intellectual cleverness; not for sincerity, but for manners; not for
honesty, but for success; not for usefulness, but for social position,
which is most often determined by the degree of uselessness. It was as
though the handler of gems were to attach no value whatever to the
weight of the diamond itself, but to fix the worth of the stone wholly
by the cutting and polish that the crystal might receive.

At first, Kitty had been excited, bewildered and fascinated by the
glittering, sparkling, ever-changing, many-faceted life. Then she had
grown weary and homesick. And then, as the months had passed, and she
had been drawn more and more by association and environment into the
world of down-to-dateism she, too, began to regard the sparkle of the
diamond as the determining factor in the value of the gem. And when the
young woman had achieved this, they called her education finished, and
sent her back to the land over which Granite Mountain, gray and grim and
fortress-like, with its ranks of sentinel bills? keeps enduring and
unchanging watch.

During those first glad days of Kitty's homecoming she had been eagerly
interested in everything. The trivial bits of news about the small
doings of her old friends had been delightful. The home life, with its
simple routine and its sweet companionship, had been restful and
satisfying. The very scenes of her girlhood had seemed to welcome her
with a spirit of genuineness and steadfastness that had made her feel as
one entering a safe home harbor after a long and adventurous voyage to
far-away and little-known lands. And Phil, in the virile strength of his
manhood, in the simple bigness of his character, and in his enduring and
unchanging love, had made her feel his likeness to the primitive land of
his birth.