Ever since she came home from that _odious_ place, it has been one round of hospitals and tenement-houses and _sloughs of horror_.

I don't mean that she has given up school, for she is studying harder than ever; but out of school she is simply _swallowed up_ by these wretched things.

I have remonstrated with her _almost_ on my KNEES.

'Hildegarde,' I said one day, 'do you REALIZE that you are practically _giving up_ your _whole_ LIFE?
If you once _lose your place_ in Society among those of your _own age_ and _position_, you NEVER can regain it.

Do you REALIZE this, Hilda?
for I feel it a SOLEMN DUTY to _warn_ you!' My dear, she actually LAUGHED! and only said, 'Dear Madge, I have only just begun to have any life!' And that was _all_ I could get out of her, for just then some one came in.