A TEST OF FRIENDSHIP

New Zealand Tablet, 20 March 1913, Page 9

A TEST OF FRIENDSHIP

u. i As a birthday present for her schoolmate Henrietta Quiche, Elizabeth Graham chose a white-covered'book Ihe cover of it bore the word .' Friendship in gold letters ..encircled by a wreath of forget-me-nots. . Elizabeth had seen the book in Smith Bender's window and had shyly purchased it for the birthday that was soon to come She read a few of the verses, and was touched by the sentiment of them. Henrietta lived in the : finest house in the village an old-fashioned place, with spacious grounds. White columns supported the broad piazza. A wide drive swept through a high gateway, covered with vines. Just inside this gateway, under a- giant willow, there had been-built years ago a little stone bench, and here Elizabeth and Henrietta- were accustomed to wait tor each other. It seemed to Elizabeth that everything about Henrietta was ideal—her home, her parents, her own personality Elizabeth was happy because Henrietta had chosen her from all the girls to be her friend. She would have been surprised and hurt if she. had heard any one find fault with Henrietta for holding herself apart from most of the other girls, . as if she thought that her wealth, happiness, and beauty made her superior to them. Elizabeth was blind to such things in Henrietta. •. b

The day Elizabeth bought the birthday gift she went to Henrietta's, and as they sat under the lilac bush in the old-fashion garden, Elizabeth, with the secret of the book in her mind, turned the conversation to the subject of friendship Then, with a sudden pang, she found that she and Henrietta differed in regard to it. 6

, . ‘A 1 true friend,’ said Henrietta, ‘will tell her xnencl the faults she sees in her. That is the real test or friendship. Elizabeth pondered the words. She was wondering whether by any chance Henrietta’s friendship for her would stand such a test. She did not for the moment think the test as applying to herself, because she was so wholly devoted to Henrietta that a test seemed unnecessary. Henrietta,’ she said, would you tell me my faults?’ ’ J . Henrietta leaned back against the stone bench with a judicial air. Of course, Elizabeth, if you wish me to, I accept the test. 1 Elizabeth waited almost breathlessly. ‘I think,’ said Henrietta, ‘that you are too fond of praise that you often do things with the expectation of being praised, and are disappointed if you do not receive it.’ Oh ! said Elizabeth, and queer little hot feelings went from her heart up into her cheeks and back down again. She was torn by many emotions. A sense/of injustice came first then the possibility that she might indeed have such a fault awoke in her a feeling of dissatisfaction with herself. The realisation that Henrietta thought that she had it was as painful to her as if their friendship had come to a sudden end, How could Henrietta care for her at all if that were in her character? Elizabeth quite lost herself in these considerations. ‘Well,’ said Henrietta; ‘Now, of course, you will tell me mine.’ ‘Your faults?’ said Elizabeth; and then she realised that until that moment she had not thought of the possibility that Henrietta might have any faults. How strange that it should be a test of friendship to toll each other things that were so disagreeable to boar ! ° ‘ Why, Henrietta,’ said Elizabeth, feeling the old loyal love in spite of the queer pain in her heart, ‘I don’t believe you have any. Of course, I have only really known you a yearsince we came to live on Front street, — but in that time I have never seen any fault in you.’ Henrietta was divided between satisfaction in appearing thus faultless in the eyes of Elizabeth and in her certainty in regard to the test of friendship. She

pursed her lips, then smiled a little, and said, ■' You must watch, Elizabeth, until you find something and tell me. I shall never be able to think you as true a friend as I am until you do.' Not long after, Elizabeth rose to go home. Henrietta said in a disappointed tone, ' I thought you would stay and read. I wanted to begin the book Uncle George sent me.' " ' But Elizabeth could not stay, although when she had planned to come she had thought the whole lovely afternoon not too long to be with Henrietta. Now, however, she did not seem to want to stay. She was glad that her mother was out when she reached home, and that she could go upstairs unnoticed. When she was in her own room with the door closed, her repressed feeling began to free themselves in words and tears. ' Too fond of praise too fond of praise, and not pleased if I do not receive it!' And Henrietta had said the words, Henrietta thought it! ' The test of friendship— test of friendship !' Through her open window she heard the voices of her father and mother', who were such a dear father and mother! She was calmed by the thought tuat at any rate they loved her and had never seen this ugly fault in her, or .surely they would have told her of it. Then a different thought came. If she could have borne this correction from her mother, why could she not bear it from Henrietta? Was not the real test, after all, in receiving the truth ? Was she enough of a girl to take Henrietta's word as the revelation of a true shortcoming that she must correct, in herself, to go about it in a businesslike way, to be thankful to Henrietta and to keep up the old relations ? It led her into such mazes of thought that she went down to supper a little dazed—as if she were not Elizabeth Graham at all, but some other unfamiliar person. Her mother wondered what had happened, and would have wondered more if she could have known the sensation of inferiority that time and time again during the evening passed over the girl. It was a strange experience; she could not remember that she had ever been conscious of herself before. The delightfulness of other people was always appealing to her, the joy of life was always in her heart. Every morning in pleasant weather she waited on the stone bench under the willow tree for Henrietta to come out, that they might go to school together. She would hear the front door slam, and then in a moment Henrietta would appear with smiling face and waving hand. Elizabeth walked down the village street the next morning just as usual, seated herself on the white bench. She tried to have the old enjoyment of the trees and the birds, the same happy expectancy of seeing Henrietta. ■ The door slammed. Henrietta was coming, but she neither smiled nor waved her hand. A strange coldness swept over Elizabeth. Probably Henrietta had thought up other faults by this time, and did not want her lor a friend any more. There was no imagination about it. Something had changed Henrietta. Except for a few words, she was silent all the way to school, entirely preoccupied; Elizabeth's presence seemed nothing- to her. to During the recitation in mathematics that came in the second period, Elizabeth's thought reverted to the afternoon before. Miss Gordon's voice asking for the theorem seemed to recall something to her. In a flash she saw the girls as they sat about the classroom the morning before. She was standing, explaining the difficult polynomial theorem. Miss Gordon's voice seemed again to be expressing her praise and approbation of such an excellent explanation, and she saw Henrietta's face— Henrietta's face with, a dark look upon it that was almost envious. It seemed in the fleeting moment an explanation of Henrietta's attitude of the afternoon.

These reflections had taken such a short time that Miss Gordon thought Elizabeth was merelv hesitating to collect her thoughts. But when Elizabeth came° to herself, she found that the theorem was gone from her; her mind was a blank in regard to it, and for the first time in the term, Elizabeth Graham failed in her mathematics and sat down. Miss Gordon and the girls

looked at her with startled glances. Even on Henrietta's face, which had worn a far-away expression all the morning, there came a look of surprise. Elizabeth felt dull and unhappy. The momenYseemed~toTave revealed so much to her, and her failure was so humiliating. Henrietta waited for her after school, but as they walked home together did not express any sorrow in regard to Elizabeth's failure. She was silent as she had been in the morning, and at the gate said a hurried good-bye instead of the usual lingering farewell. Elizabeth was not so well able to conceal her trouble that evening, and her mother saw a little tear stealing down her cheeks, as they sat on the piazza, with Elizabeth leaning against her mother's knee. Her father spoke: 'There is a rumor of trouble m the Mercantile Bank. It is only a rumor, of course, but the bank examiner is here.' Elizabeth caught the words, 'the Mercantile Bank,' Why, that was Mr. Fulcher's Bank,' as they often, said— bank of which Henrietta's father was the president. She sat up, suddenly alert. Oh, I hope not,' said Mrs. Graham. 'These bank troubles mean so much worry and suspense.' Elizabeth was thinking rapidly. Perhaps ' the rumor was true, and that was the reason why Henrietta had acted so differently that N day. Perhaps it was trouble that had changed her. She did not know what it might mean, and she did not wish to have trouble come to Henrietta or her father; but she could not help the little half-glad throbs that would come now and then when she thought that perhaps it explained why Henrietta was so different. She quite forgot the test of friendship. , When Elizabeth came down to breakfast the next morning, her father was reading the paper, the headlines of which left nothing to the imagination in regard to the Mercantile Bank. Elizabeth looked over her father's shoulder and read:

' Suspension, of the Mercantile Bank. Examiner finds shortage in accounts. Officials implicated. President Fulcher refuses to give information.' As Elizabeth read on down the column, she saw that the article was full of insinuations against Mr. Fulcher himself. It hinted at luxurious living on the savings of the poor, dishonest methods, speculation. 'Oh father,' she said, it is not true, is it?' No,' said her father firmly. ' Mr. Fulcher is an honorable man. This paper is a political organ, and just at this time it is only too glad to make things look bad for him. But it is true that the Mercantile Bank has temporarily closed its doors.' Elizabeth walked slowly down the tree-bordered street that morning. The most thrilling bird song failed to reach her ears. She was thinking many things. New possibilities, new situations were forcing themselves upon her. The morning paper had been read in nearly every home in the village. It had been read in Henrietta's home. She sat down on the white stone bench and waited. Would Henrietta come at all? What should be her manner toward Henrietta? Should she kiss her and tell her she knew the things were untrue that were said about her father, or should she just keep still and act as if nothing had happened If Henrietta did not come, ought" she go to the house? As she was wondering about these things, she heard the familiar slam of the door, and in a moment saw Henrietta coming down the drive." There was no smile on her face, no waving of the hand. She was pale, but Elizabeth thought she had never seemed so tall and erect before. Elizabeth's whole heart went out to her in love and sympathy.

But Henrietta looked neither to the right nor to the left. She did not even look toward the meeting-place, and did not see Elizabeth until she stepped out from under the willow tree. Then a quick spasm seemed to cross her face. Silently they traversed the familiar "Wgllr f.r> SGhool CJ-IYmnCI r\f <TnaoiT->iv»n- mrln . n U n <4 .„ ww ~w._.ww.. «""*!"' ~* gmo Di/Ouu>-arDOuu the yard and in the halls. Henrietta passed them with high head and unseeing eyes. Elizabeth with her sympathetic understanding had caught Henrietta's feeling and entered into the suffering, in thus appearing at school, when her father's name was in every mouth

and her father's reputation hanging in the balance. There was another silent walk home again after school. Henrietta's pride and misery seemed to hold her away from Elizabeth so that she could not speak. Eliazbeth's love comprehended Henrietta, concealed her own hurt, and was faithful until Henrietta should need it. The matter was too delicate for her to say anyanything. \ - - For three days Elizabeth was Henrietta's shadow, her bodyguard. No girl dared to say anything before her about Henrietta or Mr. Fulcher. "Words were few between them, but in the silence they seemed to become closer friends. The fourth day the morning papers announced: ___ • ' Confession of the Cashier of the Mercantile Bank to Falsified Accounts—No One Else Implicated.' Elizabeth, waiting that morning, saw Henrietta coming down the drive. She noticed that her cheeks were flushed, her eyes shining. With all the other' girls Henrietta remained distant and cold, but she and Elizabeth walked home that night with their arms round each other.

The following morning came this announcement in the papers: ' The Hon. Ronald Fulcher, the president of the Mercantile Bank, has made good the shortage in the accounts of the cashier, and the bank will resume business on June 10.'

June 9 was Henrietta's birthday. She asked Elizabeth to take supper with her. Elizabeth had looked at the little book with ' Friendship ' on it many times during the week, but for some reason the whitewrapped parcel in her hand was not the book at all, but a box containing a little gold heart with ' H ' engraved on it. She handed it to Henrietta with a flushed face. 'I hope you'll like this little heart, Henrietta.' . And Henrietta, the proud, threw her arms round Elizabeth and said, with tears and little gasps, Oh, Elizabeth, how can you love me at all ? I have been so hateful and cold to you, when all the time during the week I have thought over and over again, " No one ever had a friend so true as Elizabeth." I never could have gone through the week without you. That first morning, when father said I must go to school, I would have run away and hidden if you had not been on the bench waiting for me. I wanted to "tell you, but I couldn't. Only a week ago I was telling you what I believed was the test of friendship, and I said that hateful thing to you. Oh, Elizabeth, you have shown me that the. true test of a friend is to stand by you and understand, not caring for circumstances or silence*. When I was going by Smith and Bender's store this morning, I saw this little book called Friendship," and I bought it for you as just a little sign that I think no one ever had a friend like you.' Elizabeth's heart swelled with joy and pride in Henrietta. She was indeed the ideal friend she had dreamed her.

When she reached home, and had gone to her room, she took out the other little white book, the counterpart of the one Henrietta had given her, and held the two side by side. How many things had happened since she had brought the first one home! How much stronger and sweeter friendship was than she had ever dreamed of! She. felt almost as if one of those books represented Henrietta and the other herself.

' Two friends,' she said, ( with just the same thoughts in each.'