change in her life and circumstances? When her
husband told her, she just put her arms around his neck and whispered;
"All right, John, I shall do the best I can to help you bear it." And
from that moment they began life again. She did not even complain when
they were obliged to move into a small cottage in the suburbs, but it
was hard for her to be ignored and forgotten by the elegant social
world, where she had so recently been an acknowledged leader.

Alas! she had no sugar plums for society now, so it soon forgot her
existence. There were, however, some exceptions among her former
friends, and she was glad to welcome among her few visitors, Kate Turner
and Grace Hall, who had grown to love Mrs. Hayden more than they would
have thought possible when she seemed so high above them in the social
scale.

"She is turning out a saint rather than a sinner," said Kate one
evening, as they were discussing the Haydens and recalled the
conversation of the night of the party.

"Just wait awhile. Many people can be heroic in great things, but are
sadly deficient when it comes to the little things," said Grace, with
her usual caution. "I believe I could be a heroine myself, if some grand
opportunity came," she added, smiling.

"Oh, Grace, don't trifle so; you know this is a very serious matter with
Mr. and Mrs. Hayden, and they are both doing nobly," cried Kate, with
tears in her eyes.

"Well, queen Katherine, I don't mean any harm, and you must not think
anything of my brusque speeches. As you know, there is a tinge of
skepticism in me which I can not help, and my ideals are so much higher
than the realities of life, that I am always painfully conscious of the
difference."

"Well, what would you wish Mrs. Hayden to be like, for instance, in
order to come up to your ideal of the heroic woman?" asked Kate in a
softened tone.

"Kate dear, I love Mrs. Hayden as much as you do, and would not for a
moment disparage her virtues, but it strikes me as a philosophical fact
that as a rule, human nature can and does display wonderful courage in
great emergencies, but fails miserably in details, and this ought not to
be so. Nothing would please me better than to see one life prove that I
am wrong."

"That is all true, Gracie, about humanity in general, but she is lovely,
and I am sorry for her having to be lame all her life. It's a perfect
shame that she must lose even her health, for of course she will never
be strong again."

"