She had smooth, shapely brows, and an abundance of dark-brown hair, while the tips of her white, still perfect, teeth were just visible between her slightly parted lips. She did not seem at all like the coarse, defiant, passée person, in tawdry attire, whom she had met only a few days before.
Suddenly Marie opened her eyes; there was a wild, terrified look in them; but they at once softened into an expression of content as they rested upon Helen.
"Oh, you are here!" she breathed. "How good of you! I dreamed it was growing dark, and I could not find you."
"I will stay as long as you wish me to," Helen assured her.
"I am—afraid!" said Marie, after a moment of silence, a gray pallor settling over her face. "I haven't been a very good woman. What is there beyond? Oblivion, or doom?"
"Neither," said Helen, with gentle compassion; "but, instead, an awakening to larger, better experiences and fresh opportunities."
"How do you know?" And her listener's face and voice were full of eagerness.
"I cannot say that I really 'know' anything about what is beyond us when we go away from here," Helen gravely returned; "but I have grown to think that we are like children going to school. We have our various classes, or grades, and merge from one into another, according as we have done our work ill or well——"
"I think that is beautiful!" broke in Marie, a thrill of something like hope in her tone. "Then, if one has wasted one's time, and learned nothing good here, one can begin all over again—one will have another chance?"
"I believe so," Helen replied.