"It isn't always," laughed Linnet, "it is only for the studiously disposed."
"I was a country girl, and when I went to the city to school I did not fail in my examination."
"Oh, you!" cried Linnet.
"I see no reason why you, in your happy, refined, Christian home, with all the sweet influences of your healthful, hardy lives, should not be as perfectly the lady as any girl I know."
Marjorie clapped her hands. Oh, if Hollis might only hear this! And Miss
Prudence knew.
"I thought I had to go to a city school, else I couldn't be refined and lady-like," said Linnet.
"That does not follow. All city girls are not refined and lady-like; they may have a style that you haven't, but that style is not always to their advantage. It is true that I do not find many young ladies in your little village that I wish you to take as models, but the fault is in them, as well as in some of their surroundings. You have music, you have books, you have perfection of beauty in shore and sea, you have the Holy Spirit, the Educator of mankind."
The girls were awed and silent.
"I have been shocked at the rudeness of city girls, and I have been charmed with the tact and courtesy of more than one country maiden. Nowadays education and the truest culture may be had everywhere."
"Even in Middlefield," laughed Marjorie her heart brimming over with the thought that, after all, she might be as truly a lady as Helen Rheid.