irty years?"

"Why, this Pelton business," Graves snapped back at him. "You know
what I mean. Your own associates are responsible for it!" He turned
back to face the chair, and, with a surprising minimum of invective,
described the scene in which Claire Pelton had demonstrated her
Literacy. "And that's not all, brother Literates," he continued.
"Since then, I've been receiving reports from the Pelton store. Claire
Pelton has been openly doing the work of a Literate; going over the
store's written records, checking inventories, checking the credit
guide, handling the price lists--"

"What's that got to do with Black Literacy?" Gerald Toppington
demanded. "Black Literacy is a term which labels the professional
practice of Literacy, for hire, by a non-Fraternity Literate, or
Literate service furnished for criminal or politically subversive
purposes, or the betrayal of a client by a Fraternity Literate.
There's nothing of the sort involved here. This girl, who does appear
to be Literate, is simply looking after the interests of her family's
business."

"She was taught by a Literate, a Fraternities-member, under, to say
the very least, irregular circumstances, and without payment of any
fee. Any fee, that is, that the Fraternities can collect any
percentage on. And the Literate who taught her also taught her younger
brother, Ray Pelton, and this Literate, who is known to be her
lover--"

"Suppose he is her lover, so what?" one of Lancedale's partisans
demanded. "You say, yourself, that she's a Literate. That ought to
remove any objection. Why, if she were to come forward and admit and
demonstrate her Literacy, there'd be no possible objection from the
Fraternities' viewpoint to her marrying young Prestonby."

"And as for Prestonby's action in teaching Literacy to her and to her
brother," Cardon spoke up, "I think he deserves the thanks and
commendation of the Fraternities. He's put a period to four
generations of bigoted Illiterates."

Wilton Joyner was on his feet. "Will Literate Graves yield for a
motion?" he asked. "Thank you, Harvey. Literate President, and brother
Literates: I yield to no man in my abhorrence of Black Literacy, or in
my detestation for the political principles of which Chester Pelton
has made himself the spokesman, but I deny that we should allow the
acts and opinions of the Illiterate parent to sway us in our
consideration of the Literate children. It has come to my notice, as
it has to Litera