A great longing to help the
girls who found things hard came to her and they gladly accepted her
help and loved her for her sympathy. The months wrought a marvelous
change and though she found it difficult in the presence of the critical
family to talk naturally at first, still the things she had to tell
proved so interesting that they forgot to criticize and she forgot
herself while they listened. At the High School Seniors' banquet she
spoke for her college and her brother declared it the best speech made.
She is a graduate now and all traces of the old awkwardness have left
her. She is reserved but easy, simple and gracious in meeting those whom
her work calls her to meet and her eye and her heart alike are open for
the self-conscious girl wherever she meets her. If she were to try all
her life, she tells me, she could never express her gratitude for what
that roommate did for her.
What was it that happened to her? She forgot herself. People had told
her to do that before but she couldn't, for she felt that they were
watching to see her make the attempt. They called attention to her
shyness, her roommate ignored it. They bade her take part in
conversation and join with others in what they were doing; her roommate
gave her a part in the conversation and made a place for her in all that
they were doing.
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