Anna Alice Chapin

“ Birds were calling their mates, trees were budding, new grass blades were pushing pluckily up among the old brown roots. The whole earth seemed to be starting over again. The idea came to Pippa with a sort of shock. Starting over again! Why, everything in nature was given a chance to begin again! Why had she never thought of that before? It was only man who found things irrevocable; God never did. Every single year He let the growing world begin again, and see what it could do this time!
There was a hot mist in Philippa's eyes as she turned back to Gladys Harrison. ”

“ Suddenly Gladys stared at Pippa with a curious look.
“Is that it?” she said. “Do you love him yourself?”
“No!” cried Pippa proudly. “He is my friend! You can't understand that.”
“Oh, yes,” said the girl quietly. “I can understand that. Once a man helped me over a bad place with my rent, and never let me—pay him back. You understand? I think he was a friend. Mrs. Carpenter, aren't you going to give me my chance?”
Gladys Harrison was one of those soft and pliable creatures seemingly created only to be loved and to love. She was, to use a country idiom of her own country, “marked for love.” ”

“ Her complexion was, in fact, too good to need rouge, but Pippa saw a faint bloom that was not of nature upon her smooth cheeks. A man would not have noticed it at all. The girl had a full, red mouth; she was slender and shapely, and her curly brown hair was abundant. A Frenchwoman of her sort would have been chic and insinuating; poor Gladys Harrison did not have the bravado of her class. ”