Don't you think young lives need room, Bishop?
Oughtn't we to seek to widen their mental horizons?"
"The horizons widen, they widen of themselves, Mrs. Valentin--very suddenly
sometimes, and beyond our ken." The bishop's voice had struck a deeper
note; he paused and looked at Elsie with eyes so kind and tender that the
girl choked and turned away. "This war is rather a widening business, and
California is getting her share. Our boys of the First, for instance,--you
see I still call them _our_ boys,--what were they doing a year ago, and
what are they doing now? I'll be bound half of them a year ago didn't know
how 'Philippines' was spelled."
Mrs. Valentin became restless.
"Is that the evening paper?" she asked.
The bishop glanced at the paper. "And who," said he, "is to open the gates
of sunrise for our Elsie? With whom do you intend to place her in Boston?"
"Oh, with Mrs. Barrington."
Mrs. Valentin was watching the bishop, whose eyes still rested upon Elsie.
"She is to be one of the chosen five, is she? The five wise virgins--of the
East? But they are all Western virgins this year, I believe."
"If you mean that they are all from the Western States, I think you are
mistaken, Bishop.
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