CHAPTER II.
Elizabeth was nearly eighteen when she left school; and whatever life might have in store to try her strength, she was better equipped for the battle than most girls of her age. Her fine natural parts had been fortified by contact with a mind whose grasp of realities produced a certain shock to persons indisposed to look facts in the face. She knew something of sin and its consequences. She had read a great deal, she had thought a great deal; but she was not suspicious, and as yet had had no opportunities of applying her abstract knowledge of mankind to the solution of any of life's problems. To an independence of judgement, she joined a decision in action which made her the leader of her companions, and the most trusted of all by the principal of the school. She had very sharply defined limits of right and wrong; and when she did wrong, she never stooped to gloze, or attempted to excuse it. She was still wilful at times, and not always considerate for others, but she was incapable of meanness; and her attachments, though few, were strong.
In appearance she was still lanky, and her movements were too abrupt to be graceful; but she had a noble,
