As the first
Reuben had known by instinct the values of pelts and lands, Bettina
knew by instinct the values of qualities, of brains, of hearts, of
circumstances, and the incidents which affect them. She was as unaware
of the significance of her great possession as were those around her.
Nevertheless it was an unerring thing. As a mere child, unformed and
uneducated by life, she had not been one of the small creatures to be
deceived or flattered.
"She's an awfully smart little thing, that Betty," her New York aunts
and cousins often remarked. "She seems to see what people mean, it
doesn't matter what they say. She likes people you would not expect her
to like, and then again she sometimes doesn't care the least for people
who are thought awfully attractive."
As has been already intimated, the child was crude enough and not
particularly well bred, but her small brain had always been at work, and
each day of her life recorded for her valuable impressions. The page of
her young mind had ceased to be a blank much earlier than is usual.
The comparing of these impressions with such as she received when her
life in the French school was new afforded her active mental exercise.
She began with natural, secret indignation and rebellion.
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