............................              75
41. A WAITING RACE. By EDMUND YATES..............................            75
42. THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA. By HESBA STRETTON..................                 75
43. BESSIE. By JULIA KAVANAGH........................................         75
44. LADY SWEETAPPLE; or, Three to One. By G. W. DASENT........               75
45. NANCY. By RHODA BROUGHTON.......................................         75
46. NO INTENTIONS. By FLORENCE MARRYAT..........................             75
47. MY STORY. By Mrs. K. S. MACQUOID................................ I 00
48. BRIGADIER FREDERICK. By ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN................                50
49. GEIER-WALLY. By WILHELMINE VON HILLERN.......................             50
50. COMIN' THRO' THE RYE. By HELEN B. MATHER..................               75
5I. FIRE AND FLAME. From the German of LEVIN SCHtCKING...........            75
52. "MY OWN CHILD."         By FLORENCE MARRYAT.......................       75
53. FALLEN FORTUNES. By JAMES PAYN..............................             75
54. RARE GOOD LUCK. By R. E. FRANCILLON.........................             50
55. JOAN. By RHODA BROUGHTON.......................................         75
56. THE SHADOW       OF THE SWORD. By ROBERT BUCHANAN...........             75
57. BLACK SPIRITS AND WHITE. By F. E. TROLLOPE.................  75
Either of fhe above sent free by mail on receizt of the frice.












UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3       9015   03044  9949
3 9015 03044 9949


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