In all growth there is emulation and striving for precedence between the spiritual and the physical, and this very emulation may determine the rate of progression of the whole.

Sometimes the one, sometimes the other, may be in advance, but all the time the tendency is towards the distant goal.

Sometimes the two keep abreast, and then there is the greatest harmony in speed.

In Ellen Brewster at twelve and fifteen the spiritual outstripped the physical, as is often the case.

Her eyes grew intense and hollow with reflection under knitting brows, her thin shoulders stooped like those of a sage bent with study and contemplation.