lf in a
graceful suggestion of a Psychic brow. Being denied Psyche, she boldly
assumed Minerva and bent her energies toward living the part.

In her youth, women's colleges were not, and even if they had been, the
straitened circumstances of the rural lawyer whose misfortune it was to
be her father, would have denied her the privileges they offered. Having
exhausted the fount of wisdom whose waters were curbed by the local
female seminary, she turned on her father with the filial affection of
youthful arachnids, who upon being hatched into life, suck their parent
dry and then leave the useless skeleton and strike out into their
individual careers. Under his tuition, she learned to translate Virgil,
to construe Homer and to solve equations in a way that filled his
harrowed soul with pride. She mastered the seductive syllogisms of Plato
and Socrates, descended on Kant and gaining confidence, began on her own
account to rattle the dry bones of scholastic philosophy till their
rhythmic clatter suggested the wisdom that close attention denied.

Eunice mated with another aspiring soul. This other was a brilliant
alumnus from one of the leading New England universities. He was poetic
and soulful; but at the same time erratic and uncertain. These latter
attributes were even more pronounced after the marriage than before.
Eunice had deliberately cut him out from the bunch, to use the vaquero's
expression, and, to continue the figure, had adroitly roped him. The
roping in had resulted very shortly in mutual disenthralment. The result
was frequent and prolonged separations, on which occasion, each went his
own way. Eunice, on her part, enjoyed a satisfaction which was ever
present. She used the "Mrs." as a kind of letter of marque which enabled
her to make piratical descents upon society in general in a manner which
would not be tolerated in the more attractive but often compromising
"Miss."

She sought the acquaintance of professors, judges and governors in her
own country, and gilded titles in foreign lands.

It was in one of her earlier cruises in foreign waters that Mrs.
MacGregor had captured her most valuable prize. In a secluded Swiss
port, she had run across a wealthy widow whose husband had come thither
in search of health and had unfortunately lost his life in a mountain
climbing accident. Mrs. Telford was overawed by the irresistible
armament of the designing Eunice and had surrendered unconditionally.
Her health wa