"
"I am glad," she answered, "that you have come to my own conclusion,
that Miss Mayhew, with all her faults, is too good a girl to be
guilty of a passion for a man like Sibley. If she regards him in
any such way as I do, I do not wonder that it has made her ill to
be so misjudged. I must plead guilty also to having wronged her
in my thoughts. While I try to exercise the broadest charity, my
calling, as a teacher, has brought me in contact with many girls
that--through immaturity and innate foolishness--are guilty of
conduct that taxes one's faith in human nature severely. Goodish
sort of girls are sometimes infatuated with very bad men. I suppose
it is evident to all that Miss Mayhew's early and, indeed, present
influences are sadly against her; but unfortunate as have been
her associations of late, I am coming to the belief that, however
faulty she may be, she is not naturally either silly or weak. But
my acquaintance with her is very slight, and I must confess I do
not understand her very well. For some reason she shuns me and
has evidently disliked me from the first."
"I don't understand her at all," said Van Berg, in a tone that
proved him greatly annoyed with himself.
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