te eyebrows being suitably engaged in moralizing on her." In
those terms the ever-ready Rufus set the story going again.

"Quite right," Amelius resumed. "There she was, poor thing, a little
thin timid creature, in a white dress, with a black scarf over her
shoulders, trembling and wondering in a room full of strangers. The
Elder Brother took her by the hand, and kissed her on the forehead, and
bade her heartily welcome in the name of the Community. Then the women
followed his example, and the men all shook hands with her. And then our
chief put the three questions, which he is bound to address to all new
arrivals when they join us: 'Do you come here of your own free will? Do
you bring with you a written recommendation from one of our brethren,
which satisfies us that we do no wrong to ourselves or to others in
receiving you? Do you understand that you are not bound to us by
vows, and that you are free to leave us again if the life here is not
agreeable to you?' Matters being settled so far, the reading of the
Rules, and the Penalties imposed for breaking them, came next. Some
of the Rules you know already; others of smaller importance I needn't
trouble you with. As for the Penalties, if you incur the lighter ones,
you are subject to public rebuke, or to isolation for a time from the
social life of the Community. If you incur the heavier ones, you are
either sent out into the world again for a given period, to return
or not as you please; or you are struck off the list of members, and
expelled for good and all. Suppose these preliminaries agreed to by Miss
Mellicent with silent submission, and let us go on to the close of the
ceremony--the reading of the Rules which settle the questions of Love
and Marriage."

"Aha!" said Mr. Hethcote, "we are coming to the difficulties of the
Community at last!"

"Are we also coming to Miss Mellicent, sir?" Rufus inquired. "As a
citizen of a free country in which I can love in one State, marry
in another, and be divorced in a third, I am not interested in your
Rules--I am interested in your Lady."

"The two are inseparable in this case," Amelius answered gravely. "If I
am to speak of Miss Mellicent, I must speak of the Rules; you will soon
see why. Our Community becomes a despotism, gentlemen, in dealing with
love and marriage. For example, it positively prohibits any member
afflicted with hereditary disease from marrying at all; and it reserves
to itself, in the case of every prop