Naturally at this critical moment both girls turned to Sister Angela,
but with the rare insight that had not deserted her, she held them from
her, though her heart hungered for them.

"Ridge House is in the making," she wrote. "I am going slow, making no
mistakes. I am asking some Sisters who, like me, have fallen by the way,
to come here and help me with my scheme, and in the confusion of
readjustment, two young girls, who ought to be forming their own plans,
would be sadly in the way.

"Go abroad, my dears, take"--here Sister Angela named a woman she could
trust to help, not hinder--"and learn to walk alone at last."

Doris accepted the advice and the little party went to Italy.

"Here," she said, "Merry shall have the beauty she craves and she shall
learn what life means, as well."

And Meredith's learning began.

They had only been in Italy a month when George Thornton appeared. He
was young, handsome, and already so successful in business that older
men cast approving eyes upon him. He had chosen, at the outset of his
career, to go to the Philippines and accepted an appointment there. He
had devoted himself so rigidly to his duties that his health began to
show the strain and he was taking his first, well-won, vacation when he
met the Fletchers.

Thornton's past had been spent largely with men who, like himself, were
making their way among people, and in an environment in which the finer