nts in emphatic whispers, and I was so pleased with
the picture they made that I failed to catch the name of the speaker
whom the chairman was introducing. A nudge from Mrs. Owen caused me to
lift my eyes to the rostrum.

"The next speaker is Mrs. Allen Thatcher," announced the chairman,
beaming inanely as a man always does when it becomes his grateful
privilege to present a pretty woman to an audience. Having known Marian
a long time, it was almost too much for my composure to behold her
there, beyond question the best-dressed woman in the senate chamber,
with a single American Beauty thrust into her coat, and a bewildering
rose-trimmed hat crowning her fair head. A pleasant sight anywhere on
earth, this daughter of the Honorable Morton Bassett, sometime senator
from Fraser; but her appearance in the legislative hall long dominated
by her father confirmed my faith in the ultimate adjustments of the law
of compensations. I had known Marian of old as an expert golfer and the
most tireless dancer at Waupegan; but that speech broke all her records.

Great is the emotional appeal of a pretty woman in an unapproachable
hat, but greater still the power of the born story-teller! I knew that
Marian visited Elizabeth House frequently and told stories of her own or
gave recitations at the Saturday night entertainments; but this was
Marian with a difference. She stated facts and drove them home with
anecdotes. It was a vigorous, breathless performance, and the
manufacturers' attorney confessed afterward that she had given him a
good trouncing. When she concluded (I remember that her white-gloved
hand smote the speaker's desk with a sharp thwack at her last word), I
was conscious that the applause was started by a stout, bald gentleman
whom I had not noticed before. I turned to look at the author of this
spontaneous outburst and found that it was the Honorable Edward G.
Thatcher, whose unfeigned pride in his daughter-in-law was good to see.

When the applause had ceased, Mrs. Owen sighed deeply and ejaculated:
"Well, well!"

As we walked home Aunt Sally grew talkative. "I used to say it was all
in the Book of Job and believed it; but there are some things that Job
didn't know after all. When I put Marian on the board of trusteees of
_E_-lizabeth House School, it was just to make good feeling in the
family, and I didn't suppose she would attend a meeting; but she's one
of the best women on that job. And _E_-lizabeth"--I loved the