"That's enough to inspire one," he said. "I shall take one line back with me and recall the very ring of your voice:
"Sirs, believe me, there's a way.'"
Helen flushed with pleasure. She had not given up her old hero, though there had been new candidates for her favor.
Then followed the partings the next morning. Some would be for life perhaps. Every graduate counted on coming back to Aldred House some day, but there were many chances and changes and more than one was never to see it again, only hold its happy times in remembrance.
"I am glad we are to keep together next year," exclaimed Daisy Bell. "And I do think I shall be a better student. The year following we shall graduate together. And all the rest of our lives I hope we shall be friends, even if we do have tiffs now and then."
Juliet Craven asked rather timidly if she might write to Helen.
"Oh, I should be disappointed if you did not. I count on it as one of my pleasures," Helen returned warmly. There were other promises, several of them not kept. And by twos and threes the group dwindled until at dinner all the remainder were invited to the table of state as guests.
The next morning a thin, rather somber-looking man came with a note from Mr. Castles. Helen's eyes were swimming in tears as she said good-by to Mrs. Aldred and Miss Grace.
It was an uneventful journey until they reached New York. They stopped at Mr. Castles' office, and he questioned Helen about her past year, took her out to lunch, and then put her aboard her own train with several papers and a magazine, and wished her a pleasant journey.
And pleasant it was, though she had a seat to herself. She could not read, hardly look at the tempting array of pictures, there were so many thoughts crowding in and through her mind. She had been very happy. Schooldays were delightful. She wanted years and years of them.