word uttered than the garret became the scene of
the stormiest debate that had ever been recorded in the annals of the
Preposterous Society, an institution that had lately celebrated its
fifth anniversary. Hadria, fired by opposition, declared that the
success of great people was due not simply to their greatness, but to
some smaller and commoner quality which brought them in touch with the
majority, and so gave their greatness a chance.

At this, there was such a howl of indignation that Algitha remonstrated.

"We shall be heard, if you don't take care," she warned.

"My dear Algitha, there are a dozen empty rooms between us and the
inhabited part of the house, not to mention the fact that we are a
storey above everyone except the ghosts, so I think you may compose
yourself."

However, the excited voices were hushed a little as the discussion
continued. One of the chief charms of the institution, in the eyes of
the members of the Society, was its secrecy. The family, though united
by ties of warm affection to their parents, did not look for
encouragement from them in this direction. Mr. Fullerton was too
exclusively scientific in his bent of thought, to sympathize with the
kind of speculation in which his children delighted, while their mother
looked with mingled pride and alarm at these outbreaks of individuality
on the part of her daughters, for whom she craved the honours of the
social world. In this out-of-the-way district, society smiled upon
conformity, and glared vindictively at the faintest sign of spontaneous
thinking. Cleverness of execution, as in music, tennis, drawing, was
forgiven, even commended; but originality, though of the mildest sort,
created the same agonizing disturbance in the select circle, as the
sight of a crucifix is wont to produce upon the father of Evil. Yet by
some freak of fortune, the whole family at Dunaghee had shewn obstinate
symptoms of individuality from their childhood, and, what was more
distressing, the worst cases occurred in the girls.

In the debate just recorded, that took place on Algitha's twenty-second
birthday, Ernest had been Hadria's principal opponent, but the others
had also taken the field against her.

"You have the easier cause to champion," she said, when there was a
momentary lull, "for all your evidences can be pointed to and counted;
whereas mine, poor things--pale hypotheses, nameless peradventures--lie
in forgotten churchyards--unthought of, unthanke