An argument ensued instantly, but Esperance had gone her way,
trembling with happiness. Everything in life seemed opening for her.
For the first time she was aware of her own individuality; for the
first time she recognized in herself a force: would that force work
for creation or destruction? The child pressed her hands against her
fluttering heart.

M. Darbois was waiting at the window. At sight of him, Esperance
jumped from the carriage before it stopped. "What a little creature of
extremes!" mused the professor.

When she threw her arms about him to thank him, he loosed her hands
quickly. "Come, come, we haven't time to talk of that. We must sit
down at once. Marguerite is scolding because the dinner is going to be
spoiled."

To Esperance the dinner was of less than no importance, but she threw
aside her hat obediently, pulled forward her father's chair, and sat
down between the two beings whom she adored, but whom she was forced
to see suffer if she lived in her own joy--and that she could not, and
would not, hide.




CHAPTER III


The weeks before the long-expected day of the examination went
by all too slowly to suit Esperance. She had chosen, for the