no wish to see him punished simply
because he has been worldly and vainglorious. You thought him able in a
business way, and liked to meet him. But as for her, Flossy, his wife,"
Selma continued, with a gasp, "it would be sheer hypocrisy for me to
assert that I am sorry for her. I should deem myself unworthy of being
considered an earnest-minded American woman if I did not maintain that
this disgrace which has befallen them is the logical and legitimate
consequence of their godless lives--especially of her frivolity and
presumptuous indifference to spiritual influences. That woman, James, is
utterly hostile to the things of the spirit. You have no conception--I
have never told you, because he was your friend, and I was willing to
let bygones be bygones on the surface on your account--you have no
conception of the cross her behavior became to me in New York. From
almost the first moment we met I saw that we were far apart as the poles
in our views of the responsibilities of life. She sneered at everything
which you and I reverence, and she set her face against true progress
and the spread of American principles. She claimed to be my friend, and
to sympathize with my zeal for social truth, yet all the time she was
toadying secretly the people whose luxurious exclusiveness made me
tremble sometimes for the future of our country. She and her husband
were prosperous, and everything he touched seemed to turn to gold. It
may sound irreverent, James, but there was a time during my life in New
York when I was discouraged; when it seemed as though heaven were
mocking me and my husband in our homely struggle against the forces of
evil, and bestowing all its favors on a woman whose example was a menace
to American womanhood! Sorry? Why should I be sorry to see justice
triumph and shallow iniquity rebuked? I would give Florence Williams
money if she is in want, but I am thankful, very thankful, that her
heartless vanity has found its proper reward."

Lyons fingered his beard. "I didn't know she was as bad as that, Selma.
Now that they have come to grief, we are not likely to be brought in
contact with them, and in all probability they will pass out of our
lives. Williams was smart and entertaining, but I never liked his taking
advantage of the circumstances of my having an account in his office to
urge me to support a measure at variance with my political convictions."

"Precisely. The trouble with them both, James, is that they hav