"We quarreled," I answered sadly. "A terribly bitter quarrel.
Oh, we were both so young and so foolish. It was my fault. I
vexed Cecil by flirting with another man"--wasn't I coming on!--
"and he was jealous and angry. He went out West and never came
back. I have never seen him since, and I do not even know if he
is alive. But--but--I could never care for any other man."

"Oh, how interesting!" sighed Wilhelmina. "I do so love sad love
stories. But perhaps he will come back some day yet, Miss
Holmes."

"Oh, no, never now," I said, shaking my head. "He has forgotten
all about me, I dare say. Or if he hasn't, he has never forgiven
me."

Mary Gillespie's Susan Jane announced tea at this moment, and I
was thankful, for my imagination was giving out, and I didn't
know what question those girls would ask next. But I felt
already a change in the mental atmosphere surrounding me, and all
through supper I was thrilled with a secret exultation.
Repentant? Ashamed? Not a bit of it! I'd have done the same
thing over again, and all I felt sorry for was that I hadn't done
it long ago.

When I got home that night Nancy looked at me wonderingly, and
said:

"You look like a girl to-night, Miss Charlotte."