alized the
following autumn. He confided to her, also, that he was engaged in his
leisure moments in the preparation of a literary volume to be entitled,
"Watchwords of Patriotism," a study of the requisites of the best
citizenship, exemplified by pertinent extracts from the public
utterances of the most distinguished American public servants.

Selma on her part reciprocated by a reference to the course of lectures
on "Culture and Higher Education," which she had resolved to deliver
before the Benham Institute during the winter. In these lectures she
meant to emphasize the importance of unfettered individuality, and to
comment adversely on the tendencies hostile to this fundamental
principle of progress which she had observed in New York and from which
Benham itself did not appear to her to be entirely exempt. After
delivering these lectures in Benham she intended to repeat them in
various parts of the State, and in some of the large cities elsewhere,
under the auspices of the Confederated Sisterhood of Women's Clubs of
America, the Sorosis which Mrs. Earle had established on a firm basis,
and of which at present she was second vice-president. As a token of
sympathy with this undertaking, Mr. Lyons offered to procure her a free
pass on the railroads over which she would be obliged to travel. This
pleased Selma greatly, for she had always regarded free passes as a sign
of mysterious and enviable importance.

Two months later Selma, as secretary of the sub-committee of the
Institute selected to oppose before the legislature the bill to create
an appointed school board, had further occasion to confer with Mr.
Lyons. He agreed to be the active counsel, and approved of the plan that
a delegation of women should journey to the capital, two hours and a
half by rail, and add the moral support of their presence at the hearing
before the legislative committee.

The expedition was another gratification to Selma--who had become
possessed of her free pass. She felt that in visiting the state-house
and thus taking an active part in the work of legislation she was
beginning to fulfil the larger destiny for which she was qualified. Side
by side with Mrs. Earle at the head of a delegation of twenty Benham
women she marched augustly into the committee chamber. The contending
factions sat on opposite sides of the room. Through its middle ran a
long table occupied by the Committee on Education to which the bill had
been referred. Among