senting
things from day to day not exactly as they are, but as an editor or
paymaster wants them to appear. If we suffered our journalists to sign
their articles, they would probably write better, with more self-respect
and a higher sense of responsibility; they would become stronger in
themselves, and would be more influential with their readers. As it is,
few men with vigorous and original minds can endure beyond a year or two
of political leader-writing.

Graham had tried it, and the ordeal was too difficult for him. Now he
had a greater scope for his abilities, and less money for his pains.

Clara Graham was the daughter of a solicitor in Angleford, and had known
Lettice Campion from childhood. She was a pretty woman, thoroughly
good-hearted, with tastes and powers somewhat in advance of her
education. Perhaps she stood a little in awe of Lettice, and wondered
occasionally whether her husband considered a woman who knew Latin and
Greek, and wrote clever articles in _The Decade_, superior to one who
had no such accomplishments, though she might be prettier, and the
mother of his children, and even the darner of his stockings. But Clara
was not without wits, so she did not propound questions of that sort to
her husband; she reserved them for her own torment, and then expiated
her jealousy by being kinder to Lettice than ever.

Lettice's plans were far more fixed and decided than Sydney knew. She
had corresponded very fully and frankly with the Grahams on the subject,
and Mr. Graham was already looking about for a place where she could set
up her household gods. It was no use to consult Mrs. Campion on the
subject. Her husband's death had thrown her into a state of mental
torpor which seemed at first to border upon imbecility; and although she
recovered to some extent from the shock, her health had been too much
shaken to admit of complete recovery. Thenceforward she was an invalid
and an old woman, who had abnegated her will in favor of her daughter's,
and asked for nothing better than to be governed as well as cared for.
The change was a painful one to Lettice, but practically it left her
freer than ever, for her mother wanted little companionship, and was
quite as happy with the maid that Lettice had brought from Angleford as
with Lettice herself. The visit to the Grahams was an excellent thing
both for Mrs. Campion and for her daughter. Clara managed to win the old
lady's heart, and so relieved her friend of much