people were alone.

"I like nothing better than to talk of her." Mr. Ried said, with
animation; "but I don't know so much about her as I wish I did. She went
away when I was quite young. I used to say 'she died,' but since I have
awakened to see her cherished plans being carried on all around me I
cannot think of her as dead."

"That is what I want to talk about,--her work, or her plans for work.
What made her so different from other people, Mr. Ried. _Wasn't_
she different?"

The young man regarded the question thoughtfully before answering.

"Not from all the people," he said at last; "but certainly very
different from some. I used to think that all Christians were like her,
of course; then, when I saw my mistake, I went to the other extreme, and
thought there were none like her on earth. I have discovered that the
medium position is the correct one."

"But what I want to know is, what _made_ her different? It wasn't
her age. Mrs. Roberts thinks she was young?"

"She was hardly nineteen when she died. Oh, no, it wasn't age; she
told me that she used to be very different. She was a Christian from
childhood, but she said that she was ashamed to claim the name. There
was nothing Christlike about her; still she was a member of the Church.
As I remember her, and as I look at other people, my judgment is that,
in her early Christian life, she was much like most of the Christians
with whom you and I are familiar."