When  a  girl  no  longer  dreams  of  her  future  she  has  found
herself.  Maria  had  always  been  accustomed  to  go  to
sleep  lulled  by  her  dreams  of  innocent  romance.  Now
she  no  longer  had  them,  it  was  as  if  a  child  missed  a
lullaby.  She  was  a  long  time  in  getting  to  sleep  at  all,
and  she  did  not  sleep  well.  She  no  longer  stared  over
the  page  of  a  lesson-book  into  her  own  future,  as  into  a
crystal  well  wherein  she  saw  herself  glorified  by  new
and  strange  happiness.  She  studied,  and  took  higher
places  in  her  classes,  but  she  did  not  look  as  young  or
as  well.  She  grew  taller  and  thinner,  and  she  looked
older.  People  said  Maria  Edgham  was  losing  her  beauty,
that  she  would  not  be  as  pretty  a  woman  as  she  had
promised  to  make,  after  all.  Maria  no  longer  dwelt  so
long  and  pleasurably  upon  her  reflection  in  the  glass.
