ad it ten or fifteen years ago I'd have
been an intolerable tyrant, making everyone around me unhappy and
therefore myself. The ideal world would be one where everyone was born
free and never knew anything else. Then, no one being afraid or having
to serve, everyone would have to be considerate in order to get himself
tolerated."

"I wonder if I really ever shall be able to earn a living?" sighed
Mildred.

"You must decide that whatever you can make shall be for you a living,"
said the older woman. "I have lived on my fixed income, which is under
two thousand a year. And I am ready to do it again rather than
tolerate anything or anybody that does not suit me."

"I shall have to be extremely careful," laughed Mildred. "I shall be a
dreadful hypocrite with you."

Mrs. Brindley smiled; but underneath, Mildred saw--or perhaps
felt--that her new friend was indeed not one to be trifled with. She
said:

"You and I will get on. We'll let each other alone. We have to be more
or less intimate, but we'll never be familiar."

After a time she discovered that Mrs. Brindley's first name was
Cyrilla, but Mrs. Brindley and Miss Stevens they remained to each other
for a long time--until circumstances changed their accidental intimacy
into enduring friendship. Not to anticipate, in the course of that
same conversation Mildred said:

"If there is anything about me--about my life--that you wish me to
explain, I shall be glad to do so."

"I know all I wish to know," replied Cyrilla Brindley. "Your face and
your manner and your way of speaking tell me all the essentials."

"Then you must not think it strange when I say I wish no one to know
anything about me."

"It will be impossible for you entirely to avoid meeting people," said
Cyrilla. "You must have some simple explanation about yourself, or you
will attract attention and defeat your object."

"Lead people to believe that I'm an orphan--perhaps of some obscure
family--who is trying to get up in the world. That is practically the
truth."

Mrs. Brindley laughed. "Quite enough for New York," said she. "It is
not interested in facts. All the New-Yorker asks of you is, 'Can you
pay your bills and help me pay mine?'"

Competent men are rare; but, thanks to the advantage of the male sex in
having to make the struggle for a living, they are not so rare as
competent women. Mrs. Brindley was the first competent woman Mildred
had ever known. She had spent but a few