They teased and admired me by turns for learning the footnotes in the Latin grammar by heart; they never reproached me for my ignorance of the latest comic opera.

And it was more than good breeding that made them seem unaware of the incongruity of my presence.

It was a generous appreciation of what it meant for a girl from the slums to be in the Latin School, on the way to college.

If our intimacy ended on the steps of the school-house, it was more my fault than theirs.

Most of the girls were democratic enough to have invited me to their homes, although to some, of course, I was "impossible." But I had no time for visiting; school work and reading and family affairs occupied all the daytime, and much of the night time.