pe," answered her cousin Jessica. "I'm sure the rest
are nearly worn out with worrying about you."

"I didn't worry--not so very much," said Gertrude. "I felt sure we were
confined only to make me resign--or to give them a chance at the mayor's
office, to get some nefarious contract through, or to secrete evidence
in the street railway case, and I'm in a hurry to get down there and
find out just what they have been doing."

"We felt sure our kidnapers wouldn't dare to do us any real harm," added
Mary. "They've seen that we had plenty to eat and we have not suffered
in any way. As Gertrude says, we've done nothing but rest."

"Well, I suppose you'll have to go then," said Jessica. "But you'll just
have to hold a reception all day. Every man, woman and child will be
there to shake hands with you and congratulate you."

But the citizens did not wait for them to reach their office. Before
Gertrude's carriage appeared in the square in front of the city hall,
the citizens had unharnessed the horses and were drawing her, as if she
had been some princess royal and they her subjects.

Men that voted against her, men that had denounced her in private and
public, joined the procession and helped to give her such a welcome as
to bring tears to her eyes and choke her utterance.

When they reached the square, it was full of the surging, shouting
populace who crowded about, seizing her hands and demonstrating in every
possible way their joy at her return. If any of her captors had been
looking on, he could not have doubted whether the town would be friendly
to him just then.

They reached the City Hall at last, but even then, the mayor was not
allowed to get out.

"Speech, speech," they were crying all about her; and Gertrude stood up,
choking back her tears and trying to speak. This was what it meant to
reach the popular heart, at last.

"Friends," she said, "I cannot tell you what this welcome means to us.
Never again can I feel discouragement or lose faith in the people of
Roma. You are showing me that I am as dear to you as you are to me. I
cannot say more. Your welcome thrills me to the heart, and it seems to
me I can never outlive this moment of joyous welcome. Let us go now--to
our homes, our offices, our stores; and while we thank God that he has
brought us out from the shadow into the light of day, let us ask Him,
all humbly, for help in making our beloved Roma a fairer, a better, a
purer city--a city of ideals real