while she thought of him with a new pride, she felt an undercurrent of
sadness in the consciousness that the pleasant threads of daily
intercourse had been broken, and the old childish playfellow had passed
away.

But as the golden gate of childhood thus closed on Grace Campbell,
another gate opened for her which led to pleasant places. It had,
indeed, been waiting open for her ever since she came into the world,
though she had often passed it by unheeded. But at last there came to
Grace a glimpse of the shining light which still guides the way of
seeking souls to "yonder wicket gate." She began to feel an intense
longing to enter there and begin that new life to which it leads. She
knocked, and found that it was open for her, and entering there she met
the gracious Guide who had beckoned her to come, whispering in the
silence of her heart, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Not long
after Grace had begun to walk in this path, an event happened which
proved to her like the visit to the "Interpreter's House" in the
Pilgrim's story; but in order to explain its full eventfulness, we must
go back to tell of earlier days in her aunt's home.

On Sunday mornings Grace usually drove with her aunt to church in
decorous state. When Walter was at home he made one of the carriage
party, though generally under protest, declaring that it would be "ever
so much jollier to walk than to be bowled along in that horrid old
rumble," as he used irreverently to designate his aunt's rather antique
chariot. When they arrived at church, the children followed their aunt's
slow steps to one of the pews in the gallery, where Miss Hume used to
take the precautionary measure of separating them by sending Grace to
the top of the seat, and placing herself between the vivacious Walter
and his playmate. Notwithstanding this precaution, they generally