e
have hit upon this metaphor, isn't it funny that our little social
experiment should have taken the shape of a horseshoe?"

"The most sociable, because the most magnetic, shape it could take.
You will see the power it will develop. There's a great deal in
merely taking form according to fundamental principles. Witness the
getting round a fireside. Isn't that a horseshoe? And could half as
much sympathy be evolved from a straight line?"

"I believe in firesides," said Rose.

"And in women who can organize and inform them," said Kenneth.
"First, firesides; then neighborhoods; that is the way the world's
life works out; and women have their hands at the heart of it. They
can do so much more there than by making the laws! When the life is
right, the laws will make themselves, or be no longer needed. They
are such mere outside patchwork,--makeshifts till a better time!"

"Wrong living must make wrong laws, whoever does the voting," said
Rosamond, sagely.

"False social standards make false commercial ones; inflated
pretensions demand inflated currency; selfish, untrue domestic
living eventuates in greedy speculations and business shams; and all
in the intriguing for corrupt legislation, to help out partial
interests. It isn't by multiplying the voting power, but by
purifying it, that the end is to be reached."

"That is so sententious, Kenneth, that I shall have to take it home
and ravel it out gradually in my mind in little shreds. In the mean
while, dear, suppose we stop in the village, and get some little
brown-ware cups for top-overs. You never ate any of my top-overs?
Well, when you do, you'll say that all the world ought to be brought
up on top-overs."

Rosamond was very particular about her little brown-ware cups. They
had to be real stone,--brown outside, and gray-blue in; and they
must be of a special size and depth. When they were found, and done
up in a long parcel, one within another, in stout paper, she carried
it herself to the chaise, and would scarcely let Kenneth hold it
while she got in; after which, she laid it carefully across her lap,
instead of putting it behind upon the cushion.

'You see they were rather dear; but they are the only kind worth
while. Those little yellow things would soak and crack, and never
look comfortable in the kitchen-closet. I give you very fair
warning, I shall always want the best of things but then I shall
take very fierce and jealous care of them,--like this.'