helved, dismissed
from the daily life of steadier if less gifted men, almost unknown to
the young generation. He had clung to certain strict notions of honor
through it all, however, and at his death the county had experienced a
spasm of remorse and attended his funeral; the sermon had been eloquent
with masterly omissions, and even the newspaper that had vilified him in
his days of political influence came out with an obituary, which, when
included in some future county history, would give to posterity quite as
good an impression of him as he deserved.

And James Otis had had his virtues. One of his claims to redemption
survived in his daughter. He had reared her in the strict principles and
precepts of his New England ancestors, many of which are generally more
useful in the life of a man. This early instillation, taken in
connection with himself as a commanding illustration in subcontraries,
had given Isabel a directness of vision invaluable to a girl in no haste
to place her life in stronger hands. Whatever her dissatisfactions and
disillusions, her road lay along the upper reaches; the second rate, the
failures from birth, the criminal classes, far below. Her start in life
was indefectible, and she knew that did the necessity arise to-morrow
she could support herself and ask no quarter.

Perhaps, she mused, she would be happier in the necessity, for the
problem of roof and bread is an abiding substitute for the problem of
what to do with one's life. But she had never known an anxious moment
regarding the bare necessities, and although there was something
pleasantly stimulating in the prospect of making a fortune and being
able to live as she wished in the city of her birth--the only object for
which she retained any passion in her affections--she smiled somewhat
cynically at the modest outlook.

Environments like the present were uplifting, almost deindividualizing,
and there had been a time when she had known seconds in the face of
nature's surprises that were distinct spiritual experiences. She
believed they would return when she was in her own land once more, and
Europe a book of fading memories. Her love of beauty at least was as
keen as ever, and now that Europe was off her mind, leaving the proper
sense of surfeit behind it, no doubt she would have a sense of actually
beginning life when the time came to take an active part in it, and she
assumed a position of some importance in her own community. She was f