“Why? What a question to ask! Surely you know how dishonorably she acted last spring! Someone must have told you. You and Mary Wilson are such friends.”
“Yes; someone told me, but it wasn’t Mary Wilson. She doesn’t do that sort of thing. Nora O’Day told me. Are you afraid to join the same set with her?”
“Not afraid in one sense of the word. To be sure, she would not influence me an iota. I might mingle with her and her kind and be none the worse for it. Do not think I am considering myself in the matter. I have in mind the younger set of girls who are so easily influenced. They know the story of Miss O’Day’s methods in examination. What would they think of seeing my name in connection with hers?—that I would countenance anything that was dishonorable! If not that, at least, like me, they might be suspicious of a reform that had among its leaders a girl who had been publicly reprimanded for cheating.”
During the talk, Elizabeth had been leaning backward against the study-table, her hands behind her, supporting her weight.
She paused before replying to Landis. Then she asked: “Do you believe in treating every one who has done wrong as you intend treating Nora?”
“Surely. To treat them otherwise would be an open acknowledgment that we are willing to overlook deceit and fraud. No one can afford to do that. You must remember the stand Dr. Morgan takes on such matters. You have heard her lecture often enough to know that she does not countenance treating sin and crime lightly. Why, in her last chapel-talk she said that while some amusements might be legitimate and proper for us, we must refrain from them because of our influencing others who might be harmed. I’m sure I could find no better person to follow than Dr. Morgan.”
“I do not think her words applied to this instance. At least I would not have taken it so. Nora did cheat last spring; but perhaps she is sorry for it. You do not know but that she looks upon it now with more scorn than you do.”
“I hope so. I hope Exeter has had some influence upon her.”
“Don’t you think, Landis, the proper thing to do, when we know she is ashamed of what she did last spring, is to help her all we can? It seems so unforgiving to be remembering always the little mean actions. I think she has suffered enough as it is. I don’t see what is to be gained by slighting her now.”
“Perhaps you don’t; but this is your first year at Exeter and you have lots more to learn. When you have been here two years more, perhaps your ethical standard will be higher.”