uzzled. "I am sorry if
she is a fine lady, but people like that, when they become interested,
are often excellent workers. It is a noble gift of Mr. Flagg's--$500,000
as a foundation fund. He's a good American at all events. Wilbur must
certainly compete for the buildings, and his having first met you there
ought to be an inspiration to him to do fine work."

Selma had been glad of the opportunity to criticise Mrs. Hallett Taylor,
whom she had learned, by the light of her superior social knowledge, to
regard as an unimportant person. Yet she had been conscious of a
righteous impulse in saying what she thought of her. She knew that she
had never liked Mrs. Taylor, and she was not pleased to hear that Mr.
Flagg had selected her from among the women of Benham to superintend the
administration of his splendid gift. Benham had come to seem to her
remote and primitive, yet she preferred, and was in the mood, to think
that it represented the principles which were dear to her, and that she
had been appreciated there far better than in her present sphere. She
was still tied to Benham by correspondence with Mrs. Earle. Selma had
written at once to explain her sudden departure, and letters passed
between them at intervals of a few weeks--letters on Selma's part fluent
with dazzled metropolitan condescension, yet containing every now and
then a stern charge against her new fellow-citizens on the score of
levity and worldliness.

The donation for the establishment of Wetmore College was made shortly
after another institution for the education of women in which Pauline
was interested--Everdean College--had been opened to students. The
number of applicants for admission to Everdean had been larger than the
authorities had anticipated, and Pauline, who had been one of the
promoters and most active workers in raising funds for and supervising
the construction of this labor of love, was jubilant over the outlook,
and busy in regard to a variety of new matters presented for solution by
the suddenly evolved needs of the situation. Among these was the
acquisition of two or three new women instructors; and it occurred to
Pauline at once that Selma might know of some desirable candidate. Selma
appeared to manifest but little interest in this inquiry at the time,
but a few months subsequent to their conversation in regard to Mrs.
Taylor she presented herself at Pauline's rooms one morning with the
announcement that she had found some one. Pau