"Who is the young lady with you?" she asked.
Frances' explained, and Mrs. Marvin remarked that she was a handsome girl.
"And she is clever, too, for she writes lovely stories and illustrates them," said Frances, impressively.
"Does she, indeed?"
"Yes, she wrote one for us about a song the Spectacle Man—I mean Mr. Clark—sings. It is a fairy tale, and The Young People's Journal took it and are going to publish it next month. It has a beautiful moral to it."
"What do you know about morals?" laughed Mrs. Marvin.
"I found this one out when I had a quarrel with Gladys. Mr. Clark helped me to see it," was the reply; and then, as her companion looked interested, Frances continued:
"It is hard to explain it because you haven't read the story. It is called 'The Missing Bridge,' and is about a young man who couldn't get across the river that was between him and the girl he was going to marry, because there wasn't any bridge. That is he thought there wasn't, though it really was there all the time, and had just been made invisible by a magician.
"Well, you know Gladys said she never would speak to me again, and that was like having the bridge broken between us; don't you think so? But Mr. Clark said he thought it was only hidden by the clouds of anger and unkindness. I think it is very uncomfortable to quarrel, don't you?" then, seeing an odd expression in her companion's face, Frances hastened to add: "Of course I know you wouldn't quarrel with any one now, but I thought maybe you had when you were a little girl. But don't you think it is a nice moral? and—oh, yes—the last of it is that love and courage can always find a way."
"And how about you and Gladys?"