that gathered around their future.  The day before Annette graduated Mr. Thomas had met a friend of his at Mrs. Lasette’s, who had lately returned from an extensive tour.  He had mingled with many people and had acquired a large store of information.  Mr. Thomas had invited him to accompany him to the commencement.  He had expected that Annette would acquit herself creditably, but she had far exceeded his most sanguine expectations.  Clarence Luzerne had come because his friend Mr. Thomas had invited him and because he and Mrs. Lasette had taken such great interest in Annette’s welfare, and his curiosity was excited to see how she would acquit herself and compare with the other graduates.  He did not have much faith in graduating essays.  He had heard a number of such compositions at commencements which had inspired him with glowing hopes for the future of the authors, which he had never seen realized, and he had come more to gratify Mr. Thomas than to please himself.  But if he came through curiosity, he remained through interest, which had become more and more absorbing as she proceeded.

“Clarence,” said Mr. Thomas to his friend, noticing the deep interest he was manifesting, “Are you entranced?  You appear perfectly spell-bound.”

“Well, I am; I am really delighted and indebted to you for a rare and unexpected pleasure.  Why, that young lady gave the finest production that I have heard this morning.  I hardly think she could have written it herself.  It seems wonderful that a girl of her age should have done it so well.  You are a great friend of hers; now own up, are not your finger marks upon it?  I wouldn’t tell it out of our ranks, but I don’t think she wrote that all herself.”

“Who do you think wrote it for her?”

“Mrs. Lasette.”

“I do not think so; Mrs. Lasette is a fine writer, but that nervous, fervid and impassioned style is so unlike hers, that I do not think she wrote one line of it, though she might have overlooked it, and made some suggestions, but even if it were so that some one else wrote it, we know that no one else delivered it, and that her delivery was excellent.”

“That is so; why, she excelled all the other girls.  Do you know what was the difference between her and the other girls?”

“No; what was it?” said Mr. Thomas.

“They wrote from their heads, she wrote from her heart.  Annette has begun to think; she has been left a great deal to herself, and in her loneliness, she has developed a thoughtfulness past her years, and I think that a love for her race and a desire to serve it has become a growing passion in her soul; her heart has supplied her intellect.”

“Ah, I think from what you say that I get the true clue to the power and pathos with which she spoke this morning and that accounts for her wonderful success.”

“Yes,” said Mr. Luzerne,[14] “it is the inner life which develops the outer life, and just such young people as Annette make me more hopeful of the future of the race.”