, who came regularly sometime during every forenoon, to
superintend our labors. He stayed usually about half an hour; and from
the first day I became connected with the Bureau I made a point to avoid
him as much as possible,--a course which seemed acceptable to him, for
he always addressed his business suggestions to Mrs. Marsh, and did not
encourage me to converse with him. Once in a while, however, he would
approach me in a constrained fashion, and express satisfaction with the
reports Mr. Fleisch made of my progress. It was through his silent
agency also, I had no question, that I was appointed treasurer, and was
regarded as a prominent worker in the cause. With Miss Kingsley, on the
other hand, he was easy and familiar. It was evident that he liked her,
and he listened to her opinions; but I could never detect what seemed to
me any signs of sentiment on his part in her regard. Miss Kingsley must
have thought differently, for on one or two occasions she was unable to
resist the temptation, as they went out of the door together, of
looking back at me with an air of triumph. The more Mr. Spence seemed to
avoid me, the kinder and more patronizing was her manner; and she so far
evinced her friendship presently as to show me the manuscript of a novel
which she had written, entitled "Moderation," and which was dedicated
"To him to whom I owe all that in me is of worth,--Charles Liversage
Spence." It was an attempt, as she explained to me, to return to the
rational style and improving tone of Jane Austen, whose novels were
sound educators as well as sources of amusement. From Miss Kingsley's
natural fluency and sprightliness I expected something "racy," to quote
Paul Barr, and I was disappointed to find "Moderation" dull and
didactic. It was however heralded and published with a great flourish of
trumpets; and Mr. Spence wrote a review of it in one of the leading
newspapers under the symbol XXX (a signature of his known only to the
initiated), in which he called attention to its exquisite moral tone,
which had no counterpart in fiction since the writings of Miss Edgeworth
were on every parlor table. In conclusion he said: "Whatever the too
captious critic may say of the dramatic interest of the story, it is
indeed a triumph for a young writer, and that writer a woman, to embody
in her first novel opinions that will make the book of value to the
student of psychology long after the craving of human nature for
fictitious narrat