CHAPTER XVI.
A TRIAL OF PATIENCE.
Two more years passed over Hetty's head.

She had grown tall and looked old for her age, her large gray eyes were full of serious thought, her brow was grave, and the expression of her mouth touched with sadness.
The haughtiness and mirth of her childhood were alike gone.

Earnest desire to attain to a difficult end was the one force that moved her, and this had become visible in her every word and glance.

She was painfully aware that the time was approaching when she must go forth to battle with the world for herself, and that on her own qualifications for fighting that battle her position in the world must depend.

That she had not sufficient aptitude for learning out of books, or for remembering readily all that she gathered from them, she greatly feared.
Her memory gave her back in pictures whatever had engaged her imagination; but much that was useful and necessary was wont to pass away out of her grasp.