tirety?--a saved and graced whole, not only as to its heart, but as to
its liberal and varied borders of water, woodland and prairie.

"I should be proud of that," said Raymond heartily. The name of such a
city, following one's own name on any hotel-register, would indeed be a
matter for pride.

He attended several of the early meetings that were designed to get some
such project, in its simpler form, under way. He had friends among
professional men in the arts, and some acquaintances among newly formed
bodies of social workers. He was not slow in perceiving that the way was
likely to be tedious and hard. It called for organization--the
organization of hope, of patience, of hot, untiring zeal, of _finesse_
against political chicane, of persistence in the face of indifference
and selfishness. "It will take years of organized endeavor," he
confessed. He recognized his own ineffectiveness beyond the narrow pale
of hopeful suggestion, and wished that here too the giving of a
substantial sum--a large penny-in-the-slot--might produce quick and
facile results.

His wife, it is to be feared, looked upon these activities of his,
however slight, with a lack-lustre eye. She knew nothing of local
problems and local needs. She was conscious of a hortatory manner in
small matters and of indifference, which she almost made neglect, in
matters that appeared to her to be larger. If she asked for a fairer
share in his evenings--he belonged to a literary club, a musical
society, and so on--it was scant consolation to be told that he objected
to some of her own activities and associations. He did not much care,
for example, to have her "run" with the McComases and others of that
type or to have her dawdle over glasses, tall, broad, or short, in
places of general democratic assemblage; and he told her so. I believe
it was about here that she began to find him something of a prig and a
doctrinaire; and she was not incapable, under provocation, of mentioning
her impressions. It was about here, I suspect, that he told her
something of Johnny McComas and his origins--at least he once or twice
spoke of Johnny with a certain sharp scorn to me. He assuredly spoke of
other country clubs on the other side of town which were more desirable
for her and equally accessible, save in the material sense of mere
miles. Though he took no interest in athletics, nor even in the lighter
out-of-door sports, he was willing to join one of those clubs, if it was