High, steep, and rugged, it resisted ascension.

But at last she surmounted it and sat alone on the heights, with naked eyes, and an unconscious prayer on her lips.
What was it that had happened?
Could there be here a different answer from that which always mocked her?
She had been a girl, not accountable for loss of mother, for choice of home and education.

She had belonged to a class.

She had grown to womanhood in it.

She had loved, and in loving had escaped the evil of her day, if not its taint.