Marjorie seemed calmer now, so Miss Phillips continued in her soft voice:
“I shall never forget that poem of Edwin Markam’s—do you know his work, Marjorie?—that my teacher read to me at the time:
“‘Defeat may serve as well as victory
To shake the soul and let the glory out.
When the great oak is straining in the wind,
The boughs drink in new beauty, and the trunk
Sends down a deeper root on the windward side.
Only the soul that knows the mighty grief
Can know the mighty rapture. Sorrows come
To stretch out spaces in the heart for joy.’