prestige--and the
"poor whites," still at a social disadvantage, but gradually evolving
a solid middle class, with reinforcements from the decaying
aristocracy, and producing now and then some ambitious and successful
man like Fetters. To emphasise these distinctions was no part of the
colonel's plan. To eradicate them entirely in any stated time was of
course impossible, human nature being what it was, but he would do
nothing to accentuate them. His mill hands should become, like the
mill hands in New England towns, an intelligent, self-respecting and
therefore respected element of an enlightened population; and the
whole town should share equally in anything he might spend for their
benefit.

He found much pleasure in talking over these fine plans of his with
Laura Treadwell. Caxton had entered into them with the enthusiasm of
an impressionable young man, brought into close contact with a
forceful personality. But in Miss Laura the colonel found a sympathy
that was more than intellectual--that reached down to sources of
spiritual strength and inspiration which the colonel could not touch
but of which he was conscious and of which he did not hesitate to
avail himself at second hand. Little Phil had made the house almost a
second home; and the frequent visits of his father had only
strengthened the colonel's admiration of Laura's character. He had
learned, not from the lady herself, how active in good works she was.
A Lady Bountiful in any large sense she could not be, for her means,
as she had so frankly said upon his first visit, were small. But a
little went a long way among the poor of Clarendon, and the life after
all is more than meat, and the body more than raiment, and advice and
sympathy were as often needed as other kinds of help. He had offered
to assist her charities in a substantial way, and she had permitted it
now and then, but had felt obliged at last to cease mentioning them
altogether. He was able to circumvent this delicacy now and then
through the agency of Graciella, whose theory was that money was made
to spend.

"Laura," he said one evening when at the house, "will you go with me
to-morrow to visit the academy? I wish to see with your eyes as well
as with mine what it needs and what can be done with it. It shall be
our secret until we are ready to surprise the town."

They went next morning, without notice to the principal. The school
was well ordered, but the equipment poor. The building was