cousin Norman might prove a protector for her; but
his wife is not a good person. I was mad to let her go there. But she
would go. She thought she could be of some service. But that woman is
such a fool!"

"Oh, she is not a bad woman," interrupted Keith.

"I do not know how bad she is," said Miss Abigail. "She is a fool. No
good woman would ever have allowed such an intimacy as she allowed to
come between her and her husband; and none but a fool would have
permitted a man to make her his dupe. She did not even have the excuse
of a temptation; for she is as cold as a tombstone."

"I assure you that you are mistaken," defended Keith. "I know her, and I
believe that she has far more depth than you give her credit for--"

"I give her credit for none," said Miss Abigail, decisively. "You men
are all alike. You think a woman with a pretty face who does not talk
much is deep, when she is only dull. On my word, I think it is almost
worse to bring about such a scandal without cause than to give a real
cause for it. In the latter case there is at least the time-worn excuse
of woman's frailty."

Keith laughed.

"They are all so stupid," asserted Miss Abigail, fiercely. "They are
giving up their privileges to be--what? I blushed for my sex when I was
there. They are beginning to mistake civility for servility. I found a
plenty of old ladies tottering on the edge of the grave, like myself,
and I found a number of ladies in the shops and in the churches; but in
that set that you go with--! They all want to be 'women'; next thing
they'll want to be like men. I sha'n't be surprised to see them come to
wearing men's clothes and drinking whiskey and smoking tobacco--the
little fools! As if they thought that a woman who has to curl her hair
and spend a half-hour over her dress to look decent could ever be on a
level with a man who can handle a trunk or drive a wagon or add up a
column of figures, and can wash his face and hands and put on a clean
collar and look like--a gentleman!"

"Oh, not so bad as that," said Keith.

"Yes; there is no limit to their folly. I know them. I am one myself."

"But you do not want to be a man?"

"No, not now. I am too old and dependent. But I'll let you into a
secret. I am secretly envious of them. I'd like to be able to put them
down under my heel and make them--squeal."

Mrs. Nailor turned and spoke to the old lady. She was evidently about to
take her leave. Keith moved over, and for the fir