alk like that. I declare you
would be very effective in public if you were roused."

"Yes, I am roused, and I am willing to speak in public if it becomes
necessary in order to keep Benham uncontaminated by the insidious canker
of exclusiveness and the distrust of aspiring souls which a few narrow
minds choose to term untrained. Am _I_ untrained? Am _I_ superficial and
common? Do _I_ lack the appearance and behavior of a lady?"

Selma accompanied these interrogatories with successive waves of the
hand, as though she were branding so many falsehoods.

"Assuredly not, Selma. I consider you"--and here Mrs. Earle gasped in
the process of choosing her words--"I consider you one of our best
trained and most independent minds--cultured, a friend of culture, and
an earnest seeker after truth. If you are not a lady, neither am I,
neither is anyone in Benham. Why do you ask, dear?" And without waiting
for an answer, Mrs. Earle added with a touch of material wisdom, "You
return to Benham under satisfactory, I might say, brilliant auspices.
You will be the active spirit in this fine house, and be in a position
to promote worthy intellectual and moral movements."

"Thank heavens, yes. And to combat those which are unworthy and
dangerous," exclaimed Selma, clasping her fingers, "I can count on the
support of Mr. Parsons, God bless him! And it would seem at last as if I
had, a real chance--a real chance at last. Mrs. Earle--Cora--I know you
can keep a secret. I feel almost as though you were my mother, for there
is no one else now to whom I can talk like this. I have not been happy
in New York. I thought I was happy at first, but lately we have been
miserable. My marriage--er--they drove my husband to the wall, and
killed him. He was sensitive and noble, but not practical, and he fell a
victim to the mercenary despotism of our surroundings. When I tried to
help him they became jealous of me, and shut their doors in our faces."

"You poor, poor child. I have suspected for some time that something was
wrong."

"It nearly killed me. But now, thank heaven, I breathe freely once more.
I have lost my dear husband, but I have escaped from that prison-house;
and with his memory to keep me merciless, I am eager to wage war against
those influences which are conspiring to fetter the free-born soul and
stifle spontaneity. Luella Bailey must be elected, and these people be
taught that foreign ideas may flourish in New York, but cannot obtain