"Look  so  bad!  She  looked  as  old  and  homely  as
you  and  I  every  bit."

Maria  made  as  much  of  a  sensation  on  the  trolley  as
she  had  done  at  home.  The  boy  who  had  persecuted
her  the  night  before  with  his  attentions  bowed  to
Evelyn,  and  glanced  at  her  evidently  with  no  recogni
tion.  After  a  while  he  came  to  Evelyn  and  asked
where  her  sister  was  that  morning.  Maria  laughed,
and  he  looked  at  her,  then  he  fairly  turned  pale,  and
lifted  his  hat.  He  mumbled  something  and  returned
to  his  seat.  Maria  was  conscious  of  his  astonished  and
puzzled  gaze  at  her  all  the  way.  When  she  reached
the  academy  the  other  teachers — that  is,  the  women —
assailed  her  openly.  One  even  attempted  to  loosen  by
force  Maria's  tightly  strained  locks.
444


BY    THE    LIGHT    OF    THE    SOUL

"Why,  Miss  Edgham,  you  fairly  frighten  me,"  she
said,  when  Maria  resisted.
Maria  realized  the  amazement  of  the  pupils  when  they
entered  her  class-room,  the  amazement  of  incredulity
and  almost  disgust.  Everybody  seemed  amazed  and
almost  disgusted  except  Wollaston  Lee.  He  did,  in
deed,  give  one  slightly  surprised  glance  at  her,  then  he
seemed  to  notice  nothing  different  in  her  appearance.
The  man's  sense  of  duty  and  honor  was  so  strong  that
in  reality  his  sense  of  externals  was  blunted.  He  had
a  sort  of  sublime  short-sightedness  to  everything  that
was  not  of  the  spirit.  He  had  been  convinced  the  night
previous  that  Maria  was  beginning  to  regard  him  with
favor,  and  being  convinced  of  that  made  him  insensible
to  any  mere  outward  change  in  her.  She  looked  to
him,  on  the  whole,  prettier  than  usual  because  he  seemed
to  see  in  her  love  for  himself.
