sh solution of the difficulty. She had no picturesque
grievances of the kind that would excite sympathy. On the contrary,
popular feeling would set dead against her; she would be acting on an
idea that nobody shared, not even her most intimate friend.

Miss Du Prel had arrived at the conclusion that she did not understand
Hadria. She had attributed many of her peculiarities to her unique
education and her inexperience. Hadria had indeed changed greatly since
her marriage, but not in the manner that might have been expected. On
the contrary, a closer intimacy with popular social ideals had fired her
with a more angry spirit of rebellion. Miss Du Prel had met examples of
every kind of eccentricity, but she had never before come upon so marked
an instance of this particular type. Hadria's attitude towards life had
suggested to Miss Du Prel the idea of her heroine, _Caterina_. She
remonstrated with Hadria, assuring her that no insult towards women was
intended in the general scheme of society, and that it was a mistake to
regard it in so resentful a spirit.

"But that is just the most insulting thing about it," Hadria exclaimed.
"Insult is so much a matter of course that people are surprised if one
takes umbrage at it. Read this passage from Aristotle that I came upon
the other day. He is perfectly calm and amiable, entirely unconscious of
offence, when he says that 'a wife ought to shew herself even more
obedient to the rein than if she entered the house as a purchased slave.
For she has been bought at a high price, for the sake of sharing life
and bearing children, than which no higher or holier tie can possibly
exist.' (Henriette to the very life!)"

Miss Du Prel laughed, and re-read the passage from the _Politics_, in
some surprise.

"Do you suppose insult is deliberately intended in that graceful
sentiment?" asked Hadria. "Obviously not. If any woman of that time had
blazed up in anger at the well-meant speech, she would have astonished
and grieved her contemporaries. Aristotle doubtless professed a high
respect for women who followed his precepts--as men do now when we are
obedient."

"Of course, our society in this particular has not wandered far from the
Greek idea," Miss Du Prel observed pensively.

Hadria pronounced the paradox, "The sharpness of the insult lies in its
not being intended."

Miss Du Prel could not prevail upon her to modify the assertion. Hadria
pointed out that the Greeks also meant no off