_OUT_ of this furnace Edith came with a new and purer spirit.

She had been thrust in a shrinking and frightened girl; she came out a woman in mental stature, in feeling and self-consciousness.
The river of her life, which had cut for itself a deeper channel, lay now so far down that it was out of the sight of common observation.

Even her mother failed to apprehend its drift and strength.

Her father knew her better.

To her mother she was reserved and distant; to her father, warm and confiding.