I say--do you know the 'Hymn to Colour' ?" The girl's eager eyes questioned her companion.

Her face in a moment was all softness and passion.
Mrs.Friend shook her head.

The nature and deficiencies of her own education were becoming terribly plain to her with every hour in Helena's company.
Helena sprang up, fetched the book, put Mrs.Friend forcibly into an arm-chair, and read aloud.

Mrs.Friend listened with all her ears, and was at the end, like Faust, no wiser than before.

What did it all mean?
She groped, dazzled, among the Meredithian mists and splendours.