"But," said little Agnes, "it was very cruel, wasn't it?"
"I suppose it was, Agnes. Only I wanted the magical influence of love like yours to take the cruelty out of my heart, to smooth down all the rough edges, and to make me feel like an ordinary girl. I feel like an ordinary girl now in many ways, except that I could never give you up, Agnes."
"And I couldn't give you up, Irene. I told dear Emily so the other day."
"She didn't want you to, did she?" said Irene, with sudden fierceness.
"Oh no; but she did ask me what I found in you to make you more precious than any other girl in the school, and I said"——
"What did you say? Look me in the face, Agnes."
Agnes looked up with her melting, loving eyes.
"I said that somehow or other I loved you, and I did not love the others."
"Ah! there you struck the nail on the head," said Irene. "Look here, Agnes; if anything happened to divide us I'd get worse than ever; because, you see, I am cleverer than I used to be."
"Nothing can come to divide us," said little Agnes. "What could?"