"
"I'll try, honest and true, Stephen," declared Betty. And she
kept her word.
At first I looked upon Betty's education as a duty; in a very
short time it had become a pleasure...the deepest and most
abiding interest of my life. As I had premised, Betty was good
material, and responded to my training with gratifying
plasticity. Day by day, week by week, month by month, her
character and temperament unfolded naturally under my watchful
eye. It was like beholding the gradual development of some rare
flower in one's garden. A little checking and pruning here, a
careful training of shoot and tendril there, and, lo, the reward
of grace and symmetry!
Betty grew up as I would have wished Jack Churchill's girl to
grow--spirited and proud, with the fine spirit and gracious pride
of pure womanhood, loyal and loving, with the loyalty and love of
a frank and unspoiled nature; true to her heart's core, hating
falsehood and sham--as crystal-clear a mirror of maidenhood as
ever man looked into and saw himself reflected back in such a
halo as made him ashamed of not being more worthy of it. Betty
was kind enough to say that I had taught her everything she knew.
But what had she not taught me? If there were a debt between us,
it was on my side.
Sara was fairly well satisfied. It was not my fault that Betty
was not better looking, she said. I had certainly done
everything for her mind and character that could be done.
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