Rhoda's Education

RHODA did not know for a long time how near she had been to the accomplishment of her wishes. She took a tearful leave of Mrs. Ferrand and Isa, and went back to 'The Home' feeling sadly enough.

She was mortified at being dismissed and ashamed at the circumstances which led to the dismissal, and she was broken-hearted at parting with Isa, whom she had learned to love with all the intensity of a school-girl's affection. She had never been much given to striking up those sudden and violent intimacies common among girls, and which are often as short-lived as fervent. She had been a favourite with all the girls at Boonville, but she had been specially intimate with none of them except Alice Brown, who had gone away to the far West a year before. But she loved Isa Ferrand with all her heart, and none the less that she was not insensible to Isa's faults and weaknesses. And now they must part, and would probably never see any more of each other. They might sometimes meet in the street, but there could be no visiting and no correspondence-they could hardly even stop to talk, because Isa would be disobeying her father. It was very, very hard.