e bare truth; truth itself became visible to
her only when it had on a wedding garment. As she stated her aspiration
to herself, she longed to carry the everlasting gospel to the weary
rich. "The weary rich" was the phrase she outfitted them with when
considered as objects of pity and missionary zeal. To her mind they
seemed, in advance, shining trophies which she hoped to win, and in her
reveries she saw herself presenting them before the Almighty, somewhat
as a Roman general might lead captive barbarian princes to the throne of
his imperial master.

Mrs. Frankland could not be oblivious to the fact that a Bible reading
among the rich would be likely to bring her better pecuniary returns
than one among the poor. But she did not let this consideration appear
on the surface of her thoughts, nor was it at all a primary or essential
one.

She knew but little of the intricacies of social complications, and her
mind now turned to Mrs. Hilbrough as the wealthiest of all her
occasional hearers, and one having an ample parlor in a fashionable
quarter of the town.

Her first thought had been to get Phillida to accompany her when she
should go to suggest the matter to Mrs. Hilbrough. But on second thought
she gave up this intermediation, for reasons which it would have been
impossible for her to define. If she exerted a powerful influence over
Phillida in the direction of emotion, she could not escape in turn the
influence of Phillida's view of life when in her presence. Although
personal ambitions mixed themselves to a certain extent with Mrs.
Frankland's religious zeal, disguising themselves in rhetorical costumes
of a semi-ecclesiastical sort, they did not venture to masquerade too
freely before Phillida. Mrs. Frankland, though less skillful in affairs
than in speech, felt that it would be better in the present instance to
go to Mrs. Hilbrough alone.

It was with a glow of pleasure not wholly unworldly that she found
herself one afternoon in Mrs. Hilbrough's reception-room, and noted all
about her marks of taste and unstinted expenditure. To a critical
spectator the encounter between the two ladies would have afforded
material for a curious comparison. The ample figure of Mrs. Frankland,
her mellifluous voice, her large, sweeping, cheerily affectionate,
influential mode of address, brought her into striking contrast with the
rather slender, quietly self-reliant Mrs. Hilbrough, whose genial
cordiality covered, while it har