rritated his pretty Jane,' added Merton, who remembered this
heroic adventure. 'It is a very hard case,' he went on, 'but I fear that
our methods are powerless. The only chance would be to divert young Mr.
Warren's affections into some other more enlightened channel. That
expedient has often been found efficacious. Is he very deeply enamoured?
Would not the society of another pretty and intelligent girl perhaps work
wonders?'

'Perhaps it might, sir, but I don't know where to find any one that would
attract my James. Except for political meetings, and a literary lecture
or two, with a magic-lantern and a piano, we have not much social
relaxation at Bulcester. We object to promiscuous dancing, on grounds of
conscience. Also, of course, to the stage.'

'Ah, so you _do_ allow for the claims of conscience, do you?'

'For what do you take me, sir? Only, of course the conscience must be
enlightened,' said Mr. Warren, as other earnest people usually do.

'Certainly, certainly,' said Merton; 'nothing so dangerous as the
unenlightened conscience. Why, in this very matter of marriage the
conscience of the Mormons leads them to singular aberrations, while that
of the Arunta tribe--but I should only pain you if I pursued the subject.
You said that your Society indulged in literary lectures: is your
programme for the season filled up?'

'I am President of the Bulcester Literary Society,' said Mr. Warren, 'and
I ought to know. We have a vacancy for Friday week; but why do you
inquire? In fact I want a lecturer on "The Use and Abuse of Novels," now
you ask. Our people, somehow, always want their literary lectures to be
about novels. I try to make the lecturers take a lofty moral tone, and
usually entertain them at my house, where I probe their ideas, and warn
them that we must have nothing loose. Once, sir, we had a lecturer on
"The Oldest Novel in the World." He gave us a terrible shock, sir! I
never saw so many red cheeks in a Bulcester audience. And the man seemed
quite unaware of the effect he was producing.'

'Short-sighted, perhaps?' said Merton.

'Ever since we have been very careful. But, sir, we seem to have got
away from the subject.'

'It is only seeming,' said Merton. 'I have an idea which may be of
service to you.'

'Thank you, most kindly,' said Mr. Warren. 'But as how?'

'Does your Society ever employ lady lecturers?'

'We prefer them; we are all for enlarging the sphere of woman's
activ