“Oh, I should like that,” said Katherine, eagerly, “if it will not encroach—­”

“It will not,” smilingly interposed her new friend, and, slipping an arm around her, she spirited her away to her pleasant room, where they spent a delightful hour together.

When the eight o’clock study bell rang, Katherine returned to her own quarters, where she found her roommate already absorbed, apparently, in the preparation of to-morrow’s lessons; for, as she entered, the girl merely glanced up from her book without speaking, then fastened her eyes again upon the pages before her.

Katherine sat down by her own table and soon forgot everything but the work on hand, although, at first, she had experienced a sense of discord and friction in the atmosphere.  The hour passed in absolute silence until the next bell rang, when Miss Minot closed her books and abruptly left the room.

Katherine was not sorry to be left alone, and bringing forth from her trunk her Bible, “Science and Health,” and “Quarterly,” began to study her lesson for the coming Sunday.  She spent half an hour or more in this way, then sat reading from her text-book until Sadie returned.

Katherine greeted her with a smile as she entered and inquired: 

“What is the retiring hour, Miss Minot?”

“Ten; and every light must be out at half-past,” was the somewhat curt response.

Then, after an irresolute pause, she walked over to Katharine, and picking up the book she had just laid down, asked: 

“What is this that you were reading?  Oh! it is that dreadful book I’ve heard so much about.”

“It doesn’t seem dreadful to me,” returned her companion, gently.

“Humph!  ’At all times and under all circumstances overcome evil with good,’” [Footnote:  “Science and Health,” page 571.] she read from the page to which she had opened.  “That’s just another version of the ‘golden rule,’ isn’t it?” Then, turning a leaf, she read from the next page:  “’Love fulfills the law in Christian Science.’  Humph!” she ejaculated again, as she put the volume down, “so you are a Christian Scientist!  I heard about it downstairs.”

“Yes,” quietly returned Katherine.

“And do you really believe all they tell about the wonderful cures and—­and the rest of it?” Sadie demanded, with curling lips.

“Yes.”

“Tell me about some of them,” said the girl, eagerly, her curiosity aroused.

“Excuse me, Miss Minot; I cannot, for Prof.  Seabrook has forbidden me to say anything about the subject here,” Katherine returned.

“Yes, I heard that, too,” said Sadie, with a nod.  “Well, the professor is dead set against it, and I’m down on it right smart myself.  You see”—­with a superior air—­“I’m an Episcopalian; my grandfather was an Episcopalian clergyman, a rector, you know, and”—­with a shrug and laugh—­“I’m afraid he wouldn’t rest easy in his grave if he knew I had such a rank heretic for a roommate.  But”—­leaning forward and smiling into her companion’s eyes—­ “aside from that I like you right well, Miss Minturn, and if we leave this subject alone I reckon we’ll get along pretty comfortably together; what do you say?”