STRONG-MINDED WOMAN; 
 
 OK, 
 
 TWO YEARS AFTER 
 
 BY 
 
 'WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "LAX," "DOCTOR GRATTAN," "MR. OLDMIXON," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 
 1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET. 
 
 1385. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1885, 
 BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
fff&ff 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE 
 
 I. RETROSPECTIONS 5 
 
 II. A FAMILY DINNER 29 
 
 III. A POLITICAL MEETING 45 
 
 IV. Miss BREMEN SPEAKS 61 
 
 V. Miss BILLY'S BOMBSHELL 80 
 
 VI. DOUBTS ARE DISSIPATED 97 
 
 VII. AN ELECTION AND ITS RESULT 122 
 
 VIII. THEODORA DECIDES 144 
 
 IX. A JOKE OR A CRIME ? 164 
 
 X. A SOCIETY QUESTION. ... 186 
 
 XI. A BEGINNING AND AN END 208 
 
 XII. INFATUATION 228 
 
 XIII. A DECLARATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 249 
 
 XIV. A DISAPPEARANCE. . 268 
 
 101769 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAG* 
 
 XV. MB. SCOTT 289 
 
 XVI. REFLECTIONS 312 
 
 XVII. MACHINATIONS. . . , 330 
 
 XVIII. A TERREBLE WOMAN , 350 
 
 XIX. INVESTIGATION 372 
 
 XX. THE WILES OP THE TEMPTER 391 
 
 XXI. CONSOLATIONS 411 
 
 XXII. LOSSES 427 
 
 XXIII. DISCOVERIES 448 
 
 XXIV. A MEETING 468 
 
 XXV. " ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL " .488 
 

 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 CHAPTEE 1. 
 
 RETROSPECTIONS. 
 
 IT was on the first day of November, 1874, that a 
 merry party was assembled in the drawing-room of one 
 of the most elegant houses in Fifth Avenue, in the city 
 of New York. The company, as regarded sex, was very 
 unequally divided ; for while there was present only one 
 representative of the male part of the human family, 
 there were no less than five members of that portion 
 which is, as science has determined, if not the more 
 numerous, certainly the more important. 
 
 The time was a few minutes before seven in the even- 
 ing, and the occasion was the forty-second anniversary 
 of the entrance of the master of the house, the only man 
 present, into this " vale of tears." It was a family 
 party, and each individual member of it was waiting, 
 with more or less impatience, for the French butler to 
 make his appearance at the door, and to announce with 
 a profound bow that " Madame est servie." 
 
 While they are in this state of expectancy, the oppor- 
 tunity may be taken to bring them more prominently 
 before the reader. 
 
 First, there is Geoffrey Moultrie, whose birthday is 
 being celebrated. Educated at the School of Mines, at 
 
6 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Freiberg, he had begun life as a civil and mining engi- 
 neer. In this capacity he had done some very important 
 work in Poland, Russia, South America, Mexico, and 
 the United States, and had in consequence, and by 
 judicious investments in stocks that owed all their value 
 to his energy and skill, acquired a large fortune. His 
 first wife was a Polish princess of a poor but ancient 
 family, whose brother, being one of the engineer corps 
 engaged with Moultrie under the latter's father in the 
 construction of a railway near their castle, had intro- 
 duced him to his family. After some objections on the 
 part of certain of the relatives, on the ground that for a 
 daughter of the House of Lutomski to marry an obscure 
 American engineer would be a disgrace such as no other 
 member of the family had ever incurred, the attachment 
 between the young people was allowed to advance as far 
 as the state of matrimony. This result was hastened, if 
 not entirely brought about, by the fact that the proposed 
 marriage met with the emphatic approval of the Czar, 
 Alexander the Second, who had not long previously 
 ascended the throne, and who had taken a great fancy to 
 young Moultrie ; and that inquiry had shown that the 
 family of the American gentleman was quite as old and 
 as notable as that of the Lutomskis. Indeed, while the 
 celebrity of the latter was entirely confined to their own 
 country, and had never passed into the domain of written 
 history, that of Moultrie not only went back to one 
 Geoffrey de Moultrie, who came over with the Con- 
 queror, but stood high on the roll of those that had be- 
 come famous in his native land. 
 
 Soon after his marriage Moultrie and his young bride 
 had departed for Western Kansas, where he had large 
 interests, and where his daughter Lalage was born. 
 
RETROSPECTIONS. 7 
 
 Here, however, the good fortune which had heretofore 
 characterized his life was interrupted. The child, while 
 yet an infant only a few months old, was stolen, and his 
 wife died not long afterward, insane and of a broken 
 heart. Then he had plunged into work, at first more as 
 a means of diverting his mind from the gloomy thoughts 
 with which lie was continually oppressed, but persever- 
 ing after time had in a measure softened his grief, be- 
 cause work had become a second nature to him. 
 
 For sixteen years he had been engaged in some of the 
 most stupendous engineering operations that the world 
 had seen. His skill, his energy, his power of mental 
 application, were such that people wondered where they 
 all came from ; for he always appeared to have time not 
 only for mere recreation, but for serious application in 
 the domain of the fine arts. He was an accomplished 
 musician, not only being a brilliant performer on the 
 pianoforte, but a composer as well, and he had written a 
 play that had met with great success in London, where 
 alone as yet it had been produced. 
 
 But a little more than two years before he is now intro- 
 duced to the reader, he had made a visit to a Dr. Willis, 
 then living at Chetolah, his residence, near the town of 
 Hellbender, in the Territory of Colorado. Dr. Willis 
 had a daughter, Theodora, whom Moultrie had met with 
 her father at several seaside resorts during the previous 
 summer, and for whom he had formed what the French 
 call ' ' une grande passion. ' ' He had then proposed ; but 
 as this action was taken after an acquaintance of only a 
 little more than a month, the young lady, while admit- 
 ting that she reciprocated his attachment, thought it 
 better to wait a little while before giving him a decided 
 answer. She was a very intellectual as well as a very 
 
8 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 practical young woman ; had received a medical educa- 
 tion, and had made many interesting expelTmeirts^ as 
 well as original investigations, in the departments of 
 physiology and natural history. She had no doubt of 
 the sincerity of either Moultrie's or her own affection, 
 but she knew how very tricky the emotions can some- 
 times be, and she preferred, therefore, to be entirely 
 satisfied not only in regard to the reality of the love be- 
 tween them, but what was of equal importance, its depth 
 and strength. 
 
 Matters were therefore allowed to remain in abeyance 
 for the time being, and Moultrie accepted the doctor's 
 invitation to make a visit to Chetolah some time during 
 the ensuing autumn, it being understood that if he and 
 Theodora were of unchanged minds relative to their 
 affection for each other, their marriage should soon take 
 place. Accordingly, in the latter part of September, two 
 years previously, the journey to Hellbender was made. 
 His mother, sister a young widow, Mrs. Sincote and 
 her daughter a child of ten Florence Sincote, being 
 included in the invitation, and accompanying him. His 
 own love had not flagged, and neither, as the event 
 proved, had Theodora's ; for on the morning after his 
 arrival at Chetolah he had again pressed his suit, and 
 had met with a gracious acceptance. Shortly afterward 
 they were married. 
 
 But Moul trie's visit to Colorado had not only resulted 
 in his obtaining a charming woman for his wife. Infor- 
 mation had been received by the doctor that confirmed sus- 
 picions that had been formed several years previously, but 
 that could not at the time be established, that a notorious 
 horse-thief and murderer named Bosler had been the 
 abductor of Moultrie' s child, and that she was then 
 
RETROSPECTIONS. 9 
 
 living with Bosler as his daughter. Measures, among 
 which was the hanging of Bosler by a vigilance commit- 
 tee, were at once taken to obtain possession of the girl, 
 who was then a little over seventeen years of age, and 
 success had crowned the efforts. She was one of those 
 present in the drawing-room awaiting the announcement 
 of dinner. 
 
 Second, there was his wife, late Theodora Willis, the 
 only daughter of Dr. Willis, a wealthy Virginian, at one 
 time a medical officer of the army, but more recently a 
 citizen of Colorado. He had gone to that Territory 
 soon after the discovery of gold and silver, for the pur- 
 pose of restoring the health of his wife. He had made 
 large and fortunate investments in mines and lands, and 
 was the originator and chief proprietor of the town of 
 Hellbender so named from a curious reptile found in a 
 mountain lake near by his residence, Chetolah, being 
 situated close to the place. 
 
 Theodora Willis had been brought up in a rather 
 peculiar manner. Her mother had died not long after 
 her arrival in Colorado, and the education of the young 
 girl had devolved entirely on her father. His mind, in 
 consequence of his anxiety in regard to his wife's health 
 and grief at her death, had become slightly unhinged, 
 but only in one direction. QejJn4ax.,J)ecam^ 
 maniac_pn the subject of his daughter's intellectual abili- 
 ties, and in regard to the status that women should 
 occupy in social and political affairs. He was constantly 
 urging her for official positions of various kinds, con- 
 sulted her in his difficult medical cases, and left no occa- 
 sion unimproved for descanting on her pre-eminence 
 not only over all other women, but over men as well in 
 all those qualities that are supposed to indicate special 
 
10 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 fitness for great state and municipal offices. As to 
 women as a sex, he thought they ought to take the place 
 of men in the affairs of nations, and that they were far 
 superior to men in mental development. His derange- 
 ment was well known to his daughter, who by no means 
 contributed her influence to the maintenance of his dis- 
 ordered ideas, and was eventually recognized by himself, 
 his monomania suddenly disappearing from the effects of 
 a very positive address, made by one of his friends, a 
 Mr. Tyscovus, at a political meeting in opposition to some 
 exceedingly extravagant views he had enunciated. 
 
 Theodora, however, while not courting political ad- 
 vancement for her sex, was a strenuous advocate for 
 greatly enlarged courses of study for women and their 
 elevation to an intellectual stage above that which they 
 then occupied. Under the tuition of her father and a 
 Fraulein Schwartzfeld, who had taken a medical degree 
 at Zurich, she became a proficient in comparative anato- 
 my, and, as the former had said in a conversation with 
 his friend Tyscovus, had " dissected every kind of an 
 animal from man to insects." She had also held ad- 
 vanced views relative to the development hypothesis, and 
 had conducted a series of investigations in evolution that 
 had led to the most astonishing results. A very com- 
 plete laboratory had been erected as a wing to Chetolah, 
 and here she was accustomed to spend the greater part 
 of her time in physiological, physical, and chemical 
 researches. 
 
 But notwithstanding this decided intellectual bias, 
 Theodora Willis was deficient in none of the mental 
 characteristics of a true woman. The emotional part of 
 her mental being was well developed, and while hers 
 was not one of those warm-hearted natures that become 
 
RETROSPECTIONS. 11 
 
 demonstrative in the presence of circumstances calculated 
 to arouse the passions, she experienced probably fully as 
 much feeling in her own quiet way as those who evinced 
 more obvious disturbance. 
 
 She had married Moultrie not only because she loved 
 him devotedly, but because she perceived that he was a 
 man that she could not fail to respect. Probably neither 
 of these factors would have sufficed to make her become 
 his wife, and it could not fairly be said that she had been 
 influenced in her judgment of his character by the fact 
 that she found herself giving him her love. She had 
 weighed him in her intellectual balance without prejudice 
 for or against him, and had deliberately arrived at the 
 conviction that she would be able to add to his happiness, 
 and he to hers. 
 
 Her manner was peculiarly winning, gracious, and 
 frank. She had always contended that a woman could, 
 when actuated by high and ennobling motives, attend 
 the dissecting room and study human anatomy without 
 losing any of the freshness or bloom of her womanly 
 nature ; and certainly the result in her own case appeared 
 to give countenance to that opinion. 
 
 In person Theodora Moultrie, as she was now, was tall 
 and slender, without her figure being in the slightest de- 
 gree emaciated. Her hair was of the golden auburn hue 
 that a chestnut sometimes exhibits when the burr has 
 been open toward the autumn sun. Her eyes were gray ; 
 not a shade of green or of blue, or of any intermediate 
 hue, but a good, honest gray, like that of the back of 
 the gray squirrel, with little irregular spots of darker 
 gray scattered over the irides. Her forehead was rather 
 low, and her eyebrows somewhat darker in color than 
 her hair were well arched, though not to such an extent 
 
12 A STKONG-MLNDED WOMAN. 
 
 as to create the expression of astonishment which persons 
 with very high-arched eyebrows always exhibit. Her 
 mouth was her most expressive feature, even when in 
 repose. There was nothing severe in its outlines, but 
 the lips, without being tightly pressed together or left 
 half open, were kept, just sufficiently in contact to 
 remove all idea of weakness from the mind of the ob- 
 server, and at the same time prevent the conception that 
 she was a hard and unemotional woman. And it was a 
 mobile mouth. When she laughed or smiled, it opened 
 wide enough to display two rows of white and regular 
 teeth, upon which there was not a spot or blemish, and 
 then two tiny dimples appeared at the corners, only for 
 an instant, as though just for the purpose of emphasiz- 
 ing the expression. Her complexion, while not what is 
 called " blooming," had a light shade of pink on the 
 cheeks, not sharply defined at the outlines, but fading 
 gradually away till it was imperceptibly lost in the white 
 with the tinge of old ivory that was the prevailing hue 
 of the rest of her face. Certainly she was very beauti- 
 ful, and evidently she knew how to enhance her good 
 looks by the use of those legitimate means the knowledge 
 of which appears to be innate with most women. Then 
 her hair was worn in the simplest manner, merely being 
 twisted into a knot behind, while a few reddish-brown 
 curls lay negligently on her forehead. In this way the 
 classical head was best shown in all its beauty. What 
 matters it how perfect the shape of a woman's head 
 may be if she loads it down with masses of false hair, 
 arranged without the slightest regard for the canons 
 of art ? Doubtless some heads are improved in ap- 
 pearance by such a procedure, but Theodora Moultrie's 
 was not one of them. The more of it that was seen 
 
RETROSPECTIONS. 13 
 
 as nature made it, the more it was certain to be ad- 
 mired. 
 
 When she spoke other charms were revealed, and not 
 her least by any means. Not only did she speak the 
 English language perfectly, but she knew just how to 
 accentuate her words and to intone her phrases to suit 
 the ideas she was expressing. And then her voice ! It 
 was one such as probably few women in New York not 
 of Southern or late English origin possess. Not that the 
 New York women have not the vocal apparatus as per- 
 fectly formed as that of their Southern sisters, but for 
 the reason that they are rarely taught how to use it for 
 conversational purposes. They talk, but as a rule they 
 do not converse. 
 
 There was no physical weakness about Theodora. 
 She could eat a good big piece of beefsteak for her 
 breakfast, with the accessories of bread and butter and a 
 cup of well-made coffee, besides doing full justice to her 
 other meals ; and then she walked four miles every day. 
 Rain or shine, snow or sleet, hot or cold, no matter what 
 the weather, she walked four miles. It took her two 
 hours nearly to do this, and then the rest of the morning 
 was spent in such occupations as were not obligatory, but 
 that assuredly materially contributed to her well-being 
 and happiness. There was no laboratory in the house in 
 Fifth Avenue. She had voluntarily given up all those 
 practical studies that necessitated a workshop of the 
 kind. But she read and wrote in a lovely little boudoir 
 adjoining the library, in which there was a microscope 
 for such occasional use as might be suggested by topics 
 of reading or conversation, and that besides was well 
 stored with such of her own individual books as were 
 her special friends or favorites. 
 
14 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Theodora was fond of fine clothes in the proper sense 
 of the expression. Her taste was so correct that nothing 
 could have induced her to wear bad materials unartistic- 
 ally made, or into the construction of which incongruous 
 colors entered. For mere ornaments, as such, she cared 
 little, rarely wearing jewelry of any description ; and 
 when she did array herself in anything of the kind, they 
 consisted of a necklace, a brooch, or a bracelet, either 
 veritable antiques, or fashioned after some ancient 
 models, the beauty and value of which depended not so 
 much on the material of which they were made as on the 
 perfection of the workmanship of which they had been 
 the recipients. Beyond some old heirlooms Theodora 
 did not probably own a diamond, or a ruby, or other 
 precious stone, but she possessed a gold Etruscan neck- 
 lace which had once been worn by Julia, the daughter of 
 Julius Caesar and Cornelia, and another of intaglio gems 
 two thousand years old, and which no lapidary of the 
 present day could hope to rival in perfection of design 
 and execution. She was rich, her husband was rich, her 
 father was rich ; but the wearing of any article of ap- 
 parel or of ornament merely because it would display 
 her wealth would have been an abomination to her. 
 
 Third, Miss Lalage Moultrie. This young lady was, 
 at the time this history begins, in her nineteenth year. 
 Her life had been a checkered one, but through her good 
 sense and strength of character she had succeeded in 
 escaping the pitfalls with which her pathway in life had 
 abounded. While only a few months old she had been 
 stolen by one Jim Bosler, who had been described subse- 
 quently as the " worst man between the two oceans." 
 In a fit of drunken rage he had killed his own infant of 
 the same age and of like features. Fearful that exposure 
 
 
RETROSPECTIONS. 15 
 
 would come oji the return of his wife, who was tempo- 
 rarily absent, as well as other inconveniences being 
 caused, he had proceeded to Moultrie's house near by 
 and had abducted the child. He then took it to his 
 own home, and had succeeded, without suspicion for 
 several years, and without detection for many more, 
 not only in passing her off upon the public as his own 
 daughter, but even in deceiving his wife to the same 
 effect. 
 
 The child's own mother had died shortly after the 
 kidnapping, and her ostensible mother was a poor, weak 
 creature, wholly under the control of her husband, but 
 who, although brought down by her marriage almost to 
 his low level, had never been wholly bad. Occasionally, 
 and especially during the latter years of her life, a dis- 
 position to get her husband away from his associations, 
 with the hope of reforming him and of improving the 
 social conditions of herself and the child, was manifested ; 
 but it never came to anything definite. She died sud- 
 denly from pulmonary hemorrhage during a violent alter- 
 cation with her husband. 
 
 This man w r as a professional horse-thief and gambler. 
 During his residence in Colorado, whither he had gone 
 about the time the Willises had settled there, he was 
 known to have killed eleven men. Finally he was tried 
 and hanged by the Vigilance Committee ; but before his 
 execution confirmed very positive information that had 
 only been received a few days previously, that Lai Mrs. 
 Bosler had given her the name of Lalla was not his 
 daughter. Irrefragable evidence showed that she was 
 Moultrie's long-lost child. 
 
 Bosler had formed plans for marrying her to one of 
 his own companions, a man almost as bad as himself, but 
 
16 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 these were defeated by Lai's escape and by the timely 
 action of the Vigilance Committee. 
 
 x~ A short time before this catastrophe a young Polish 
 / nobleman, Tyscovus by name, had arrived at Jim Bosler's 
 \ cabin, which was situated a few miles from Hellbender, 
 / on a high knoll or butte. He had been apparently 
 J directed to this exact spot in a dream or a vision, and 
 / though not in the least superstitiousTTTe hadTacted in 
 accordance with the directions given him, and had found 
 V the place exactly as it had been described. 
 
 He was engaged in the preparation of an elaborate 
 work on sociology, and desired to reside where he could 
 be removed from all disturbing influences. He had ac- 
 cordingly bought the place and had made it his resi- 
 dence. Seeing Lai, he had been struck with her beauty, 
 and an incident that took place had shown him how true 
 she was of heart, and how great was her capacity for 
 mental and moral development. He loved her before 
 he knew that she was anything else than the daughter of 
 a horse-thief and a murderer ; and of course the discovery 
 that her mother was a Polish princess, and her father 
 one of the most eminent of American citizens, had not 
 tended to diminish his affection. 
 
 But although Moultrie was glad to find that an attach- 
 ment existed between his daughter Lalage or Lai, as 
 she continued to be called by her friends, with equal 
 appropriateness as when it was thought her name was 
 Lalla and a gentleman so admirable in every respect as 
 was Tyscovus, he deemed it advisable that marriage 
 should be deferred for at least two years. This conclu- 
 sion had been arrived at not only on account of her youth 
 which, perhaps, had that been the only obstacle, might 
 have been overlooked but for the reason that her edu- 
 
 
EETEOSPECTIOWS. 17 
 
 cation had been almost entirely neglected, and that she 
 had never had those associations with ladies and gentle- 
 men of her own station in life so necessary to give polish 
 and refinement of manner, and to otherwise fit her for 
 the duties and the amenities of the marriage state. 
 
 Lai was endowed with an ample quantity of good 
 sense, and she had at once recognized the force of the 
 arguments that her father had addressed to her. Indeed, 
 when Tyscovus informed her of his love and his desire 
 to make her his wife at the earliest possible moment, she 
 had, while expressing her own affection, declared with 
 equal positiveness that she was not fit to be his wife. 
 She saw with a woman's discernment that while he was 
 an educated gentleman, with manners and forms of 
 speech befitting his social position, she was uneducated, 
 ignorant of those conventionalities of life without which 
 society would be unendurable, and speaking a debased 
 dialect, every word of which showed her unacquaintance 
 with the first principles of polite conversation. She was 
 of keen sensibilities as well as of quick intelligence, and 
 she would have been intensely mortified if at any time 
 the man that she loved and had married should have had 
 occasion to be ashamed of his wife. 
 
 Accordingly she had come East with her father, leav- 
 ing her lover in possession of his butte, and on which he 
 intended to erect a large and substantial house in time to 
 receive his wife when the two years of probation had 
 expired. It was agreed that in the meantime they might 
 correspond, and that Tyscovus should visit his fiancee 
 twice a year for periods of two weeks. Owing, how- 
 ever, to circumstances beyond his control, the two years 
 had nearly elapsed without his having been able to make 
 a single visit. 
 
18 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Lai had had, in consequence of the low moral tone of 
 her former associations, while she thought she was the 
 daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bosler, rather loose ideas in 
 regard to the rights of property-holders, and these were 
 especially manifested in the direction of horse-flesh. 
 She had so often heard her reputed father, Mr. Jim 
 Bosler, assert that " hosses was things as no man had ary 
 a right to call his'n onless he knowed enough to keep 
 'em," that she accepted the diction as sound ethical 
 doctrine, and was at all times ready to defend it vi et 
 armisy if necessary. But as she grew older an occasional 
 doubt the first promptings~oF^rnbeWeFnature- arose 
 ifTher mind relative to the rectitude of her ostensible 
 father'sconduct. Apparently these did not come from 
 teachings, or__examples, or from any oth^r ^Ytranpons 
 causejs._^rhere^ was no source open to herjfrom which 
 tEey^could have beenderived. The man that she had 
 been taught to regard as her father was a notorious 
 horse-thief and murderer, who justified his stealings by 
 contending that he had an inherent right to take horses 
 and mules whenever and wherever he could find them, 
 and his murders by the plea that any one that endeav- 
 ored to prevent him gratuitously risked his life, and 
 must take the consequences of his folly. The woman 
 that she looked upon as her mother had been a respect- 
 able girl, but after her marriage with Jim Bosler she had 
 assimilated herself to her husband, losing the conscien- 
 tiousness she had once had, and justifying him in all his 
 crimes against society. It was not, therefore, a matter 
 for surprise that Lai should have arrived at womanhood 
 with many notions that were altogether incompatible 
 with the principles of sound morality. The wonder was 
 that, notwithstanding the vicious influences to which she 
 
RETROSPECTIONS. 19 
 
 was constantly subjected, she had preserved an essentially 
 pure nature that not even bad precept and worse exam- 
 ple cotfjd destroy. The germ of goodness was in her 
 heaii^Sibrironiy^equired the proper germinating forces 
 to be brought to bear upon it, in order to cause it to 
 break through the thin coating that concealed it from 
 view. The occasion was not wanting. 
 
 She had found a little book that Tyscovus had lost, 
 and instead of returning it to the owner, had appropri- 
 ated it to her own use. The book was a biography of 
 one of his ancestors, and in reading it she came across 
 many examples of virtue and self-sacrifice that seemed 
 to be just such as she needed to have set before her at 
 this stage of her existence. She perceived how lament- 
 ably she fell short of the standards of excellence that the 
 perusal of this little book brought to her knowledge, 
 and, filled with remorse, she determined to return the 
 volume, confess her crime, and take the consequences 
 that she might have incurred. 
 
 But instead of upbraiding her for her offence, Tysco- 
 vus had sympathized with her in her repentance, and 
 had made her a present of the book. Overcome by the 
 kindness and graciousness of his treatment, her whole 
 heart had gone out to him, and she had fallen at his feet 
 acknowledging his goodness and praying for his welfare. 
 Then it was that, as he raised her from the floor, their 
 eyes met, and the story of their love began to be told. 
 
 No one ever labored more assiduously in the direction 
 of self-improvement than had Lalage Moultrie since 
 her arrival in New York, nearly two years before. Of 
 course she had all the facilities at her command that her 
 father's love and wealth could afford, but she had incen- 
 tives to work without which her progress would have been 
 
20 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 comparatively slow. Her love for Tyscovus had suffered 
 no diminution. On the contrary, time and absence 
 seemed to have added to its intensity, and she had made 
 good use of all the advantages she possessed in order to 
 fit herself to be his wife not only in name, but in all that 
 is implied by companionship and friendship. 
 
 In all this she had succeeded, if not in accordance with 
 her own expectations, certainly to a greater extent than 
 the most sanguine of her friends had supposed would be 
 possible. In the first place, she had a very clear idea of 
 her own deficiencies, and, in the next, she was not 
 spoiled by her elevation in social rank. She knew, for 
 instance, that her manner of speech was not such as edu- 
 cated and refined persons employed, and she therefore 
 set herself to work to get rid of a characteristic that 
 more than any other feature was calculated to shock those 
 with whom she would soon be brought into relation. It 
 was a difficult undertaking for one who had for so many 
 years been absolutely cut off from association with per- 
 sons who spoke the English language grammatically, and 
 for one who had, in consequence, acquired an uncouth 
 dialect, nearly every word of which was a barbarism or 
 solecism, or both. But she had persevered, and, assisted 
 by her father, who took this particular part of her educa- 
 tion under his especial supervision, she had attained to a 
 degree of proficiency in the correct use of her native 
 tongue that not one young woman in a thousand of 
 those to " the manner born" ever succeed in reaching. 
 Moultrie prided himself on his use of good English. 
 Theodora spoke always with a purity of diction that 
 showed that she had been in association all her life with 
 educated ladies and gentlemen. A muddy sentence 
 was never heard from either of them. Example, there- 
 
RETROSPECTIONS. 21 
 
 fore, more influential, as it always is, than precept, gave 
 its powerful aid to accomplish the object in view, and so 
 it resulted that, in the course of less than two years, 
 Lai's speech was such that no one hearing her talk would 
 have supposed that she had ever had any other compan- 
 ionship than that of men and women of good grammati- 
 cal repute. 
 
 But Lai's English, though grammatical, was not 
 always colloquial. It was as yet too precise and formal 
 for ordinary conversation. Thus she very generally 
 said " cannot" for " can't," " do not" for " don't,' 5 
 " I am" for " I'm," " I have" for " I've," and so on. 
 It was scarcely a fault, and, indeed, often gave an added 
 charm to her speech, which went well with her earnest- 
 ness and evident sincerity. 
 
 Again, at times, when intensely interested or excited, 
 she fell unconsciously into her old dialect. It appeared, 
 therefore, that she had not yet learned her new language 
 so thoroughly as to use it automatically. She had to 
 give her mind to it, just as does a musician to a composi- 
 tion that he has not thoroughly learned. 
 
 It does not take long for an American girl, with suffi- 
 cient opportunity, to learn good manners. Six months 
 in a boarding-school under the charge of a lady of gentle 
 breeding will change a backwoods amazon to a duchess 
 of the ancien regime, so far as mere externals go, though 
 she may at heart be as uncouth as a Pawnee squaw. 
 Lalage Moultrie had the great advantage of being in- 
 nately refined. Her father was a gentleman, as were mT 
 fatKeTanbTllis father's father, and so on back for many 
 generations. Her mother was a princess of the House 
 of Lutomski, one of the oldest in Poland. It would 
 have been strange, therefore, if such good blood as 
 
22 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 flowed in her veins had not brought with it something 
 more than the material elements of the sanguine cur- 
 rent certain predispositions and tendencies that could 
 not have been wholly restrained, no matter how adverse 
 were the influences to which they might be subjected, 
 and which required very little developing power to bring 
 them to fruition. These she had, and hence the sweet- 
 ness and gentleness that characterized her speech and 
 factions were not a mere superficial coating, but an ex- 
 jpression of her power of thought and feeling. 
 ' And yet Lalage had a spirit of her own that, when 
 roused into activity by what she considered indignity or 
 oppression, made itself felt in the most unmistakable 
 manner. Indeed, before her rescue from the man who 
 had stolen her, and who had assimilated her so far as he 
 could to his own degraded and vicious nature, she had at 
 times displayed a violence of anger, conjoined with a 
 physical capacity to take care of herself when occasion 
 required, that argued strongly for her mental and bodily 
 powers of resistance or attack, and her disposition to use 
 them without much regard for the consequences to her 
 antagonist. 
 
 But as she came more and more thoroughly under the 
 civilizing influences to which she had been for now 
 nearly two years subjected, she saw the necessity of self- 
 control in this respect. For Lalage to be aware of a 
 fault was all that was sufficient to excite her to make 
 strenuous exertions to get rid of it. But it was in this 
 direction that she encountered the most difficulty, and at 
 times, notwithstanding all her efforts, she would give 
 way to her temper to a degree out of proportion to the 
 exciting cause. Still, it was so manifestly honest, and 
 she was so sincere in her repentance for any unreasonable 
 
EETKOSPECTIONS. 23 
 
 outburst of indignation, that those who experienced its 
 effects were not loath to accord their forgiveness. It was 
 when she was conscious of having committed a fault that 
 her inborn honesty and sense of justice came out strong- 
 
 est, andTtHen nothing w^uloTsatisfy-he^tttl full repara- 
 tion had been made. 
 
 In personal appearance, save in the matter of height, 
 Lalage Moultrie was very different from Theodora. 
 Like her, she was tall, but she was more robust and 
 powerful, and of greater powers of endurance. While 
 Theodora would walk her four miles a day and feel that 
 it was as much as was good for her, Lalage would think 
 nothing of three times the distance, and be as fresh when 
 it was finished as she was when she began. Her step 
 was as elastic and free as that of a young blacktail deer. 
 In fact, every movement had the grace and accentuation 
 which only well-developed muscles can give. 
 
 Up to the time of her recovery by her father she had 
 been used to the very roughest sort of work with feet 
 and hands. It was nothing then for her to run bare- 
 footed up and down the stony road that led from the 
 cabin on the butte to the plain below, and to pass the 
 greater part of the time shoeless and stockingless. In- 
 deed, except in winter and upon grand occasions, bare- 
 footedness was her normal condition. And a like state 
 of affairs existed in regard to her hands. She did the 
 most of the cooking, washing, and ironing of the family 
 of three. It was not much collectively, but it was 
 enough to spoil for the time being what would otherwise 
 have been among her most charming features ; and the 
 fact that she chopped the greater part of the wood used 
 as fuel, and often looked after the horses, feeding them 
 and hitching them up when necessary, made matters still 
 
24 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 worse, so far as softness and whiteness were concerned. 
 But her hands and feet were so beautifully formed that 
 no native-born Polish princess, unless she had American 
 blood in her veins, ever possessed prettier ones, and it 
 did not take long for all signs of hard usage to disappear. 
 
 Lai's hair was as black as the plumage of a crow, but, 
 unlike most black hair, it was as fine and soft as silk. It 
 was a most luxuriant growth, reaching, when she let it 
 down, far below her waist, and enveloping her head and 
 bust in its raven-hued strands. Like Theodora, she 
 wore it very simply. In some things art improves upon 
 nature, but Lai's hair was not one of them. 
 
 It goes almost without saying that her eyes were as 
 black as her hair. So they were ; large, soft, lustrous 
 eyes, that could be laughing, or loving, or pitying, or 
 fierce, or sad, in accordance with the emotion that 
 swayed her, and that never sent out a glance that was 
 not honest and true. Of course, too, they were sur- 
 mounted by black eyebrows and fringed by black eye- 
 lashes long, silken lashes that " kissed her soft cheek's 
 blooming tinge" as it cropped out of the clear olive tint 
 of her complexion. 
 
 Her mouth was of fuller contour than was Theodora's ; 
 not so delicately chiselled, perhaps, nor so intellectual 
 in its expression, but certainly more emotional. Lai 
 laughed a good deal in those days, and when she did she 
 showed teeth that a Congo queen might have envied. 
 
 It had not taken her long to learn the art of dress. 
 But few young women, lifted up, as she had been, out of 
 the depths of squalor to a state of affluence, would have 
 shown a tenth part of the moderation in the matter of 
 external adornment that was exhibited by Lalage Moul- 
 trie. There was no disposition to run riot with the hues 
 
 : 
 
RETROSPECTIONS. 25 
 
 of the rainbow or the products of the silk looms ; all 
 was subdued and quiet. Her beauty was of the kind that 
 took care of itself. To-night she wore a black silk frock 
 trimmed sparsely with bands and bows of crimson ribbon. 
 
 Around her neck was a curious Circassian necklace 
 that she had worn when she was stolen, and that had 
 been recovered at about the same time that she was 
 identified as Moultrie's daughter. To it hung, as a 
 pendant, a locket that Tyscovus had sent her, and which 
 was made of gold that he himself had worked out of the 
 deposits of Wild-cat Creek. This and a Jacqueminot rose 
 in the bosom of her gown were all the ornaments she wore. 
 
 The dowager Mrs. Moultrie must have been fully 
 sixty- two years of age, but time had dealt gently with 
 her, both in regard to her mind and body ; for she 
 looked and felt younger than she really was. She was a 
 well-disposed woman, but at the same time, like some 
 others of her sex, undulKinclined to meddle with things 
 that did not especially (WcernSier, and to carry her 
 point either by continually^4mr^ng on the matter at 
 issue, thus wearying her opponents, or by means not 
 strictly legitimate. She had very decided opinions of 
 her own on most of the topics that engaged the attention 
 of mankind the world over. In fact, it was a matter of 
 pride with her never to confess her ignorance of any 
 subject. As a necessary consequence, many of the 
 views she held and expressed were formed from little or 
 no knowledge, but jumped at as a cat would jump at a 
 mouse, hit or miss. She never lost her temper, strange 
 to say, or manifested elation, whether she suffered defeat 
 or gained a victory, but preserved the most aggravating 
 mental composure and suavity of manner, which it must 
 sometimes have cost her a sickening pang to manifest. 
 
26 A STKONG -MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 She was not dependent on her son for support. She 
 had her own establishment near the Central Park, be- 
 sides a magnificent country-seat on the North River, and 
 lived in a style befitting her wealth, which, if not very 
 great as wealth goes nowadays, was more than sufficient 
 to allow of luxurious living. 
 
 Her daughter, Mrs. Sincote, a little over on the shady 
 side of thirty, had been a widow for ten years. She had 
 married a lieutenant in the army soon after his graduation 
 at "West Point, one who, like most of his species, had 
 nothing besides his pay to live on. 
 
 The war between the States was then in full blast, and 
 Lieutenant Sincote, like other graduates at the time, was 
 denied the usual leave of absence, and was ordered to join 
 his regiment, then fighting in the Wilderness under Gen- 
 eral Grant. She never saw him again alive, for he fell 
 with a bullet through his heart in one of the numerous 
 battles of that campaign, and he never saw his daughter, 
 who was born after his death. 
 
 Mrs. Sincote was a pretty looking woman, who dressed 
 well on the liberal allowance her brother gave her, but 
 who, besides being amiable and well disposed, was rather 
 negative in hermental charactgrjsjjcs. In any argument 
 going on before her she always expressed an opinion in 
 accordance with the views of the last speaker. She 
 could not, therefore, see more than one side of a ques- 
 tion at the same time, and it was accordingly no unusual 
 thing for her to express as many views on a topic of 
 conversation as there were persons engaged in the dis- 
 cussion. She, with her daughter Florence, resided with 
 her mother, and but for the general weak tone of her 
 character the association would not have been a pleasant 
 one for her. As it was, she got along very well with 
 

 RETROSPECTIONS. 27 
 
 the dowager, for the reason that she never did or said 
 anything that in the least savored of opposition to any- 
 thing said or done by the old lady. At times, however, 
 there was trouble, just as there was between the wolf 
 and the lamb, and mainly on account of the fact that 
 Mrs. Moultrie had her own ideas of the character of the 
 education to be given to Florence. Now, although Mrs. 
 Sincote never interposed the shade of an objection to 
 the very preposterous notions of her mother, her very 
 passivity led the latter to seek her opponents elsewhere. 
 Teachers and Moultrie himself were made parties to the 
 one-sided contest, and then Julia Mrs. Sincote' s first 
 name was reproached, till she was thrown into a semi- 
 hysterical condition, with her want of interest in her 
 child's education. However, such occasions were rare, 
 and on the whole, as we have said, the mother and 
 daughter got along very well together. 
 
 Julia Sincote had been one of the party that visited 
 the Willises with Moultrie when he got his wife and 
 found his daughter. Although she had been thrown 
 very little into the society of Count John Tyscovus, or 
 plain Mr. John Tyscovus, as he preferred to be called 
 everybody in Poland, as he said, owning a ten-acre lot 
 being a count she had fallen very much in love with 
 him. All women liked Tyscovus ; his way with them 
 nattered them, while it had not the appearance of being 
 flattery. And a man with that way, if personally unob- 
 jectionable, takes their hearts by storm. Of course she 
 said nothing about the passion that had arisen in her 
 heart, but it was none the weaker for that ; and the fact 
 that her niece was betrothed to him, although it proba- 
 bly forced her to see the hopelessness of the emotion she 
 had conceived, did not tend to lessen its force. She was 
 
28 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 not a woman of strong feeling, but she was very tena- 
 cious of her senlTmejits, weak though they were, and 
 while she would certainly not have sacrificed herself for 
 the man she loved, she probably, if success had appeared 
 to her to be a probable result, would not have hesitated 
 to sacrifice any one else. So far as her love for Tysco- 
 vus was concerned, she had long since made up her mind 
 that it would never come to anything ; but she rather 
 enjoyed the idea of nursing a hopeless passion, and of 
 meditating over her forlorn state as a life-long martyr. 
 
 Notwithstanding the state of depression in which she 
 considered herself to be, she was on excellent terms with 
 Lalage, though she never trusted herself to talk of Tys- 
 covus with her, or even to mention his name in her pres- 
 ence. Of her brother Geoffrey she stood in wholesome 
 awe, not only because she was dependent on him for her 
 ability to dress as she pleased, to go everywhere, and to 
 entertain handsomely, but because she very well knew 
 that he would tolerate nothing that savored of disloyalty 
 either to himself or his daughter. 
 
 And, last of all, there was Florence Sincote, a child of 
 eleven, whose importance in the world was yet to come, 
 and who had not yet lived long enough to accumulate 
 the materials of a history. She was bright and vivacious, 
 rather pretty, and probably resembling in face and mind 
 her father more than her mother. She was present on 
 sufferance, and for this occasion only, by reason of the 
 fact of its being her uncle's birthday. 
 
 With these formal introductions and brief account of 
 the antecedents of some of the chief personages of this 
 history, the groundwork for the detail of their subse- 
 quent actions is sufficiently laid. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 A FAMILY DINNER. 
 
 THE large and elaborate Dutch clock, which not only 
 struck the hours and half hours, but chimed a dozen 
 tunes and told the day of the week and of the month, 
 the phases of the moon, the height of the sun, besides 
 giving other valuable information, and which stood on 
 the first landing of the staircase, had just finished a per- 
 formance on its bells that was intended for an eigh- 
 teenth-century pastoral. The first stroke of seven had 
 just sounded when Francois, the butler, was seen stand- 
 ing in the doorway that opened into the wide hall. At 
 the second strike he bowed to Theodora, and at the 
 same instant the words " Madame, est servie" flowed 
 mellifluously from his lips, and ere the reverberations of 
 the third stroke had ceased the important announcement 
 had been made, and the prandial herald had disappeared. 
 Moultrie gave his arm to his mother, and the procession, 
 of which Theodora and Lalage brought up the rear, took 
 up its line of march to the dining-room. 
 
 It was a large and handsome apartment, capable of 
 dining forty people comfortably. The prevailing tone 
 of the walls, which was a dull red, was given by old 
 Cordova leather which Moultrie had picked up in Spain. 
 On the marquetry floor was a thick Indian rug, which 
 covered it up to about four feet from the walls all 
 around, leaving bare that extent of the elaborate inlaid 
 
30 A STEONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 work. The ceiling was of a pale blue tint, the centre 
 being specked with stars, butterflies, arid birds in gold, but 
 all flat. Moultrie was too correct in his artistic taste to 
 permit any decoration in relief, or with the appearance 
 of relief, to go on the ceiling or even the walls of his 
 house. Such abominations as vases of flowers, cupids, 
 and garlands sticking, in violation of the laws of nature, 
 to a flat, horizontal surface, would not have been toler- 
 ated in his establishment, or in one over which Theodora 
 presided. 
 
 From the centre of the ceiling hung a brass Moresque 
 chandelier, which was a chandelier in reality, as it held 
 fifty wax candles, and from the four corners depended 
 four lamps of the same metal and of most intricate 
 Arabic workmanship. Moorish and Arabic cabinets 
 stood against the walls, and were filled with rare speci- 
 mens of glass and pottery. 
 
 . Of course, Theodora sat at the head of the table, and 
 Moultrie at the foot. On his right sat his mother, and 
 on his left his daughter. On Theodora's right was her 
 sister-in-law, Mrs. Sincote, and on her left her niece by 
 marriage, Florence Sincote. 
 
 " With two others I might mention," said Moultrie, 
 as he sat down, and looking, as he spoke, alternately at 
 his wife and daughter, " our company to-night would be 
 complete." 
 
 " I think I know what papa is doing," said Theodora, 
 with a musical little laugh, and fastening a bouquet of 
 Jacqueminot roses in her corsage. " He is telling Mr. 
 Higgins to proceed with all possible despatch to the 
 presence of those amphibious personages, the ' horse- 
 marines,' and lay his proposition before them." 
 
 "Why specially to-night, dear ?" observed the dow- 
 
A FAMILY DINNER. 31 
 
 ager, with a tone and manner as though she felt com- 
 pelled to ask a question the answer to which was of no 
 possible importance to her " why on the occasion of 
 Geoffrey's birthday ?" 
 
 " Oh," replied Theodora, still laughing, " Geoffrey's 
 birthday has nothing to do with it, one way or the other. 
 For the last five years Mr. Higgins has come at half past 
 six to talk to papa about reforms in the politics of the 
 Territory. At seven precisely he takes his departure, 
 and is always told by papa to tell his plans to the ' horse- 
 marines.' 1 don't suppose that the ceremony has been 
 intermitted because this is Geoffrey's birthday." 
 
 " Thanks, dear," said the dowager, languidly ; " it is 
 always so much better to understand things." 
 
 " And what do you think Tyscovus is doing, Lai?" 
 observed Moultrie to his daughter. " Is he, too, dis- 
 cussing politics ?" 
 
 " No, father" she always called him " father" she 
 replied, while the color of her cheek deepened a little, 
 and a smile passed over her face, " 1 think John is just 
 about beginning his second pipe. He is sitting in front 
 of the fire in his new house on the butte, and is thinking 
 of us, and and," she added, hesitatingly, " wishing he 
 was here." 
 
 " Or rather," said Moultrie, laughing, " he is think- 
 ing of you and wishing you were there. Won't that do 
 as an amendment, Lai ?" 
 
 Lai blushed still more, and all the rest laughed. 
 
 "How many pipes does he smoke?" inquired the 
 dowager, with a little more interest in her voice than she 
 had yet shown. 
 
 " Six," replied Lai, as she raised an oyster from its 
 shell to her mouth. 
 
32 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Six !" exclaimed the dowager, in astonishment, real 
 or affected " six pipes every evening ! My dear, you 
 should write and tell him that science has demonstrated 
 the fact that the excessive use of tobacco induces a pecul- 
 iar kind of thirst that can only be satisfied by indulgence 
 in whiskey. All inordinate users of tobacco sooner or 
 later die drunkards. ' ' 
 
 As she uttered these words, with all the oracular force 
 of which she was capable, she squeezed the last drop of 
 juice from a piece of lemon on her last oyster, which 
 act, equally with her speech, gave evidence of the inten- 
 sity of her feelings. 
 
 " But John never drinks whiskey, grandmother," said 
 Lai, with a touch of indignation in her voice and a look 
 at the old lady that expressed a like feeling. " And I'm 
 quite sure oh, yes, very sure, that he will not die a 
 drunkard." 
 
 u You should have heard Mr. Quarton's lecture the 
 other night, my dear, and then perhaps you would look 
 at the matter in a different light. Observations made in 
 the cases of two thousand six hundred and ten inveterate 
 smokers of tobacco showed that two thousand five hun- 
 dred and seventeen all but ninety-three drank whis- 
 key. Of course Mr. Tyscovus may be one of the very 
 small proportion that escapes less than four per cent, 
 my dear, if 1 compute correctly but it is an awful risk 
 to run." And her tone became quite pathetic, as she 
 apparently had in her mind's eye the picture of Tyscovus 
 staggering to a drunkard's grave. 
 
 " I think you are quite right, Lai, as regards Mr. 
 Tyscovus," said Theodora from the other side of the 
 table, " however right mother may be as to the 
 twenty- five hundred and odd other inveterate smok- 
 
A FAMILY DINNER. 33 
 
 ers. A more abstemious man I never saw in all my 
 life." 
 
 " Thanks, mamma !" exclaimed Lai, her face beaming 
 with pleasure. u Mr. Quartern does not know John at 
 all, and grandmother knows him very slightly, or she 
 would not say such things of him. Do you think John 
 will die a drunkard, father ?" she continued, turning to 
 Moultrie and taking hold of the hand that was nearer to 
 her. 
 
 " About as soon as I will, my dear," answered Moul- 
 trie, smiling at her eagerness. (i Perhaps not so soon, 
 for I understand I am to be nominated for Congress to- 
 morrow night, and the canvass and the election may get 
 me into such a habit of dram-drinking that a drunkard's 
 grave may ultimately be my receptacle." 
 
 " How can you talk so absurdly on such a serious sub- 
 ject, Geoffrey !" ejaculated his mother, holding up both 
 hands, as though horrified at his scoffing manner. " And 
 is it really possible," she continued, her voice assuming 
 a tone in which astonishment and sorrow were mingled 
 in about equal proportions, ' ' that an American gentle- 
 man cannot become a candidate for membership in the 
 legislative body of his country without being obliged to 
 contract the awful habit of dram-drinking, and incurring 
 the risk of filling a drunkard's grave ?" 
 
 " I am afraid, mother," rejoined Moultrie, looking at 
 the dowager with a humorous expression on his face, 
 " that I shall have to answer your question in the nega- 
 tive that is, if the American gentleman aforesaid desires 
 to be elected. I suppose," he added, looking as though 
 he were thinking deeply on the subject, " that vicarious 
 drinking would do. He might, I mean for a small con- 
 sideration, and, of course, supplying the whiskey, hire 
 
34 A STKONG-MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 men to do his drinking for him ; but I fear such a pro- 
 cedui^ would not be any better on the score of morality 
 than doing it himself." 
 
 " Geoffrey didn't tell you, mother," said Theodora, 
 " that he has almost made up his mind to enter the field 
 of politics. He thinks he would like the life, and, more- 
 over, he is not without the hope that he may be of some 
 service to the country." 
 
 " I hope he will do nothing of the kind," rejoined 
 the dowager. (( Even if he was joking about the dram- 
 drinking and he has got so lately that I scarcely ever 
 know whether he is in earnest or not he would have to 
 associate with such horrid people that it would be diffi- 
 cult for him to escape contamination." 
 
 " Well, mother, you have given your vote in the 
 negative," said Moultrie, good-humoredly, " and a very 
 emphatic vote it is. I propose to be entirely under 
 female influence to-night, and to do just as the majority 
 may determine. I have great faith in the intuitions of 
 women, and this time will be guided by them. Now, 
 Lai, it's your turn. What do you say ?" 
 
 " Yes," she answered, unhesitatingly. 
 
 " That seems to be as emphatic a vote in the affirma- 
 tive as mother's was in the negative. Now, won't you 
 tell why you think I ought to go into politics ?" 
 
 " But," said Lai, smiling, t( I thought voters did not 
 give their reasons when they voted. Besides," she 
 added, with a demure look at her grandmother, " my 
 reasons would be so different from " 
 
 " From those I have advanced," interrupted the old 
 lady. " Don't be restrained on that account, my dear. 
 It is so refreshing in these days of disrespect for their 
 elders to hear a young lady speak diffidently of differing 
 
A FAMILY DI^NEE. 35 
 
 from those that have had more experience of the world 
 than she has, that I think you deserve encouraggiarfent. 
 Pray, go on." 
 
 " Yes, I will," exclaimed Lai, with a little quickness 
 and decision in her voice, and a slight heightening of her 
 color. " 1 do not think my father could be injured by 
 any associations he chose to make. He might go witli 
 drunkards, and thieves, and murderers, and instead of 
 them making him bad, he would make them good. That 
 is what I think, and I think the people ought to be glad 
 to get such a man as my father to go to their Congress 
 and help to make their laws, for he could not make any 
 but good ones. ' ' 
 
 " Brava !" cried Moultrie, clapping his hands. " Now 
 I shall confidently expect the votes of all the other free 
 women. Come, Julia, it is your turn next." 
 
 " Oh, I vote yes ! I certainly agree with Lalage. 
 You ought to go to Congress for the sake of the coun- 
 try." 
 
 " Thanks ! Now, Florence, although you are under 
 age we'll allow you this time to express an opinion. 
 Speak, immature young woman !' ' 
 
 " I vote no," said Florence, without hesitation ; " be- 
 cause if you went to Congress this winter you couldn't 
 take me skating, as you promised." 
 
 " Already self-interest has entered into the election. 
 But suppose, Florry, I should get your cousin, Jack 
 Willdower, to take you to the rink, could I then have 
 the benefit of your vote in the affirmative ?" 
 
 " Geoffrey !" exclaimed his mother, before Florence 
 could answer, " I am astonished that you should even 
 hint with approval at such a crime as bribery at elec- 
 tions. To be sure, this little episode is all for the sake 
 
36 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 of amusement at least," slie added, with a little cough, 
 " I suppose so. Still jour tone of levity cannot but tend 
 to lead an impressionable child like Florence into wrong 
 paths, and predispose to the formation of loose opinions 
 relative to that curse of American politics bribery. She 
 is just now a close student of ' McWholley's Political 
 Economy,' in which, I assure you, the doctrines ex- 
 pressed are very different from those I have heard to- 
 night." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I forgot that Florry 's political morals were 
 being looked after by Professor McWholley. We had 
 quite a little dispute, 1 recollect, relative to the child 
 studying such a subject as political economy. I looked 
 into McWholley's book and 1 found it pretty tough 
 reading. How far have you got, Florry ?" 
 
 " Only as far as ' Capital,' Uncle Geoffrey." 
 
 " Well, Florry, stop right there, and you will be fol- 
 lowing the example of every one of your countrymen 
 and women, ( present company excepted,' of course. 
 However, keep your vote as it is, for if you were to 
 change we shouldn't have the benefit of the views of the 
 lady who presides over this table. Madame," he con- 
 tinued, bowing to Theodora, " you have the casting 
 vote. My fate is in your hands. " 
 
 " So that, after all," said Theodora, with a merry 
 laugh, " it will probably result in your being guided by 
 what I told you when you first mentioned the subject to 
 me" 
 
 " And that was ?" interrupted the dowager. 
 
 ' To accept by all means, not only because the nation 
 will be benefited by his going to Congress, but because 
 it will do him good, and, again, because he wants to go. 
 So it is settled ; and if he is tendered the nomination he 
 
A FAMILY DINNER. 37 
 
 will accept ; and if lie accepts lie will be elected, I hope. 
 There, however, he will have to do without our votes. ' ' 
 
 Lai waved the end of her table-napkin in token of her 
 delight at the way the voting had gone, and Moultrie 
 returned thanks to his supporters in a humorous little 
 speech. As to the dowager, she seemed for the moment 
 to be somewhat chagrined at the result, but she soon 
 recovered her equanimity, and went on saying sharp 
 things to everybody and being treated good-naturedly in 
 return. All appeared to know that her bark was worse 
 than her bite, and that she often expressed the most pre- 
 posterous opinions merely for the sake of having the 
 grievance of being contradicted. 
 
 * i I knew Count Felinski Tyscovus, Lalage, the father 
 of your John," said the dowager, apparently having 
 gathered together her forces for another assault. " He 
 married a friend of mine, and I was one of her brides- 
 maids, as I have told you before." 
 
 " Yes, grandmother," observed Lai, not raising her 
 eyes from her plate, upon which there was a mushroom 
 she was strenuously endeavoring to capture, but which 
 continually eluded her fork. 
 
 " He was a very remarkable man, a great scholar, and 
 yet a very unusual combination a thorough man of 
 the world, using the expression in its best sense." 
 
 " Yes, grandmother, I heard you say the other day 
 that his son was very much like him." 
 
 The old lady looked surprised for a moment, and then, 
 without replying to Lai's observation, she turned to 
 Moultrie. 
 
 " I suppose you will hardly do more than take up a 
 hotel residence in Washington, and that you will leave 
 Theodora and Lalage here. It will be so easy for you 
 
38 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 to run over every Friday night, if you wish to do so, 
 and stay till Monday." 
 
 " Perhaps you are anticipating a little," he said, smil- 
 ing. " I am not elected yet ; but I think I may say that 
 if the people of that portion of the city of New York 
 constituting the really," he added, after a pause, "I 
 forget the number of the Congressional District, but 
 whichever it is require my services, we shall probably 
 take a house there and set up an establishment. That at 
 least was the conclusion that Theodora and I came to last 
 night." 
 
 " And take Lalage away from all the educational ad- 
 vantages she has here ! Oh, Geoffrey ! I am sure you 
 have not thought of this matter. Think what she will 
 lose by being cut off from her studies and other means 
 of mental improvement. And think, also, of what she 
 will gain by being introduced into such a society as that 
 of "Washington." 
 
 " Don't trouble yourself about Lalage, mother, 
 please," said Moultrie, gravely. u She may safely be 
 trusted to do what is right regardless of her inclinations. 
 Is it not so, dear ?' ' he continued, turning toward her 
 with a loving smile on his face. 
 
 She made no answer save by a look that he under- 
 stood, and then she raised his hand to her lips. 
 
 u Lai will decide that matter for herself , mother," said 
 Theodora. " But we hope you will spend at least a por- 
 tion of the winter with us should Geoffrey be elected." 
 
 ic I ! I go to Washington ! I voluntarily place my- 
 self in such a hot-bed of imbecility, and vulgarity, and 
 corruption ! My dear," she went on, with a tone of 
 outraged dignity, ff if you knew me better you would 
 not make such a suggestion." 
 
A FAMILY DINNER. 39 
 
 " But it was I who proposed it," interrupted Moultrie. 
 
 " You !" exclaimed liis mother ; " so much the worse, 
 then, for you do know me better." 
 
 " You spent a season there once, I remember," said 
 Moultrie, in his defence, " and if I recollect aright you 
 appeared to enjoy it. Indeed, if I am not mistaken, it 
 was there you first made the acquaintance of the gentle- 
 man who subsequently became your husband and my 
 father." 
 
 " Yes, but that was before the present race of poli- 
 ticians came into power. However, we will not continue 
 the subject." When the dowager made this observa- 
 tion, it was simply a feint to cover her retreat in a re- 
 spectable way. " This is your birthday," she continued, 
 " and as the champagne has now come, I propose your 
 health, and that of your wife, and of your daughter, and 
 may you always be to them as good a husband and 
 father as you have been to me a son." 
 
 Moultrie was much touched by these words of his 
 mother, and rising from his chair, bent over and kissed 
 her forehead, while all the others drank the toast that the 
 dowager had proposed. Then Theodora, and Lai, and 
 Mrs. Sincote, and Florence kissed Mouitrie and his 
 mother, so that it looked at one time as though the 
 dinner was going to end in a grand oscuiatory divertise- 
 ment, as the eating of the dessert, which had just begun 
 to be served, was altogether suspended. However, 
 when every one had recovered composure, and the 
 women had touched their eyes with the corners of their 
 handkerchiefs to absorb the tears that great mental 
 pleasure so generally causes to flow from their lachrymal 
 apparatus, the discussion relative to plans for the future 
 was resumed. There was no doubt that Moultrie would 
 
40 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 receive the nomination for Congress from an indepen- 
 dent political organization, made up of the best men of 
 both the antagonistic parties, and scarcely a doubt of his 
 election by a large plurality. In the depths of her heart 
 his mother was rejoiced at the prospect of a new road to 
 distinction being offered to her son, but she was so con- 
 stituted that opposition to everything suggested by others 
 was a necessity of her mental organization. As Moultrie 
 had said to Theodora soon after their marriage, she took 
 the place in the family that the advocatus diaboli occu- 
 pies when a pious individual is proposed for canoniza- 
 tion. She brought forward all possible objections to the 
 proposed measure, and then ended by becoming, after 
 its adoption, one of its most strenuous supporters. 
 
 In the present instance the evidence of a revolution in 
 her sentiments relative to Moultrie going into politics, 
 and then taking up a permanent residence in Washington 
 during the sessions of Congress, was not long in being 
 forthcoming, and before the company arose from the 
 dinner-table she had not only become an adherent of 
 both plans, but had admitted that it was just possible 
 that she might accept the invitation given her and spend 
 a portion of the coming winter at the seat of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 During the whole dinner it was observed that Florence 
 had exhibited a preoccupied air that not even the voting 
 and the reference to skating had been entirely competent 
 to remove. When the time came for her to leave for 
 the night, she stood hesitatingly, as though there were 
 still something on her mind, which her uncle observing, 
 called her to him, and said : 
 
 "What's the matter, I lorry? You look as though 
 you were expecting the sudden advent of the day of 
 
A FAMILY DINNER. 41 
 
 judgment, or some other awful catastrophe. "What 
 is it?" 
 
 " She has been told not to speak unless she is spoken 
 to," observed her grandmother, looking around the table 
 as though she thought the inhibition might properly be 
 applied to the rest of the company. " I saw that she 
 was worried about something or other, but I was anxious 
 to see whether or not she would remain silent in the face 
 of the evident desire to speak that was present. Now 
 you have ruined my experiment in pedo-discipline. " 
 
 " Pedo-discipline !" exclaimed Moultrie, laughing 
 heartily ; " what in the name of all that is learned is 
 pedo-discipline ? Oh, yes," he added, as his classical 
 knowledge, rather musty from disuse, came to his aid, 
 " I recollect. "Well, mother, if there is ever an in- 
 quisition established for the special discomfort of chil- 
 dren, 1 hope you will be made grand inquisitor. Have 
 I your permission, madam, to allow Florry to tell her 
 troubles?" 
 
 " Geoffrey, I declare you're getting to be incorrigible. 
 I really do not know to what the change in you is to be 
 attributed. No ; you need not look at your wife with 
 that silly expression on your face. She has had nothing 
 to do with it. I noticed the beginning before your mar- 
 riage. But 1 got no thanks for all the pains I am taking 
 with Florence's education. Julia takes no interest in the 
 matter" " Oh, mother !" from Mrs. Sincote " and 
 the whole burden falls on me,' ' she went on, not deign- 
 ing to notice the interruption. " You may speak, Flor- 
 ence,' ' addressing the child, who had remained standing 
 in the middle of the room with her hands crossed before 
 her. " Tell your uncle what troubles you, my dear. 
 He is a very great man, and when he gets into Congress 
 
42 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 intends applying a torch to the Potomac. " This sally 
 of the old lady's caused much amusement, and when 
 the laugh had ceased Florence began. 
 
 " If you please, uncle, there are two things " 
 " One at a time, Florence," interrupted the dowager. 
 " How often have I told you not to impair the clearness 
 of any statement you may have to make by mixing your 
 ideas as though you were making a plum-pudding. If 
 you are about to ask questions, keep each entirely distinct 
 from the others. Now, first ?" 
 
 " If you please, uncle, what is a horse-marine ?" 
 A burst of laughter from all but the dowager greeted 
 this question. 
 
 " Now, Geoffrey," she exclaimed, " I hope you see 
 the folly of talking nonsense before a child whose mind 
 is yet in a chrysalis state, and who is therefore not able 
 to discriminate between your sense and your nonsense, 
 if," she added, " there is any difference. You may 
 shake your head and point at Theodora. It is of no 
 consequence who used the word. You are the re- 
 sponsible one. ' Horse-marines,' my dear," turning to 
 Florence, " is not a word that you will find in any dic- 
 tionary, unless in one entirely devoted to slang, if there 
 is such a book. It is an expression used, I am sorry to 
 say, sometimes by educated and refined people, to signify 
 the improbability or ridiculousness of something told 
 them. If there was such a being as a horse-marine, he 
 would be a naval soldier mounted on a horse, which, of 
 course, would be an absurdity. I hope, Florence, you 
 will never be guilty of uttering such a slangy word. " 
 The dowager looked around triumphantly as she delivered 
 this philippic, and then inquired, in her softest tones, 
 ' i What was the other matter, my dear ?" 
 
A FAMILY DINNER. 43 
 
 " Uncle Geoffrey, and Aunt Theodora, and Cousin 
 Lalage all seemed to think that it was the same time at 
 Hellbender that it was here, while at seven o'clock here 
 it was only about five o'clock at Denver, and not five at 
 Hellbender ; so you see Dr. Willis and Mr. Tyscovus 
 were not saying ' horse-marines ' and smoking pipes. 
 They have just about begun now," she continued, look- 
 ing at the clock on the mantelpiece. 
 
 " Come and kiss me, my dear !" exclaimed the dow- 
 ager, holding out her arms, into which Florence rushed, 
 while the rest clapped their hands in applause of the 
 depth of learning displayed by the child. " Now, you 
 see what education can do. I almost feel repaid for all 
 my anxiety on your account. How much better, my 
 child, to cultivate your understanding in the way in 
 which I perceive you are doing, than to fill your mind 
 with ideas of slang expressions like horse-marines.' 
 Professor Maltanbroon is, I see, doing his duty by you. 
 Now, .good-night ; kiss your mamma, and make your 
 courtesies to your uncle, and aunt, and cousin. She is 
 a very intelligent child," she continued, after Florence 
 had gone off with her nursery governess, " and if I can 
 only keep her from your influence, Geoffrey, she will 
 make a remarkable woman. ' ' 
 
 " If she were my daughter," said Moultrie, not notic- 
 ing his mother's parting shot, " I should prefer that at 
 her age she should be skating with her cousin Jack 
 Willdower rather than to see her bothering her little 
 brain with questions of longitude. What does it profit 
 a girl if she learns that Denver is thirty-one degrees of 
 longitude west of New York and gets Saint Vitus's 
 dance, or some other horrid nervous disease ?" 
 
 " Florence is as far from any tendency to nervous dis- 
 
44 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 ease as you are. I think you might give me credit, 
 Geoffrey, for having some common-sense. Heaven 
 knows, I brought up you and Julia carefully enough, 
 and I think what 1 could do for my children I might be 
 trusted to do for my grandchildren." 
 
 " Certainly you can, my dear mother. If Florry only 
 fares as well as Julia and I did, and develops as strong 
 an intellect, you will have your reward. But what is 
 this?" as the servant brought him a telegraphic des- 
 patch. " Ah," he continued, " from our absent friends : 
 your father, my dear, and Tyscovus, Lai. Sending 
 congratulations to me and love to all. It is pleasant to 
 be thought of by those we love. Come !" as he rose 
 from the table ; " Theodora will play one of Chopin's 
 Polonaises for us, and Lai will sing that new song she 
 has been practising for a week." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 A POLITICAL MEETING. 
 
 MOULTRIE liad received the nomination for Congress, 
 and a great degree of activity was being manifested 
 by the political adherents of the several candidates in 
 placing the merits of their respective standard-bearers 
 prominently before the public. According to the in- 
 dications, it appeared to be extremely probable that 
 Moultrie would be chosen ; but the managers of his 
 canvass were old party hands, who did not allow their 
 confidence to interfere with their energy. Meetings in 
 favor of Moultrie were being held in various parts of the 
 district, at many of which he had appeared, and had 
 delivered addresses in explanation of his political princi- 
 ples, and of the course which, if elected, he should feel 
 called upon to follow. The question upon which interest 
 mainly centred was that of the tariff. Neither of the 
 candidates of the old political organizations had ex- 
 pressed themselves sufficiently clearly on the subject to 
 satisfy a large body of advanced political economists, 
 who were in favor of practical free-trade, and who had 
 succeeded in bringing a good many workingmen to see 
 the subject in the same light in which it appeared to 
 them. Moultrie had answered in a very satisfactory 
 manner the questions they had put to him, and although 
 he did not go so far as some of the gentlemen who were 
 active in his support, he was considered to be sufficiently 
 
46 A STKONG-MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 enlightened on the subject to serve as an entering wedge 
 into the matter of revenue reform. 
 
 Thus, Moultrie was very far from being in favor of the 
 abolition of custom houses, as were many of the younger 
 and more enthusiastic members of the u Free-Trade 
 Alliance," which had been the chief instrument in 
 bringing about his nomination. lie recognized the fact 
 that a tariff properly adjusted upon articles of universal 
 consumption was of all other means for raising revenue 
 for the support of the government the easiest of manip- 
 ulation and the least oppressive. 
 
 But at the same time he had a holy horror of " protec- 
 tion," as it is called, but which, in his opinion, ought to 
 be designated " destruction." He had thought long and 
 deeply upon the subject, and had arrived at the opinion 
 that under the specious plea of offering protection to 
 American labor, and pretending to give employment to 
 the workingman, a high tariff laid upon those articles of 
 foreign manufacture or growth that come into competi- 
 tion with our products not only taxed the people at large 
 for the support of a few, but was really calculated to 
 destroy the very industries it was intended to foster. 
 Only the very day upon which he had been nominated, 
 Mr. Curt, a shoe manufacturer in West Broadway, who 
 had employed at one time over five hundred men and 
 women, had called upon him to explain how the high 
 duty on shoes was ruining his business. " Not only is 
 the leather taxed at a high rate," said- this gentleman, 
 " but every single article that enters into the construc- 
 tion of a shoe the tools with which it is made, the clothes 
 the workmen and workwomen wear, the bread they eat, 
 the medicine they take when they are sick everything, 
 in fact, that, directly or indirectly, is connected with a 
 
A POLITICAL MEETING. 47 
 
 shoe has a protective tax put on it. As a consequence," 
 he continued, " I cannot make shoes as cheaply as they 
 can make them in England, and, accordingly, I have no 
 foreign market. I used to send every year thousands 
 of pairs to Brazil, Mexico, and Cuba, but now I send 
 none, for the English manufacturer undersells me. My 
 only market is the United States. Over-production is 
 the consequence, prices fall, and I have been obliged to 
 discharge half my working force. I want no ' protec- 
 tion,' and I have come to learn from your own mouth 
 just how you stand on this question." 
 
 Moultrie had no difficulty in laying his views before 
 Mr. Curt, and in satisfying that gentleman as to his ex- 
 act position on the tariff question.' "If," said the 
 manufacturer, on taking his leave, " you can secure a re- 
 duction of fifty per cent from the duty on shoes, 1 shall 
 be able to employ double the number of men and women 
 that I do now, for then I shall be able to compete with 
 the world. ' ' 
 
 To be sure, the " Protectionists to American Industry" 
 were up in arms against Moultrie, and they did not fail to 
 tire their batteries upon what they called his " fine-spun 
 theories." They alleged that he was of all men least 
 competent to discuss a question of the kind, or to under- 
 stand it in its minute connections with every condition of 
 American life, for he was only an American in name, 
 the greater portion of his life having been passed and his 
 wealth acquired in foreign countries. They called his 
 attention to the silk manufacture, which was being built 
 up under his very eyes, and solely as the result of the 
 high duty placed upon the foreign fabric. They ad- 
 vanced the fact that all young nations were protectionists, 
 and that only old ones, whose industries were established, 
 
48 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 and which hence did not need the fostering care of the 
 State, were in favor of free- trade. And then they said, 
 " How much better for us to make all we need and pay 
 our own people for it, than to buy the products of 
 foreign nations, and send the gold arid silver out of the 
 country to pay for them !" " Without protection," said 
 the Hon. Marcus Aurelius Jackson, who was the sitting 
 member and desired a re-election, " we should be a 
 nation of farmers and miners, with a stray lumberman 
 here and there. Perhaps that is what the gentleman, my 
 opponent, desires, for I understand he has immense 
 mining interests. It probably makes no difference to 
 him where his gold and silver and copper go. The 
 more products of the pauper labor of Europe that come 
 into the country, the greater will be the demand for his 
 precious metals to pay for them metals which, I am 
 given to understand, are torn from the bowels of the 
 earth not by the Americans, nor by our Irish or German 
 brethren, nor even by our colored friends, ' ' he added, 
 as he looked around the hall in which he was speaking, 
 and saw a small group of negro men in one corner of the 
 room, " but by the offscourings of Asia, the degraded 
 Mongol, the leprous Chinese, who, being too low in the 
 scale of creation to understand what an American home is, 
 and whose puny bodies can be kept alive on an amount 
 of food upon which a robust, iron-muscled Caucasian or 
 African would starve, are willing to work for a tenth part 
 of the wages he would have to pay one of you. Think of 
 this, my friends," he continued, after he had recovered 
 the breath spent in this long sentence, " and give your 
 votes to him who knows what your interests are, and 
 who is prepared to serve you to the utmost of his limited 
 ability, and with all the fidelity he has hitherto shown." 
 
A POLITICAL MEETING. 49 
 
 This speech was received with great applause by a 
 large assemblage, and the changes were rung time and 
 again on the points brought forward by the honorable 
 gentleman, so that if a ballot could have been taken then 
 and there the speaker would have been elected by an al- 
 most unanimous vote. 
 
 But not a hundred yards distant, and in another hall, 
 another meeting was being held, and this was constituted 
 mainly of the supporters of Moultrie, together with 
 about fifty workmen belonging to the other parties, who 
 had been specially invited to hear the speech of the 
 Hon. Tom Burton on the question " Does Protection 
 Protect ?' ' 
 
 The Hon. Tom Burton was a citizen of Texas, had 
 served the people of his State in the Legislature and 
 in Congress, was a natural born orator in the Texan 
 sense of the expression, and he hated a protective tariff as 
 religiously, or rather as ir-religiously, as the devil is said 
 to hate holy water. He had all the arguments against such 
 an institution at his tongue's end, and he rattled them 
 off so volubly, and interspersed his arguments with so 
 many telling anecdotes, that he put his audience at once 
 in a good humor, and hence did that which of all things 
 was calculated to engage their attention, and to cause 
 them to regard him with favor. He knew perfectly well 
 that, no matter how strongly a speaker may feel what he 
 is saying, if he says it in a dry and uninteresting way he 
 will weary many who will not, or cannot, take the 
 trouble to follow him. He recognized the force with 
 which an orator who makes use of examples and illus- 
 trations, or tells a striking story, conveys the ideas that he 
 is seeking to impress upon his hearers. And he was well 
 aware that most people are satisfied to have others do all 
 3 
 
50 A STKONa-MLNDED WOMAK. 
 
 the deep reasoning for them, and to give them only the 
 results. However, the Hon. Tom Burton was a valuable 
 ally, and Moultrie's managers had done well to secure 
 him. It is true they had to pay for him. The Hon. 
 Tom was a luxury, and as he was fully aware of his im- 
 portance in the political world, he made those who needed 
 his services put their hands prettly deeply into their 
 pockets and bring them out well filled. Still, there was 
 no reason for believing that he ever advocated or op- 
 posed a measure against his conscience. 
 
 The hall in which he was to speak was full, and the 
 invited guests the fifty or more workmen mentioned 
 occupied places of honor on the platform, on which also 
 a half dozen ladies were seated. A prominent shipping 
 merchant presided, and there w^re twenty vice-presi- 
 dents, and nearly as many secretaries, though what duties 
 the occupants of these honorable positions had to perform 
 was not apparent. Their names were read out, and that 
 was the last of them. Probably very few of them 
 attended the meeting. 
 
 The chairman rose, and after a few remarks explana- 
 tory of the objects of the assemblage, introduced the 
 Hon. Tom Burton of Texas, " whose eloquence was a 
 household word from one end of this great and glorious 
 Union to the other, and who had made a special study of 
 the subject of the tariff in all its relations to the producer, 
 manufacturer, and consumer, and for whom he would 
 now ask their attention." 
 
 Then, amid tremendous applause, the honorable gentle- 
 man arose. First he bowed to the chairman, then to the 
 ladies, then to the fifty workmen in their places of 
 honor, then to the great audience before him. 
 
 He began with a funny story, which set every one 
 
A POLITICAL MEETHSTG. 51 
 
 to laughing ; then he told how unequally the existing tariff 
 worked, and how, with protection as its object, it never 
 could, although formed with the wisdom of all the po- 
 litical tinkers in the country, be anything else but an 
 oppression upon the whole nation for the benefit of the 
 few, and eventually a curse, even to those who at first 
 might derive an unfair advantage from its workings. 
 All this and much more he said, and in a way that, if 
 not deep, or even if not strictly correct, carried conviction 
 to the hearts of all that heard him. For he seemed to 
 believe so firmly every word he uttered, that his very 
 positiveness was sufficient to prevent the timid ones who 
 heard him allowing a doubt of his infallibility to arise in 
 their minds. Then, with a panegyric on Moultrie, in 
 which, while giving him unstinted praise, he scarcely 
 passed the limits of good taste, he sat down amid the 
 plaudits of the meeting. 
 
 Several of the workmen asked him pertinent questions, 
 to all of which he answered good-naturedly and apparent- 
 ly satisfactorily, and the chairman was about to declare 
 the assemblage adjourned, when one of the ladies arose 
 and requested permission to say a few words. A hun- 
 dred voices from various parts of the hall cried " Go 
 on,' ' and the chairman bowing his consent, she proceeded 
 with her remarks. 
 
 But hardly had she gotten beyond the opening sen- 
 tences which, however, gave no clew to the purport of 
 what she intended to say than the large assemblage 
 broke out into a perfect uproar of cheers and clapping of 
 hands. The cause was not a matter of doubt ; for com- 
 ing down the aisle were Moultrie and three or four 
 friends, with whom he had been making a tour of the 
 district, and visiting the places where meetings were 
 
52 A STEONG-MINDED WOMAK. 
 
 being held. He was obliged to ascend the platform to 
 thank the people for their attendance, and to congratu- 
 late them and himself for having so able an advocate of 
 the principles of a tariff for revenue only as his friend, 
 the Hon. Tom Burton. Then, amid renewed applause, 
 he sat down, and the lady speaker resumed her remarks. 
 
 " Your chairman," she said, " has not deemed it 
 necessary to ask my name ; and as I am probably un- 
 known by personal appearance at least to a majority of 
 those present I will state that I am Rachel Meadows, 
 and that I appear here to-night as the advocate of wom- 
 an's rights." 
 
 ' i But, my dear madam, ' ' interrupted the chairman, 
 " this is a meeting called for an entirely different pur- 
 pose ; and however much some of us may be in favor 
 of extending woman's influence and power in political 
 matters, this is not the place in which to air our views." 
 
 " 1 understand," replied the lady, " that this meeting 
 was called for the purpose of advocating the election of 
 Mr. Geoffrey Moultrie to Congress, and for placing his 
 claims to that honor before the people. As it is likely 
 that the subject of woman's rights and disabilities will be 
 introduced into Congress at its next session, I think it 
 desirable that we should ' know how Mr. Moultrie stands 
 on the question. It is true that we have no votes, but I 
 think we have influence, and we propose to use it hence- 
 forth in order to obtain for the educated, intelligent, 
 quick-minded women of America what you give to every 
 ignorant foreigner who comes to your shores. I had 
 proposed putting my interrogatories to you, Mr. Chair- 
 man ; but as the candidate is now present, we hope to 
 hear from him. 1 have only to add that I am the spokes- 
 woman of the Committee of the < United "Women of 
 
A POLITICAL MEETING. 53 
 
 America,' and that we are sent here by that large and 
 influential organization." 
 
 " But, madam," rejoined the chairman, " the ques- 
 tion is not an issue of the present campaign, and " 
 
 "If the chairman will excuse me," said Moultrie, 
 rising and coming forward, " I will say that 1 hope the 
 lady may be allowed to proceed, and that 1 will endeavor 
 to answer any questions that may possibly bear a relation 
 to my course as a member of Congress, should you see fit 
 to send me to represent you in that body. ' ' 
 
 Up to this time the vast assemblage had preserved so 
 complete a degree of quiet, that, to use an exaggerated 
 but familiar expression, " a pin might have been heard to 
 drop." It was evident, however, that very great in- 
 terest was felt in this episode, and certainly that there 
 was no feeling against the lady who wished to be heard. 
 This was rendered still more apparent by the applause 
 which greeted Moultrie's remarks. Everybody therefore 
 waited with eagerness for what was next to come. The 
 chairman turned to the lady, who had remained standing 
 while Moultrie was speaking, and she resumed her re- 
 marks. 
 
 Miss Rachel Meadows was not unknown to the read- 
 ing or the listening public of the United States, for she 
 had for several years written for the magazines and for 
 the newspaper press many trenchant articles on the 
 woman question, and had spoken to a like effect from the 
 lecture-platform in various parts of the country. Al- 
 though on the present occasion she had maintained her 
 position with firmness and dignity, it was evident from 
 the slight flush that mantled her handsome face and the 
 slight nervous motions of her hands that she felt a little 
 out of place before an audience composed entirely of men. 
 
54 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 She did not look as though she were over twenty-five 
 years of age, and her manners and speech were those of 
 an educated woman accustomed to associating with peo- 
 ple of refinement. She was not sufficiently advanced 
 in years to warrant the designation of " old maid. ' ' 
 Neither was she deficient in those personal attractions, the 
 want of which, and the consequent inability to get a hus- 
 band, are popularly supposed to be the chief characteris- 
 tics of the agitators for the extension of woman's rights 
 and privileges to an equality with those possessed by man. 
 
 She was, perhaps, a little over the medium height of 
 women, and she was dressed plainly and yet in the per- 
 fection of neatness. Her hands were properly gloved 
 and her feet nicely shod. As to her face, it was healthy 
 looking ; her features were not large enough to be re- 
 marked for their size, or so small as to give the idea of 
 insignificance, and it was full of expression of the kind 
 that one likes to see on a woman's face. There was 
 nothing hard about it ; the lines were not drawn rigidly ; 
 the contours were graceful and flowing ; and as she 
 stood there, calm and self-possessed, waiting patiently 
 for the decision as to whether she should or should not 
 be allowed to speak, and exhibiting just enough emo- 
 tional disturbance to show that she was a woman, the 
 sympathy of the audience went with her, and one strong 
 point was gained before she had begun to state her case. 
 
 a I am much obliged to you," she said, addressing 
 Moultrie, who had remained standing, " for coming to 
 my aid, but it is no more than I expected from the hus- 
 band of a woman who has shown the world that a love for 
 science is not incompatible with filial and wifely duty. 
 But it is not much that 1 have to say, and it is not my 
 intention to advance any arguments in support of doc- 
 
A POLITICAL MEETING. 55 
 
 trines which are very dear to many women for we think 
 the future happiness of our sex depends greatly upon 
 their establishment but with which, and with what can 
 be said in their favor, it may safely be assumed that you 
 are fully acquainted. I merely desire to ask two ques- 
 tions, and then, whatever may be your answers, I shall 
 have no more to say : 
 
 u Pirst, 1 understand that a bill will be introduced 
 into the next Congress providing that no public land 
 shall hereafter be devoted to any college, university, or 
 other institution of learning that makes any discrimina- 
 tion between the sexes in its courses of instruction. 
 
 61 Second, an attempt will be made to allow women to 
 vote and to hold offices in the District of Columbia and 
 in all Territories belonging to the United States. 
 
 " I desire to know, on behalf of the committee of the 
 ' United Women of America,' whether, in the event of 
 your election to Congress, you will support these meas- 
 ures 2" 
 
 She spoke with perfect ease and with a clear and dis- 
 tinct voice, which was heard in every part of the large 
 room, and which was, moreover, what Moultrie specially 
 admired, soft and melodious, without a shrill note or 
 piercing tone in any of its inflections. 
 
 When she sat down there was a murmur of applause 
 throughout the hall, subdued, it is true, but none the less 
 expressive of the sympathy, if not the entire approval, 
 of the audience. It appeared as though the strong men 
 present were loath, while desirous of showing their re- 
 spect for the speaker, to let out their full strength in the 
 way of signifying their appreciation, under the appre- 
 hension that to do so would be an act of discourtesy to 
 a woman. 
 
56 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " I am very glad," said Moultrie, " to have the op- 
 portunity of saying a few words upon what may be 
 called the ' woman question,' and I may at the outset of 
 my remarks state that I am in favor of every woman in 
 this and every other land being allowed all possible 
 facilities for studying any subject in science, literature, or 
 art that she chooses, and of getting her living in any 
 honorable way she may select. These are her rights 
 as a human being, of which no man, or body of men, 
 should have the power to deprive her. I will also state 
 and to this view i have recently become a convert 
 that I think no one has any right to object to her seeking 
 her education wherever she thinks she can get it best. 
 If she wishes to go to Harvard, or Yale, or Columbia, or 
 any other seat of learning from which she is now ex- 
 cluded, 1 think she ought to be allowed to go, provided 
 she has arrived at years of discretion, and is hence pre- 
 sumably competent to decide for herself. But I am free 
 to say that in my opinion the co-education of the sexes 
 is inexpedient ; at least now, when the details of plans 
 to be followed have not been sufficiently considered, and 
 while the world is, as it were, unprepared for the in- 
 novation. I feel, however, that I have no right to 
 stand in the way of any woman who thinks differently, 
 except in the matter of giving my advice. 
 
 '' Relative to the specific question put to me, I have to 
 say that I should certainly vote against the proposed 
 bill, and for the reason that it would be of no practical 
 benefit. It would simply be declaratory, and would not 
 be of the slightest binding force on any subsequent Con- 
 gress having the disposition of the public lands. 
 
 " In regard to the second measure : while I doubt the 
 expediency of conferring the franchise and the right to 
 
A POLITICAL MEETING. 57 
 
 hold any State office upon women, I am in favor of giv- 
 ing them both privileges, when I am satisfied that they 
 really desire them. If the ' United Women of America ' 
 can convince me that they actually represent their sex in 
 this country, and especially the women of the District 
 of Columbia and of the Territories, I will vote for the 
 proposed bill with great pleasure." 
 
 He sat down amid the most tremendous applause, and 
 then, after the transaction of a little routine business, 
 such as the appointment of committees to watch the polls 
 and to bring out the infirm or aged voters, the meeting 
 was adjourned. 
 
 " They'll use all their influence against you," said 
 the Hon. Tom Burton to Moultrie, as they walked up 
 Fifth Avenue, arm in arm, on their way to the latter's 
 residence, to smoke a cigar and have a little quiet talk. 
 " There are perhaps fifty men in the district who are in 
 strong sympathy with them, and who, of course, will now 
 be dead against you, and they can probably control as 
 many more for the asking men who don't care a six- 
 pence one way or another, and who will vote just as 
 somebody they like tells them. Fancy being visited by 
 Miss Rachel Meadows and asked to vote for Marcus 
 Aurelius Jackson, or Titus Andronicus O'Leary, or who- 
 ever the other fellow may be ! By George ! I'm afraid 
 I should give in myself, strong as I am in the faith." 
 
 He laughed pleasantly as he spoke, and without giving 
 Moultrie time to interpose a word went on : 
 
 " You might have been a little less decided with them. 
 You ought to have let off a few theoretical abstractions 
 relative to lovely woman and the important place she 
 occupies in the ' Grand Arcanum of Nature.' I don't 
 know what the ( Grand Arcanum of Nature ' is, but 1 
 
58 A STKONG-MLNDED WOMAN. 
 
 use it a great deal in Texas, and it always tells. I sup- 
 pose, from first to last, I've got as many as a thousand 
 votes by the judicious use of that expression. Then you 
 ought to have made more reference to the intelligence 
 of the committee, and especially of the spokeswoman, and 
 have piled on the compliments to them and the whole 
 sex, and have ended by declaring that when you gave a 
 vote against the interests of the sex to which your 
 mother, your sister, your wife, your daughter, belonged, 
 might your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth. 
 Oh, if I had had the answering of those questions I 
 wouldn't have committed you one iota ; I'd have had 
 all the ladies in a good humor, and they'd have gone 
 away convinced that you were sound on the woman ques- 
 tion ! Consequently, you would have had a hundred 
 more votes than you will have. You will probably be 
 able to do without them, but you are no politician." 
 
 Moultrie laughed. " I am afraid you are right," he 
 said, "and that I never will be able to refrain from 
 speaking exactly as I feel. But I think you overlook 
 another side of the question, that which relates to those 
 men who would have been disgusted with any shilly- 
 shallying on a matter of great importance, and who 
 would have voted against me if I had attempted a befog- 
 ging process, but who now will support me. ' ' 
 
 " There may be something in that," remarked the 
 Hon. Tom, reflectively, " but not much ; you see, the 
 millennium hasn't come yet, and when it does it won't 
 show itself first in politics. For the present, therefore, 
 when you are cornered, as you were to-night, ' glittering 
 generalities ' are the things to use. They always ex- 
 cite enthusiasm, and make all feel that you are their 
 friend. But, by Jove ! Miss Rachel Meadows is a stun- 
 
A POLITICAL MEETING. 59 
 
 ner. Did you notice her eyes, and her glorious mouth, 
 with its two rows of pearls ? And her pretty little hands 
 and feet ? A pretty foot gets me." 
 
 " You certainly seem to be ' got, ' ' ' said Moultrie, with 
 a laugh. " I shouldn't be surprised to find you erelong 
 among the most strenuous supporters of ' woman's 
 rights.' I've known of Miss Meadows for some time, 
 but never had the pleasure of seeing her until to-night." 
 
 " I've seen her before. 1 heard her lecture in Galves- 
 ton last winter for two hours on a stretch, and when she 
 got through I was the only one left in the room ; for, 
 you see, we don't believe much down our way in what 
 you call c woman's rights.' Our women have all the 
 rights they want, and they seem to be not altogether dis- 
 satisfied with their position." 
 
 " That's what their ' advanced' sisters would call the 
 6 supineness of their slavery.' There's a good deal in the 
 question, however, and my mind is still unsettled in re- 
 gard to several of the more important points involved. 
 I shall give a great deal of attention to them soon, and 
 try to arrive at more definite conclusions." 
 
 " I'm thinking much more of Rachel Meadows than I 
 am of her doctrines," said Burton. " The poor girl 
 was awfully cut up as she saw one after the other of the 
 audience slipping out ; but she went through to the end, 
 and seemed a little relieved when I complimented her on 
 the strength of her arguments and on her courage. I 
 offered to escort her to the hotel, which was only across 
 the street, but she had her maid with her, and she de- 
 clined with thanks. 1 never saw her again till to-night. 
 I don't think she recognized me, for since then, as I 
 always do when I come to your arctic regions, I have 
 allowed my full beard to grow." 
 
60 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Why did you not make yourself known to her ?" 
 " Because, my dear fellow, I'm afraid of her. I'm 
 half in love with her already, but I wouldn't marry her 
 for the world, or any other woman holding the views of 
 the relations of the sexes that she holds. She knows 
 too much for me, or at least thinks she does. I steer 
 clear of intellectual women. ' ' 
 
 Moultrie did not tell his companion that he himself 
 had married a woman who had " dissected all animals, 
 from a man to a caterpillar," had performed experiments 
 in evolution and on the velocity ofjjiejierve-force, had 
 lectured to large assemblies, and held advlmcecTviews in 
 regard to the education of women. He would have men- 
 tioned these facts had there been opportunity ; but they 
 had just then arrived at the door of his house, and Bur- 
 ton, announcing that as it was late he would not go in, 
 lighted his cigar, and strolled down the avenue to his 
 hotel. 
 
CHAPTEE 1Y. 
 
 MISS BKEHEN SPEAKS. 
 
 RACHEL MEADOWS and her five companions, members 
 of the committee of the " United Women of America," 
 left the meeting feeling that for the time they had been 
 defeated, and jet none the less determined to maintain 
 an undismayed attitude, and to persevere in their efforts 
 toward reform. Two carriages were in waiting for 
 them, and they drove rapidly to Rachel's rooms in the 
 " Joan of Arc," an apartment house, well and hand- 
 somely built, and situated in one of the up-town streets 
 between Fifth and Sixth avenues. Here she lived, with 
 her widowed mother, in comfort, almost in affluence, 
 for the elder lady had an income of nearly three thousand 
 dollars a year, and the daughter, by her pen and her 
 lectures, had no difficulty in adding more than as much 
 again to the common fund. 
 
 The six ladies entered the " Joan of Arc," and were 
 Boon comfortably seated in Rachel's snug and artistically 
 furnished parlor, which at the same time served as 
 library and writing-room. During the drive nothing 
 had been said in regard to the repulse they had encoun- 
 tered, for there could be no thorough interchange of 
 condolences and indignation while the committee was 
 divided into two equal parts in the two carriages. But 
 now that there was reunion, each one, with the exception 
 of Rachel, was loud in her denunciations of Moultrie, 
 
62 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 and in the expression of her determination to do all in 
 her power to prevent his being elected to Congress. 
 
 " To think," said Mrs. Cross, who had been divorced 
 from two husbands, and was living rather uncomfortably 
 with the third, but who was a pretty, young woman, 
 scarcely older than Rachel " to think that a man owing, 
 as does Mr. Moultrie, whatever position he has to his 
 wife, who really is intelligent and highly educated, 
 should dare to treat us in that contemptuous manner, 
 just as if we were a lot of children with undeveloped 
 brains !" 
 
 u I am afraid he is very narrow-minded and very 
 ignorant," observed Miss Richardson, a maiden lady of 
 thirty-five, with literary and artistic aspirations. "He 
 evidently does not know that more than a thousand 
 years ago ladies sat in the English Parliament ; that even 
 during the reign of William the Conqueror women 
 voted and served their country in the Commons, and 
 that peeresses sat, in their own right, in the House of 
 Lords. 1 think I can control six votes, and every one 
 shall be cast for Jackson." 
 
 " His ignorance and impertinence are more pronounced 
 than 1 have ever before seen, even in a man," exclaimed 
 Miss Billy Bremen, an excitable young lady of a little 
 over twenty years of age, but who had some prominence 
 in the " United Women of America," due to the fact 
 that her father, a wealthy butcher, had, when he died, 
 two years before, left her half a million of dollars in 
 United States bonds, besides the proprietorship of his 
 butchering establishment, from which she derived an 
 income of over twenty thousand a year. 
 
 Her father, an honest German, had arrived in the 
 country when Billy was still an infant in arms. He was 
 
MISS BREMEN SPEAKS. 63 
 
 called Johann Schmidt ; but when asked by an official 
 his name on landing, he, thinking he was required to 
 tell where he had sailed from, answered " Bremen," and 
 he afterward found it so very inconvenient to get rid of 
 the designation that he concluded to adopt it. 
 
 His daughter had been christened Billigheim, from 
 the little hamlet in which she was born ; but this name, 
 having been found impracticable both at home and 
 among her school companions, it had been shortened to 
 Billy, and she was never called by any other appellation. 
 
 Miss Billy was a stout, fair-skinned, fair-haired, and 
 blue-eyed young woman, whose broad, fat, and com- 
 monplace face was good-humored enough so long as 
 nothing occurred to disturb her equanimity. But when 
 crossed, even in matters of the slightest, or even of no 
 importance, it became purple in color, and her small, 
 expressionless eyes started forward through their little 
 slits, and looked as though they were about to pop out 
 of her head. The doctor had warned her that she must 
 not expose herself to situations in which there was any 
 liability to the excitation of anger or of other strong and 
 suddenly-produced emotion, as he was afraid an epileptic 
 paroxysm might some day be produced. But she had 
 persisted in running all risks of the kind, and thus far 
 no serious trouble had been produced. 
 
 She had received a tolerably fair education, so far as 
 mere schools could give it, but her mind was thoroughly 
 untrained to habits of serious thought, and was, more- 
 over, small, mean, and malicious in all its impulses. 
 
 Her views on the " woman question" were, however, 
 more advanced than those of any other member of the 
 committee, though why she had ever been drawn into the 
 movement no one knew. She had first appeared on the 
 
64 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 scene with a large subscription, and that had been suffi- 
 cient to pave her way into the hearts of the chief mem- 
 bers of the " United Women of America," and to bring 
 her into notice as a reformer. 
 
 And she professed to hate the male sex, individually 
 and collectively, with a hatred that nothing seemed com- 
 petent to extinguish or lessen. Unfortunately, as she 
 used to say, she could not get along without men ; but 
 that was entirely owing to social prejudices that stood in 
 the way of women doing certain kinds of work, and to 
 the ignorance and the indolence that prevented them 
 making attempts to supplant man. It is true that the 
 efforts Miss Billy had made in this direction had termi- 
 nated disastrously, and had to be abandoned after they 
 had cost any amount of vexation and no small loss of 
 money. Thus, she had hired a coach woman ; but the 
 first day she drove her mistress in a stylish coupe, with one 
 big gray horse, she knocked down and ran over a little 
 hunchback boy just in front of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, 
 and Miss Billy was mulcted in damages to the extent of 
 five thousand dollars, besides the costs of suit and law- 
 yer's fees, footing up a grand total of eight thousand two 
 hundred and seventeen dollars and sixty-three cents. 
 
 Then she had dismissed the superintendent of her 
 abattoir ', a man who had served her father faithfully for 
 many years, and had put in his place a big burly woman, 
 with instructions to get rid gradually of all the men em- 
 ployed in killing and dressing the animals, and to replace 
 them with women. For twenty-four hours the woman 
 manager did very well ; but the next day was slaughtering 
 day, when it became necessary to do some hard and 
 rather disagreeable work, which, however, she thought 
 she understood better than her subordinates. She inter- 
 
MISS BKEMEN SPEAKS. 65 
 
 fered to such an extent that every hand employed in the 
 establishment stopped work and walked off, leaving the 
 manager in complete solitude, with forty beeves and 
 as many more calves and sheep lying on the floor dead, 
 but undressed, and, consequently, not ready for market. 
 It was the middle of an exceedingly hot summer, and be- 
 fore other assistance could be obtained the whole had 
 spoiled, entailing a direct loss of several thousand dollars, 
 to say nothing of the injury done to her trade. 
 
 These had been expensive lessons, and had not been 
 unheeded by Miss Billy, though she groaned inwardly 
 and outwardly every day of her life at the futility of all 
 her efforts to get along in the world without the aid of 
 the sex she so much affected to despise. 
 
 From all of which the reader will perceive that Miss 
 Billy Bremen was a young woman of strong parts, with 
 a will of her own and with sufficient individuality to 
 have convictions up to which she endeavored to live, 
 though not entirely with the success she desired. She 
 was not altogether honest in her way with the world 
 that is, she was disposed to be sly and to make an unfair 
 use of any advantage that she might have obtained. She 
 kept a corps of spies watching the men in her employ, 
 and whose duty it was to report the slightest infringe- 
 ment of the regulations she had laid down. She did not 
 stop here ; for the members of this inquisitorial body all 
 of whom were women were instructed to carry their 
 observations into the daily lives of her workmen, so that 
 she had a more or less complete and accurate biography 
 of every individual to whom she paid wages. The more 
 men she had in her power, she thought, the more power 
 she would have over the men. 
 
 " His ignorance and impertinence are unbounded," 
 
66 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 she repeated. " I have had experience with many men, 
 but he is the very worst." 
 
 No one answered this assertion, and Miss Billy, with 
 her face the color of a cold buckwheat cake, relapsed 
 into silence. 
 
 Dr. Sarah Brown, a spruce-looking little woman with 
 snapping black eyes, thought an address should be printed 
 and distributed to the public. But Mrs. Swift Forest, 
 who kept a large millinery establishment on Sixth 
 Avenue, declared that they would only waste their 
 money by the proposed course, for that people would 
 not read such documents. She was of the opinion that 
 the plan that offered the best chance of bringing Moul- 
 trie around to their view was to interview his wife, and 
 to try to secure her influence with him on their side. 
 
 All had now spoken but Rachel, and all looked toward 
 her as though expecting an expression of views from one 
 ivhom they regarded as, in some respects, their leader. 
 But she did not appear to be desirous of saying anything 
 on the subject. She was evidently thinking deeply of 
 what had occurred, and had given very little attention 
 to the indignant remarks that had fallen from the lips of 
 the other members of the committee. 
 
 Miss Billy Bremen, however, was the most irrepress- 
 ible of those present. She walked up and down the 
 floor, swinging her fat hands and stamping her broad 
 feet with an energy that gave an idea of the storm that 
 was raging within. Finally she stopped immediately in 
 front of where Rachel was sitting, and sticking her hands 
 into the pockets of her jacket as far as they would go, 
 while her face became the color of a pickled cabbage, 
 began to talk, but in a voice so husky, and with such 
 extreme rapidity, that it was difficult for Rachel to com- 
 
MISS BREMEN SPEAKS. 67 
 
 prehend what she was saying. At last she succeeded, in 
 a measure, in restraining her exuberance to such a de- 
 gree that she could make herself understood. 
 
 " It was you he insulted, Miss Meadows !" she gasped. 
 fi I wonder how you can sit there looking as cool as a 
 pickerel. It makes my blood boil to think of it. It 
 was an outrage. To dare to tell us that we didn't know 
 our own business ! And you are going to stand all 
 this?" she continued, looking fiercely at Rachel. "I 
 thought you had more spirit." 
 
 " Don't speak to me in that way, please," said Rachel, 
 calmly, " and don't stand in that manner before me. It 
 is unpleasant, and not what I am accustomed to." 
 
 " Probably not," answered Miss Billy, in a sneering 
 tone. " If you were, you would have acted to-night 
 with more courage. No wonder we are oppressed when 
 those who pretend to be our leaders show the white flag, 
 and run as soon as the enemy comes in sight. I am 
 ashamed of you ! Yes, ashamed of you ! For one 
 single instant I wish 1 were a man." 
 
 " And if you were," rejoined Rachel, still with quiet 
 composure, " what would you do ?" 
 
 " What would I do ? what would I do, Miss Meadows ? 
 I'll tell you what I would do," coming still closer, till 
 she fairly stood over Rachel, and looking at her with 
 fury in her eyes " I'd beat you !" and as she hissed 
 out these words she shook both fists in Rachel's face, as 
 though she really were going to strike her. 
 
 Rachel rose to her feet, with an expression of superb 
 dignity on her face and in her bearing, before which 
 Miss Billy was fairly cowed. " Leave my house in- 
 stantly,' ' said the indignant woman, pointing to the door, 
 as the impertinent little butcheress slunk behind the 
 
68 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 portly form of Mrs. Cross, in the endeavor to escape the 
 look of anger and scorn that flashed from Rachel's eyes. 
 " Go," she continued, " at once, or 1 will call a police- 
 man to take you out." 
 
 " Oh, Miss Meadows, please don't proceed to such an 
 extreme measure !" exclaimed Miss Richardson, while 
 the other ladies began adjusting their wraps, preparatory 
 to getting cut of the way. " Remember that the good 
 name of the ( United "Women of America ' is at stake. 
 If this most unfortunate incident should get into the 
 newspapers as it will if you call a policeman it will 
 ruin us in the estimation of the public. Come, Miss 
 Bremen !" turning to Billy, who had not yet gotten over 
 her fright at Rachel's majestic anger. " Come ! I am 
 going, and I will see you safely to your carriage. ' ' 
 
 Miss Billy thought she detected in the manner exhib- 
 ited by Miss Richardson and the other ladies some indi- 
 cations of a certain amount of sympathy with her in her 
 attack on Rachel. She was an obstinate little wretch 
 when her blood was up, and she thought she was safe. 
 She had long felt that Rachel failed to treat her with the 
 deference which she thought was due to her wealth and 
 her position as a woman of business, and she concluded, 
 while Miss Richardson was speaking, that she would 
 never have a better opportunity than the present to vent 
 her spite, surrounded, as she imagined herself to be, by 
 sympathizing friends. The threat of the police did not 
 disturb her when she had had a little time to collect her 
 thoughts, for she knew enough of those guardians of the 
 public peace in the city of New York to be aware of the 
 fact that when sent for it would be at least half an hour 
 before one of them could make his appearance, and long 
 before that time had expired she would have accom- 
 
MISS BREMEN SPEAKS. 69 
 
 plished her object, and have been on her way to her resi- 
 dence in East Seventy- fifth Street. 
 
 " You needn't trouble yourself about the policeman, 
 Miss Meadows," she said, as soon as Miss Richardson had 
 ceased speaking, and Rachel had just put her finger on 
 the little button of the electric bell in order to summon 
 a servant. " I've only a word to say, and then I'll go 
 with these ladies, my friends," she added, waving her 
 pudgy right hand so as to embrace them all in its sweep. 
 " A pretty woman you are to set yourself up as a re- 
 former. I know why you took that Mr. Moultrie's an- 
 swer so quietly, and why you did not dare reply to him. 
 You're in love with him ; that's what you are," she con- 
 tinued, growing bolder with the sound of her own words, 
 and again advancing toward Rachel and shaking her fist 
 in her face. " I could see it all the time he was speak- 
 ing. You ! in love with a married man ! I'll ruin him ; 
 I've got a hold on him that he little suspects. He'll 
 never be elected ! And if ever you dare to talk about me 
 I'll tell the whole world that you're in love with him. 
 Yes ! and what's more, I'll tell his wife. Come, ladies, 
 let us leave this model reformer to think of her lover !" 
 
 Long before Miss Billy had finished this abusive har- 
 angue Rachel had sunk into a chair, completely over- 
 whelmed by the force and volubility with which each 
 successive malicious falsehood was uttered. She was 
 helpless ; she could no more have pressed the little but- 
 ton that set the electric bell in motion than she could 
 have flown. She could only lie back in her chair with 
 her eyes half closed, waiting, with a painful sense of 
 constriction in her throat that almost suffocated her, for 
 this horrible woman to end her tirade and get out of her 
 presence. But Miss Billy was not done yet. She had 
 
70 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 adjusted her outside clothing to suit herself, though in 
 her agitation and excitement she had gotten several of 
 her " things" awry. She stood by the door, surrounded 
 by Mrs. Cross, Mrs. Dr. Sarah Brown, and Mrs. Swift 
 Forest, who formed a sort of bodyguard for her protec- 
 tion in case an assault should be made, when suddenly 
 she rushed past them, and again stood over Rachel, look- 
 ing down at her with an expression of the most intense 
 vindictiveness on her flat, vulgar face. 
 
 " I've got him under my thumb, 1 want you to know, 
 miss. Yes, under my very thumb !" putting, as she 
 spoke, the thumb of her right hand into her left palm, 
 and grinding the two surfaces together as a glazier does 
 when he has a piece of putty between them, " and I 
 mean to crush him, too," she continued, sticking both 
 hands close to Rachel's face, " just like that!" giving 
 an extra degree of strength to the operation, so that it 
 really looked as though she would either wriggle her 
 thumb out of joint, or bore a hole in her palm. u Now 
 I'm going, and 1 never mean to darken your doors 
 again ;" with which statement the only pleasant one 
 poor Rachel had heard her make she darted from the 
 room, followed closely by her three sympathizing friends, 
 and leaving Miss Richardson alone with Rachel. 
 
 " Don't mind her, dear," said Miss Richardson, kneel- 
 ing beside the poor girl and putting her arms around 
 her. " She is a vulgar little beast at best, but I think 
 she is mad stark, staring mad. And I think the other 
 three are as bad as she, if not worse, for they have been 
 brought up with some pretensions to gentility, whereas 
 she was almost born in the slaughter-house, and has 
 lived in it all her life. ' ' 
 
 " I can't conceive why she should treat me in this 
 
MISS BEEMEN SPEAKS. 71 
 
 outrageous manner," said Rachel, with a little nervous 
 shiver at the idea of what she had just gone through. 
 " I scarcely know her have never, in fact, met her 
 except at our meetings. ' ' 
 
 " Perhaps you have slighted her in some way or other, 
 and she has been waiting her chance to he even with 
 you. Or perhaps she is herself in love with Mr. Moul- 
 trie." 
 
 " Oh, no ; impossible !" exclaimed Rachel. " He is 
 a married man. She certainly knows that. ' ' 
 
 " I don't think that would be an insuperable obstacle 
 in the estimation of a woman as low-minded as this Billy 
 Bremen. Think of her friend, Mrs. Cross, who fell in 
 love with her present husband while she was still Mrs. 
 Russel, and while Mr. Russel was living, and Mr. Cross 
 was happy in the possession of one wife. Two divorces 
 were necessary there, but they were procured without 
 difficulty. Here only one would be required. Depend 
 upon it, my dear, there is some such notion in the 
 Bremen girl's mind." 
 
 " It serves one right for associating with such people, 
 even in the way of business only. Mamma warned me 
 against them ; but I thought that if I kept aloof from 
 them socially, it made no difference whom I knew in 
 the committee-rooms or at the meetings. But I see I 
 was wrong." 
 
 " Yes, I think you were. That is one point in which 
 there is a difference between the ways in which the two 
 sexes are able to manage such things. Men can and do 
 associate with all kinds of people in their business, with 
 whom they never become intimate in any other relation, 
 and whom they would never think of inviting to their 
 houses. But women seem to be incapable of any such 
 
72 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 restricted intercourse. They never know where to draw 
 the line." 
 
 " Some of them do," said Rachel, with a faint attempt 
 at a smile. " My mother is one. She would buy her 
 meat from Miss Billy for years, and never recognize her 
 outside of her butcher-shop." 
 
 " Talking of a shop," observed Miss Richardson, with 
 a little laugh and an accent that were not altogether free 
 from a tinge of vindictiveness ; " I was in there the other 
 morning, and she was present, dressed in a suit of green 
 velvet and wearing solitaire diamond earrings as big as 
 filberts. Think of diamonds and velvet at ten o'clock 
 in the morning !" 
 
 " Amelia !" exclaimed Rachel, with sudden energy, 
 " I am sick of the whole matter. I really begin to 
 think that we have been striving to overthrow the laws 
 of God. We are not the equals of men, and we are 
 meaner in our ways of thinking and acting. No man 
 would have conducted himself as did that fearful 
 
 woman 
 
 u 
 
 Now, my dear child, don't, for Heaven's sake, judge 
 the whole sex by that little ugly beast ! I shall never 
 call her by any other name hereafter than the ' Beast. ' 
 Are you going to sacrifice great principles, upon which 
 your mind has so long been fixed approvingly, because 
 you are disgusted and outraged at the horrible conduct 
 of one low woman ? You say no man could have acted 
 as she did. My dear, there are mean women and mean 
 men, and I have seen some of the latter to whom Miss 
 Billy would be a paragon of decency and magnanimity." 
 
 " I begin to think that magnanimity is impossible in 
 women." 
 
 " I don't know," said Miss Richardson, reflectively ; 
 
MISS BREMEN SPEAKS. 73 
 
 44 perhaps it is in its grandest sense. You see, women 
 are deficient in physical force, and they are hence obliged 
 to resort to more or less finesse in order to accomplish 
 their ends. 1 admit that such a scene as the one we have 
 just gone through would have been almost impossible 
 between men. Before the ' Beast ' had gotten half way 
 through with her vituperation she would, had she and 
 you been men, have been flying out of the window or 
 lying prostrate on the floor from a well-directed blow of 
 your fist. No, no ; you must not give up the great 
 struggle for the right merely because there are some un- 
 worthy women. I cannot conceive of anything more 
 illogical. Even your mother, prejudiced as she is against 
 us, will tell you that. ' ' 
 
 "I suppose you are right," said Rachel, wearily, 
 " but there are times when I feel terribly discouraged. 
 I see so many women with little, mean, contemptible 
 traits that I am often disgusted with my sex. How sel- 
 dom is it that you find a woman who is not jealous, and 
 suspicious, and envious of all other women who come in 
 her way, and then how unforgiving to those of their 
 own sex who have strayed from the paths of virtue ! 
 How pitiless they can be at such times, and yet how 
 smiling and kind to the very men who have led their 
 weak sisters astray !" 
 
 " That is true, and it is right that it should be so. 
 Women must ever be the guardians of the purity of 
 their own sex, and must visit with social ostracism all 
 those who violate the laws that society has established. 
 There is no other punishment but such as they can inflict, 
 and it is right that the woman who falls, though she 
 should never, of course, be treated unkindly, should be 
 made to feel that she has done that which saps at the 
 
74 A STKONG-MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 very root of the honor of society, and which, though 
 not punishable by the laws of the land, is nevertheless 
 to be mercilessly condemned by a still higher court that 
 of her own sex. I suppose there is scarcely a woman 
 who has, through her misconduct, lost her place in so- 
 ciety who would not gladly suffer ten years' imprison- 
 ment in the penitentiary at hard labor, if that would be 
 accepted as sufficient atonement, and she be reinstated to 
 the position from which she has fallen. There are crimes 
 that we women never pardon ; at least, never to the ex- 
 tent of receiving the offender back as the fit associate of 
 our husbands and brothers, our daughters or sisters. 
 
 %< Then you must remember, my dear," she went on, 
 after a pause, during which she seemed to be arranging 
 her thoughts so as to make them most effective, u that 
 the worst traits in women have been caused by man's 
 tyranny, and have been developed through his continued 
 refusal to give her an equal opportunity with him in the 
 race of life. You are judging her now by man's stand- 
 ard, and not by her own. Whole classes of animals 
 have cunning implanted in them from the necessities of 
 the situation in which they have been placed. You 
 don't condemn a fox for being sharp-witted, nor the 
 opossum for feigning death in order to deceive his ene- 
 mies. Probably among foxes and opossums those that 
 are the greatest adepts at catching chickens with impu- 
 nity and fooling their captors stand highest in vulpine 
 and didelphic sociology. Doubtless the inherent ten- 
 dency to fraud existing in these animals might be eradi- 
 cated by careful training and kindness continued through- 
 out many generations, just as woman will be improved 
 in the years to come by like treatment." 
 
 " I never heard such doetrines as these in all my life !" 
 
MISS BREMEN SPEAKS. 75 
 
 exclaimed Rachel. " They seem to me to be horri- 
 ble." 
 
 " They are based on natural laws. What right has man 
 to expect us to be frank, and magnanimous, and chiv- 
 alric, when we are treated like slaves petted slaves, 
 perhaps, under the best circumstances, but none the less 
 as slaves ? Slavery always makes its victims deceitful, 
 and incites them to defend themselves and to seek to 
 accomplish their ends secretively and without regard to 
 magnanimity. Chivalry was shown by the knights and 
 feudal lords, not by the vassals. Well, my dear, men 
 are now the lords, and we are the vassals." 
 
 Miss Richardson had risen while making this little 
 speech, and had begun walking up and down the floor, 
 as though she were on the lecture platform, where she 
 always walked from one end to the other while deliver- 
 ing her lecture. As she concluded she came nearer to 
 Rachel, who had remained in her chair. " I like you," 
 she said, " because you are refined and gentle, and be- 
 cause, in many respects, you are different from any other 
 woman I ever saw. Shall I tell you a secret ? Yes ? 
 Well, 1 will. As a rule, I hate women, although I am 
 always fighting their battles. They are entitled to jus- 
 tice, but that is no reason why I should love them ; and 
 I don't. I have very few friends in the sex, but I 
 should like to count you as one of them, and perhaps," 
 she added, with an accent of timidity, " the dearest of 
 them. Don't answer me now," she went on, seeing Ra- 
 chel about to speak. " If you were to say you liked me, 
 I shouldn't believe you, and if you were to repulse me, I 
 should not like it. No ; wait till you know me better." 
 
 " You are very honest and very true," said Rachel, 
 much moved by Miss Richardson's frankness. " And " 
 
76 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 "No; you shall not say a word, " putting her hand 
 over KachePs mouth, and laughing a little hysterically, 
 or at least nervously. " Yes," she continued, " you 
 shall. You shall tell me why you did not reply to Mr. 
 Moultrie to-night. You should not really have allowed 
 the matter to go so completely by default. ' ' 
 
 " There was nothing to say. He had entirely demol- 
 ished my case, and by a few words, which, however, 
 showed that he knew what he was talking about. 1 felt 
 disgusted with the matter and with the ignorance we had 
 displayed. But then he was so gentlemanly and kind in 
 his manner, that I felt almost compensated for my de- 
 feat, and 1 think he is a friend, though a just one, and 
 not at all likely to be led away by sentiment to act 
 against his convictions. ' ' 
 
 " Ah ! you are, like all other women, willing to sub- 
 mit to be scratched by the lion's claws if the balm be 
 immediately applied. Man may keep you out of your 
 rights ; but if he does so with a smile, and a kind word, 
 and a deferential manner, you are satisfied. As to our 
 ignorance, that is nothing. We can't be expected to 
 know much about statecraft and the ways of legislative 
 bodies when we are carefully excluded from participation 
 in either. Still, I think with you that Mr. Moultrie is 
 better than the other candidates, and I shall use my in- 
 fluence for him, although I said differently just now. 
 The right to change one's mind has not yet been taken 
 from us, thank God !" 
 
 " 1 am afraid," said Rachel, " that you will have to 
 do without me in the executive committee after this. 1 
 can never consent to be so placed that I shall be liable to 
 meet that horrid girl again, or even the three women 
 who have apparently decided with her. I shall at once 
 
MISS BREMEN SPEAKS. 77 
 
 send in my resignation to the president, and I am more 
 than half disposed to abandon the movement altogether.' ' 
 
 ' ' No, no ; I will not hear of that. There are so few 
 women in good society who are with us that we can't 
 afford to lose you. We'll put the ' Beast ' out. That 
 will be better." 
 
 " I shall resign," repeated Rachel, with firmness. 
 " That I have determined on fully. As to woman's 
 rights, I believe it is just as Mr. Moultrie said. We 
 have no evidence that the majority of them want any 
 more rights than they have. Look how many of our 
 strongest adherents have left as soon as they were mar- 
 ried, and how many women cease to work when their 
 husbands are competent and willing to support them ! 
 Those who are forced to labor for their daily bread, and 
 who are struggling for new channels through which they 
 can work, abandon the contest as soon as some strong 
 man comes along and marries them. They have been 
 fighting only for themselves, not for a principle. I 
 would not trust myself for I am a woman and I have 
 felt the yearning for some good man's arms to which I 
 could fly with a sense of perfect security and the con- 
 sciousness that their owner would die for me if it were 
 necessary. Yes, it must be very pleasant." 
 
 " You are demoralized by that ' Beast.' To-morrow 
 you will feel differently." 
 
 " No, I think not. 1 have been gradually reaching 
 my present convictions. We all act in that way. Look 
 at Mrs. Moultrie ! Before her marriage she was devoted 
 to science, and had studied and practised medicine ; she 
 had dissected human bodies ; she had a physiological 
 laboratory, and performed experiments ; she lectured to 
 mixed audiences. That was all before she had met a 
 
78 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 man whom she could love. At last he came, and the 
 science, and the dissections, and the lectures vanished. 
 I had occasion to write to her this afternoon, but I know 
 what her answer will be." 
 
 " But you might have married had you so chosen ?" 
 said Miss Hichardson, inquiringly. 
 
 " Yes, but not to a man I loved. That man I have not 
 yet seen, so far as I know ; but I am waiting for him, 
 and when he comes and asks me, 1 shall marry him." 
 
 " An honest confession is good for the soul," ex- 
 claimed Miss Richardson, laughing heartily. " I sup- 
 pose there are some women who are incapable of experi- 
 encing the emotion of love, and I think 1 am one of 
 them. Certainly I have never yet seen the man to 
 whom I would be willing to be tied for all my life, and 
 to look up to as my guide and protector. Bah ! it 
 makes me sick to think of it. Thank Heaven, I can 
 guide and protect myself ! 1 want no man about me to 
 growl when his coffee is too weak or too strong to suit 
 his lordship's taste, and to tell me what I shall do or not 
 do ; whom I shall know or not know." 
 
 " You are as bad as Miss Bremen," said Rachel, 
 laughing in turn. 
 
 " Billy Bremen ; that little ' Beast ' ! Oh, she's only 
 a fraud ! She'd marry the man who knocks her oxen on 
 the head or cuts her hogs' throats, if he asked her, and 
 she couldn't do any better. Besides, I told you she is 
 in love with Mr. Moultrie. I saw it in her face so far 
 as her puttyish features can show anything. 1 am not 
 joking, and I think she means something by her threat 
 of having him under her thumb." 
 
 " But what could she mean ?" 
 
 " I have not the slightest idea ; but that she thinks she 
 
MISS BKEMETS" SPEAKS. 79 
 
 can injure him, 1 am quite sure. Of course she may be 
 mistaken 1 hope she is but she was too self -satisfied to 
 be lying. There was too much confidence in her own 
 malice for that. However, 1 can't bear to talk about 
 her, and I must go now. Don't mind her, and don't do 
 anything rash in the way of dissolving your connection 
 with the ( United Women of America.' : 
 
 " I shall certainly resign from the executive committee 
 this very night," said Rachel, with emphasis. " Well, 
 good-night," she continued, "if you will go, though I 
 wish you would stay till mother comes home. She is 
 dining to-night with the Hendersons, old friends of hers 
 who have just returned from Europe. You must really 
 go ? Good -night !" kissing her friend as she spoke. 
 
 " Don't mind that little ' Beast,' " said Miss Richard- 
 son, in a whisper, as she stepped into the elevator just 
 outside of Rachel's apartment. " Keep your eye on 
 her, but don't worry about her threats. She can't hurt 
 you, at any rate." 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 THE election was to take place in two days. Each of 
 the three contending parties was ready, so far as active 
 work was concerned, and there was not much doubt in 
 the minds of the wise men that Moultrie would be 
 elected by at least a thousand plurality. There was some 
 little talk of the withdrawal of one of the other candi- 
 dates, and negotiations had been initiated looking to that 
 end ; but no agreement could be arrived at that was sat- 
 isfactory to the rank and file, and neither of the rivals, 
 when it came to the point, was willing to retire in favor 
 of the other. It was quite certain, therefore, that there 
 would be a triangular contest, and that the vote in oppo- 
 sition to Moultrie would be about equally divided. 
 
 Great interest had been taken by Theodora and Lalage 
 in the meetings, addresses, and letters incident to a can- 
 vass of the kind in question. Every morning the news- 
 papers were eagerly scanned for information of what had 
 taken place the day before, and the discussions that oc- 
 curred at the breakfast-table between Moultrie and his 
 wife and daughter relative to past events and future 
 movements were always incidents of great satisfaction 
 to all concerned. 
 
 On the present occasion they were at breakfast in the 
 pleasant little room devoted to the first meal of the day. 
 Theodora was glancing over the Morning Sentinel, oc- 
 
MISS BILLY'S BOMBSHELL. 81 
 
 casionally stopping to take a sip of coffee or to cut a little 
 segment from the lamb -chop on her plate. It was the 
 morning after the meeting at which the lion. Tom Bur- 
 ton had spoken, and at which Moultrie had so effectually 
 demolished the committee of the " United Women of 
 America. ' ' He had related the particulars to Theodora 
 on his return home, but she saw them stated here 
 from a somewhat different, though not unfriendly, 
 standpoint, together with editorial comments of a char- 
 acter so flattering to her husband that her cheeks 
 glowed with pride and pleasure. She looked smilingly 
 at him as she handed the paper to Lalage to pass on 
 to him. 
 
 . " There !" she exclaimed ; " I suppose you are used 
 to haviug pleasant things said of you nowadays ; but read 
 that. It is calculated to make your breast swell with 
 patriotic pride,' as the reporter says his does at the asser- 
 tion that you are going to serve your country in the 
 ' Halls of Congress.' " 
 
 Moultrie laughed as he took the paper from his daugh- 
 ter's hands. "It is only fair," he said, " that you 
 should see what the other people say. Here is the 
 Daily Controller, which is Mr. Jackson's organ, and 
 here the Avenger, which occupies the like position with 
 Mr. O'Leary. Head the first paragraph, Lai, of each of 
 the leading editorials of those shining lights of journal- 
 ism, and you will see what a wretched man you have for 
 a husband and father. Read them aloud for your 
 mamma's benefit. She is one-sided in her views now, 
 and these may tend to straighten her." 
 
 Lai took the Controller, and read as follows : 
 " ' A more pitiable spectacle than that exhibited last 
 night at the meeting held by the supporters of Mr. 
 
82 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Moultrie was never, we venture to say, seen by the peo- 
 ple of this city. A committee of ladies representing 
 that influential organization the " United Women of 
 America" submitted two very simple questions to the 
 candidate through Miss Rachel Meadows, whose elo- 
 quence has so frequently thrilled our readers. Instead 
 of answering them in a manly, straightforward way, 
 Mr. Moultrie hesitated and stammered, and finally ended 
 his non- committal remarks by intimating that both ques- 
 tions were unnecessary, and that the ladies did not know 
 what they wanted. Of course Mr. Moultrie has a right 
 to his own opinions, or even to no opinions ; but that he 
 should have gone out of his way to insult such eminently 
 respectable ladies as those who favored him with their 
 presence last evening was, we think, quite unpardon- 
 able, and will doubtless be resented by the husbands, 
 fathers, brothers, and sons who will attend the polls on 
 "Wednesday next.' ' 
 
 Theodora laughed a little constrainedly, and it was 
 evident she was annoyed. 
 
 Lai's face flushed with anger. " The wretch !" she 
 exclaimed. " I wonder how he dared to write such lies ! 
 If I were a man I would go to him with a whip, and I 
 would beat him well." 
 
 Moultrie smiled at the effect upon the two women. 
 " In Colorado," he said, "such, language would be 
 ample ground for shooting the editor on sight. Here, 
 however, we find it better not to notice him. Now, my 
 dear, let your mamma know what the Avenger thinks of 
 me. I expect to see your blood fairly boil, and each in- 
 dividual hair of your heads stand on end, when you read 
 the comments of the gentleman who conducts Mr. 
 O'Leary's organ. This," putting his finger on a certain 
 
83 
 
 paragraph, " seems to embody a little more venom than 
 any other passage. Read it, Lai." 
 
 " ' There have been quibblers and equivocators, not 
 to use stronger expressions, before Mr. Geoffrey Moultrie 
 appeared upon this sublunary sphere ; but probably the 
 Goddess of Truth never blushed more deeply for a 
 human being trying to wriggle himself out of a false 
 position than she did for that individual last night. It 
 was a humiliating scene for that sex that arrogates to 
 itself all the honor and all the intelligence, to see the 
 free-trade candidate squirm under the pitiless logic of 
 Miss Rachel Meadows. The lady was calm, but im- 
 placable, and her questions went right to the point with 
 a directness that left nothing to be desired by every one, 
 that is, but Mr. Geoffrey Moultrie. He looked as if 
 he wished the ground would open at his feet and engulf 
 him forever from the scornful looks that the indignant 
 lady gave him. We need not remind our readers how 
 different would have been the conduct of Titus Androni- 
 cus O'Leary under like circumstances.' : 
 
 "It is a shame," said Lai, the tears starting to her 
 eyes, " that a gentleman should be attacked in that out- 
 rageous way. You do not mind it, father, do you ?" 
 she continued, putting her arms around his neck and 
 laying her face against his. 
 
 ' i My dear, I mind it no more than 1 would a few 
 flakes of snow falling on my seal-skin coat. ' ' 
 
 " But I really think, Geoffrey," said Theodora, " that 
 this person goes too far. Something ought to be done 
 to restrain such unbridled vituperation. ' ' 
 
 " But what can be done ? Of course it is not worth 
 while to quarrel with such people. And then you must 
 remember that these papeft are very low specimens of 
 
84 A STRONG -MIND ED WOMAN. 
 
 the press of New York. You would not find such jour- 
 nals as the Oracle, the Citizen, the Annunciator, and 
 half a dozen others 1 could name indulging in drivel 
 like that. The only thing to do is to laugh at them if 
 you can, and to bear in mind that every American who 
 ' runs ' for an office takes his reputation in his hand." 
 
 " I hope mother will not see these papers," said 
 Theodora, trying to raise a smile. " She would be sure 
 to tell you that it was just what you had every reason to 
 expect, and just what she told you ; but she would, at 
 the same time, be greatly grieved to know that her son 
 was spoken of so scandalously." 
 
 " Yes," laughed Moultrie, " she would be very indig- 
 nant and very self-satisfied ; but the indignation would 
 predominate and continue, while the self-satisfaction 
 would die out as soon as she had uttered ' I told you so. ' 
 But, my dear, get the Controller and the Avenger out of 
 your mind, for really what they say is of no conse- 
 quence in my estimation. Shall I have you with me this 
 afternoon in the Park ? "What do you say, you and Lai, 
 to going out to Jerome Park to dinner ? There are no 
 races to-day, but the cuisine is quite good now, Burton 
 tells me." 
 
 " I should like it very much," answered Theodora. 
 
 ' ' And you, Lai ? Can you get off from your studies 
 in time ?" 
 
 " Oh, yes ; I shall be through by five o'clock ; I have 
 no music lesson to-day, and I shall be glad to go." 
 
 4 Then good-by," continued Moultrie, kissing them 
 both. " Don't worry over the Controller and the Aven- 
 ger. You'd make short work of these editors, Lai," he 
 went on, stroking her hair and smiling lovingly as he 
 looked at her. " You'd be more than a match for 
 
MISS BILLY'S BOMBSHELL. 
 
 either of them, for they are both puny little fel- 
 lows. " 
 
 " I think I would like to kill them both," said Lai, 
 indignantly. 
 
 " Yes," he answered, " you look as though you were 
 quite capable of doing it, too." 
 
 " I have not felt so angry since I came East. I often 
 used to talk of killing people when I lived in Colorado, 
 before before you came," she went on, throwing her 
 arms around his neck as she spoke. "It is wrong, I 
 know, to say such things, and you will forgive me, will 
 you not, dear father ?" 
 
 "I don't think that will be very difficult," he an- 
 swered, kissing her forehead. " By the by, Theodora," he 
 continued, turning to his wife, who stood by his side, " we 
 must try and get Lai into a more colloquial way of talk- 
 ing, though I must confess I like her formal manner of 
 expressing herself. It seems to me very pretty and 
 very quaint." 
 
 " Then if you like it I will never change !" exclaimed 
 Lai. 
 
 " But it sounds so foreign, my dear," said Theodora. 
 " No one says ' I do not,' ' I will not,' ' 1 cannot,' and so 
 on in ordinary conversation ; but they say ( I don't, ' 1 1 
 won't,' I can't,' and use other contracted forms. Still, 
 I think with your father that it is rather pretty, and cer- 
 tainly no one can find fault with it on the score of incor- 
 rectness. You have done so much, dear, in the time 
 you have been with us, that I think we ought to let you 
 alone with your speech." 
 
 " You shall talk just as you please," said Moultrie, as 
 he left the room. " She has done wonders," he thought 
 to himself, as he put on his overcoat. u No one but an 
 
86 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 American could have gotten rid of a dialect in so short a 
 time, and some people the Scotch and English, for ex- 
 ample never part with their peculiarities of early speech, 
 though they try ever so hard. I have heard lord- 
 mayors and baronets yes, even peers who dropped their 
 hs after fifty years' intercourse with genteel society ; and 
 where is the provincial Englishman or Scotchman who 
 ever gives up the accent or pronunciation of his youth ? 
 An American, however, loses all his local peculiarities 
 whenever he sets to work deliberately to do so, and Lai 
 has scarcely one left, after only two years' efforts. She 
 has worked faithfully and intelligently, and when Tys- 
 covus comes for her she will be a wife of whom he will 
 never have cause to be ashamed. But how can 1 ever 
 let her go?" 
 
 He had asked himself this question at least a hun- 
 dred times during the last year, and had never given 
 it a satisfactory answer. He could not bear to con- 
 template the inevitable day which, little by little, came 
 nearer that day on which his friend would appear to 
 take her away from him forever, and on which she would 
 go with one she loved better than she loved him. There 
 was a pang at the thought that cut him to the very heart. 
 He sighed deeply as he left the house on his walk down- 
 town to his office. It was his way of taking active ex- 
 ercise, and he never neglected this walk, no matter what 
 kind of weather he had to contend with. To-day he 
 assumed a quick pace, for he had work to do, and he 
 was a little behind his usual time. 
 
 Meanwhile Theodora and Lalage went about their 
 usual morning's work. 
 
 The course of instruction that Moultrie and Theodora 
 had laid out for Lalage was based upon as much good 
 
MISS BILLY'S BOMBSHELL. 87 
 
 common-sense as is usually possessed by men and women. 
 They recognized the fact that when she came under 
 their charge she was almost entirely ignorant of the 
 very rudiments of learning. She could read imperfectly, 
 could write a little, and knew something of the elemen- 
 tary rules of arithmetic, and this was all. She had never 
 received any instruction, but had taught herself the little 
 she knew. But they saw that she was remarkably quick 
 of apprehension, and that her brain worked easily and 
 smoothly. They perceived that her mind was a remark- 
 ably well-balanced one, and that she was not a girl to take 
 eccentric notions, and to form an overwhelming idea of 
 her own competence to direct herself in the roads to the 
 acquisition of learning. She had, in fact, that best of 
 all ground- work upon which education can be built a 
 knowledge of her own ignorance, and a willingness to 
 be guided by others. There were but two years more 
 that she would be under their care, and then she would 
 go to Tyscovus as his wife. What was to be done, there- 
 fore, must be done quickly, and every circumstance capa- 
 ble of influencing the result must be brought into action. 
 There was no faltering on her part. Her whole soul 
 was wrapped up in her work. The pleasures of society 
 were eschewed. She went to no theatres or other places 
 of amusement, beyond an occasional concert ; not be- 
 cause of the time they occupied, but because they di- 
 verted her mind from pursuits that would in the end be 
 of more advantage to her. In this, perhaps, she was not 
 altogether wise ; but as she then felt, amusements of the 
 kind in question would really have been no amusement 
 to her. She would have been reproaching herself con- 
 tinually with the idea that every moment spent in them 
 was lost time. 
 
A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 But she did not neglect the needs of her body while 
 laboring so diligently to improve her mind. She walked 
 or rode horseback for an hour every morning before 
 taking any other breakfast than a cup of coffee and a 
 piece of dry toast, and usually drove in the Park with 
 her father and mother for a little period every after- 
 noon. She thus not only strengthened her physical 
 system, but incidentally provided for mental diversion. 
 Of a mild kind, it is true, yet powerful enough to allow 
 her brain to recuperate and start off with more than its 
 usual vigor when she again set it to doing the special 
 work laid out for it. 
 
 There were no chemistry, philosophy, physiology, 
 French, German, or other higher branch of knowledge, so 
 much affected by young women of the present day, who 
 cannot write ten lines correctly, and who are hopelessly 
 ignorant of the history and geography of their own coun- 
 try. Her education was conducted on an entirely differ- 
 ent basis from that of Florence Sincote, and her teacher 
 was not a man, but a woman who had been brought up 
 amid refined surroundings, and who had no high-flown 
 notions about the identity of the sexes and the conse- 
 quent necessity of forcing a young woman's mind to 
 take the same course a's that of a boy destined to be a 
 civil or mechanical engineer. She was taught to spell 
 and to read correctly. Grammar was given her by prac- 
 tical examples, not by books. No one, her father and 
 mother knew, ever yet learned to speak good English 
 from studying books on grammar. When she spoke, if 
 she spoke incorrectly she was at once set right, but 
 never unless she was at the time receiving instruction. 
 Upon this point Moultrie was very decided. "If we 
 correct her," he had said, " every time she opens her 
 
MISS BILLY'S BOMBSHELL. 89 
 
 mouth to speak and makes a mistake, her life will be a 
 burden to her, and ours to us." Of ten he and Theodora 
 conversed with her relative to her work of the day, and 
 after dinner he always gave her a ' ( talk, "as he called 
 it, on American history, or described the various cities 
 and countries he had visited, or related the adventures 
 he had had. She was encouraged to ask questions and 
 to express her opinions upon all subjects that were dis- 
 cussed in her presence. 
 
 Geography and the physics of the universe, so far as 
 they could be taught without infringing on the domain 
 of the higher mathematics, were among the most thor- 
 oughly considered of all her studies. Books of travel 
 contributed to her assistance, and the reading of them 
 gave her the familiarity with the English language in 
 its best forms, which it was desirable she should possess. 
 Then the indoctrination of the first principles of num- 
 bers almost completed the work that her own teacher, 
 Mrs. Bowdoin, a widow, had to do. It was not much all 
 told, but what there was of it was well and thoroughly 
 done. And there was one thing more music and to 
 that an hour in the morning was given. She had a full, 
 rich and sympathetic contralto voice and a correct ear. 
 Her progress in this direction had been marvellous, so 
 much so that Mr. Ricci, her teacher, declared that she 
 was almost, if not altogether, a musical genius. 
 
 This morning she went into a little apartment adjoin- 
 ing her bedroom, that had been specially fitted up as a 
 sitting-room for her, and in which she received her 
 teacher. It was not large, but it was the embodiment 
 of everything that could contribute to her convenience 
 and comfort. In a few minutes Mrs. Bowdoin arrived, 
 and then, with an intermission of half an hour, at one 
 
90 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 o'clock, for luncheon they would be hard at work together 
 till three. After that there was no more teaching of 
 that kind for the day. Theodora had gone about her 
 household duties, which always took an hour every morn- 
 ing, and was engaged with the housekeeper when a ser- 
 vant announced that a lady was waiting in the reception- 
 room. 
 
 " Is she a visitor ?" inquired Theodora, quite satisfied 
 that it was too early in the morning for any but a busi- 
 ness visit, unless from one of her intimate friends, who 
 might call unceremoniously. 
 
 " No, madame," said Frangois, who was acquainted 
 with Theodora's visiting-list almost as well as she was 
 herself ; " I zink see came on beesness." 
 
 ' ' Then ask her to please send me her name, and to let 
 me know what she wishes." 
 
 " Yes, madame." 
 
 In a few moments Frangois was back. 
 
 " See zay, madame, zat madame would not know ze 
 name, and zat her beesness is wit madame seule onlee ; 
 very important. ' ' 
 
 " Does she look like a lady ?" 
 
 Frangois shrugged his shoulders. " See come in a 
 carriage, see vear ze fine clothes ; mais, but lady ! Ah 
 madame ! madame vill know." 
 
 " I suppose I shall have to leave you for a few min- 
 utes," said Theodora to the housekeeper. " None of us 
 will be home to dinner to-day, but Miss Lalage and 1 
 will take a cup of tea at four o'clock. Show her into 
 the library, Frangois," she continued ; " I will see her 
 in a moment." 
 
 She followed the man so speedily that the visitor had 
 scarcely time to be seated before Theodora was in the 
 
91 
 
 room. " You wish to see me on business?" she in- 
 quired, with just that amount of hauteur that would 
 have been sufficient to keep a well-bred woman at a 
 proper distance, and without again asking the name of 
 her visitor. 
 
 u I do," with atone of mingled superiority and indig- 
 nation, that showed that whatever her business was, it 
 was of such a character as to cause her to feel her power, 
 and at the same time excite a corresponding amount of 
 anger in her breast. 
 
 Then Theodora looked at her, an act which she had as 
 yet scarcely done, except in a very general and superficial 
 way. She saw before her a low, broad young woman, 
 who looked, owing to the shortness of her legs, as though 
 she might be taller as she sat down than when she stood 
 up. She had a flat, wide face, somewhat Eskimoish in 
 shape, and little washed-out blue eyes, that looked as 
 expressionless although she was inwardly torn with 
 contending emotions as though they were two leaden 
 bullets. She was very much overdressed in light blue 
 plush, and had large diamond earrings in her floppy 
 ears, which appendages stood out like two big wings 
 from the side of her head. Need it be said that she 
 was our acquaintance of the night before, Miss Billy 
 Bremen ? 
 
 Theodora's first idea was that her visitor was some one 
 desiring a subscription to a charitable object, or perhaps 
 a book-agent. But one comprehensive glance, such as 
 she knew as well how to give as any woman in the world, 
 was sufficient to dispel this idea. She had never yet 
 seen a book-agent with diamond earrings worth three 
 or four thousand dollars, and her manner was altogether 
 too self-assertive to be that of any one wanting a favor. 
 
92 A STRONG- MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 She felt a little amused at the woman's bearing, but she 
 nevertheless had no time to waste upon her, and so de- 
 termined to get rid of her as soon as possible. 
 
 " Perhaps you will be good enough to tell me what 
 it is." 
 
 " Don't you want to know my name first, Mrs. Moul- 
 trie?" 
 
 " It is scarcely necessary, I think. I would rather, if 
 you please, know your business." 
 
 " Yery well ! You'll know it soon enough, I guess. 
 But I'll tell you my name, whether you want to hear it 
 or not. I'm Miss Billy Bremen, the daughter of the 
 late Johann Bremen, Esq. , and I own the large abattoir 
 at Locust Point." 
 
 Notwithstanding this insolent speech, delivered in Miss 
 Billy's most majestic manner, with the usual accompani- 
 ment of a livid face, Theodora maintained her compo- 
 sure, and her visitor continued : 
 
 " You lived in Colorado once, 1 believe ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " At a place called Hellbender ?" 
 
 Theodora nodded. 
 
 " And not far from another place called The Canon ?" 
 
 Another nod. 
 
 " There were two gentlemen living there or near there 
 named James Bosler and Luke Kittle ?' ' 
 
 Theodora could not allow this form of the question to 
 go unnoticed. " There were two persons there highly 
 disreputable characters of those names," she answered. 
 
 " My information in regard to them," said Miss Billy, 
 bridling up and becoming still more purplish in her com- 
 plexion, "is very different quite the reverse, I assure 
 you and I'm not in the habit of lying. I happen to 
 

 MISS BILLY'S BOMBSHELL. 93 
 
 have a friend living at The Canon, and I am told by 
 him in a letter, which I got yesterday morning, that Mr. 
 Bosler was a man of family, a dealer in horses, with a 
 wife, a highly educated lady, and a daughter. The 
 wife is dead, but the daughter is, I understand, still liv- 
 ing." As she uttered these last words Miss Billy fixed 
 her gaze on Theodora, as though she would pierce her 
 through with her glittering eye ; but the eye, or the pair 
 of them, refused to glitter, and only a dull glare was the 
 result. 
 
 "It is scarcely worth while, I think, to discuss the 
 character of these men. They are nothing to me." 
 
 " Oh, you think so, do you ? Well, we'll see about 
 that further on. Do you know what became of 
 them?" 
 
 " They w r ere hanged for murder." 
 
 " According to law, I suppose, after due trial and 
 conviction in a court of justice ?" 
 
 Theodora could not help smiling at the turn the con- 
 versation was taking. Then suddenly the idea struck 
 her that this woman might be a relative of one or both 
 of the men whose names had thus been brought to her 
 mind long after she had, as she thought, dismissed them 
 from her memory, and a feeling of delicacy caused her 
 to give a different answer from the one Miss Billy would 
 otherwise have received. So she observed : 
 
 " There was not much law in the Territory at that 
 time. They were hanged by the Vigilance Committee, 
 after due inquiry into all the circumstances of the various 
 charges against them. Of course it was not right, but 
 the act was, I believe, approved by the people." 
 
 " Oh, you admit, then, that it was wrong ! Well, 
 Mrs. Moultrie, do you happen to know who were the 
 
94 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 men on the Vigilance Committee that perpetrated those 
 two murders ?" 
 
 u I have not the slightest idea." 
 
 " You don't know, then, who the leader was ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " The man who commanded the party and who acted 
 as judge condemning them to death ?" 
 
 " I have not the slightest knowledge on the subject." 
 
 " I will tell you, then. But, first of all, I wish to 
 say that I am a member of the committee of the < United 
 Women of America ' so grossly insulted by your husband 
 last night." 
 
 " My husband does not insult women, no matter who 
 or what they may be." 
 
 " You used to be interested in the woman question, 
 but you don't seem to care for it now," said Miss Billy, 
 not noticing the denial. 
 
 " We are not talking of my views. You accused my 
 husband of insulting women, and I told you it was not 
 true. I think this interview has gone quite far enough." 
 
 " There I beg leave to differ from you," resumed 
 Miss Billy, rising from the chair and approaching Theo- 
 dora. " You said just now that you did not know who 
 was the leader that murdered those two poor gentlemen 
 in cold blood. If you were telling me the truth you'll 
 be considerably astonished, I guess. It was your hus- 
 band ! He hanged the one because he wanted the poor 
 gentleman's only daughter ; and he hanged the other, 
 who was a prominent man and a candidate for the Leg- 
 islature, because he had a friend he wanted elected, and 
 he thought that would be a good way to make room for 
 him. Now, Mrs. Moultrie, what do you think of that ?" 
 
 Before she had finished this speech Theodora had risen 
 
MISS BILLY'S BOMBSHELL. 95 
 
 to her feet and had rung the bell. But ere it could be 
 answered Miss Billy had time to say a few additional 
 words. 
 
 " Yes, it's true, every word of it, and I've had it 
 type- written the whole story twelve copies, and to- 
 morrow it will be published in every newspaper in the 
 city of New York, and " 
 
 " Show that woman to the door," interrupted Theo- 
 dora, as Francois made his appearance ; " and if she re- 
 fuses to go, or attempts to enter the house again, summon 
 a policeman." Then, without looking at Miss Billy, 
 who continued to talk in such an excited manner that 
 she was incoherent, she left the room, leaving her visitor 
 ,the empty advantage of being mistress of the field. 
 
 For a moment Miss Billy was at a loss to determine 
 whether she had or had not gained a victory. Francois 
 stood in the doorway, waiting, with a marvellous degree 
 of patience, to obey his orders, and she had very little 
 time then for deliberation, even had she been in a frame 
 of mind suitable for the operation of mental concentration 
 and judgment. That her blow had produced some effect 
 she could not fail to perceive, but that it was of the 
 character she had expected was more doubtful. That, 
 however, was a matter which time alone could fully 
 determine. That she had Moultrie in her power she 
 fully believed, and that she could defeat his election she 
 felt quite sure. She began, however, to have a vague 
 idea that it would have been better had she conducted 
 herself with more decorum, and have communicated her 
 information with an air that had more of sorrow than of 
 anger. Perhaps, too, it might have served her purpose 
 to more advantage had she revealed her knowledge to 
 Moultrie direct, and tried to make terms with him. It 
 
96 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 was too late now, however, to undo what had been done. 
 She looked up. Francois was still standing in the door- 
 way. He was actually beckoning to her. There was 
 nothing to do but to follow him to the front door, with 
 the consciousness that she had been actually turned out 
 of the house, and threatened with a policeman, and the 
 second time in twenty-four hours ; but, nevertheless, 
 feeling her paltry little soul swell with the thought of 
 her anticipated triumph. She was sorry she could not 
 have gotten in more about the meeting. Something in 
 regard to Rachel being in love with Moultrie would 
 doubtless, she imagined, have stuck an additional thorn 
 into Theodora's flesh, which, although it might have been 
 promptly extracted, would have left a festering sore for 
 some time to come. Still, on the whole, she was not 
 unsatisfied. 
 
CHAPTER YL 
 
 DOUBTS ARE DISSIPATED. 
 
 THEODOBA went to her room, and throwing herself into 
 a large arm-chair that stood in front of the sea-coal tire, 
 tried to compose her mind so as to think calmly of the 
 interview through which she had just passed, as well as 
 of its antecedents and its possible consequences. Al- 
 though she had borne herself in Miss Billy Bremen's 
 presence with her accustomed dignity in trying or em- 
 barrassing situations, there was no denying the fact that 
 the information that the lady had communicated had 
 greatly unsettled her. She called to mind as well as she 
 could the circumstances which, over a year ago, had 
 attended the action of the Vigilance Committee in the 
 cases of Messrs. Jim Bosler and Luke Kittle. She re- 
 membered how her father, Dr. Willis, who had been 
 the head of the organization, which numbered among its 
 members the best citizens of the locality, had been in- 
 duced through her entreaties and the arguments of 
 Tyscovus not only to resign the presidency, but to retire 
 altogether from the association. She knew very well 
 what lawless individuals the two men were upon whom 
 the Vigilance Committee had visited the punishment 
 which the law was incompetent to inflict ; that Bosler 
 had only a short time before wantonly killed an inoffen- 
 sive man, the eleventh of a series of murders he had 
 committed in Colorado, and that Kittle, almost as vile a 
 
98 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 character as the other, had deliberately planned the 
 death of a man whose existence was obnoxious to him, 
 and had carried out his conception in the very town in 
 which she lived. She also knew that there was general 
 rejoicing in the Territory over the double execution that 
 the Vigilance Committee had effected ; that meetings had 
 been held and congratulatory resolutions passed, and that 
 the press of the Territory, without, so far as she knew, 
 a single exception, had justified the action as in every 
 way commendable. Still, she had always, while to some 
 extent admitting the propriety of the course taken by 
 the people to rid themselves of two desperadoes, recog- 
 nized the fact that in the eye of the law the executions 
 were deliberate murders, and that although the regular 
 administrators of justice might have been incapable or 
 indisposed to act against the members of the committee, 
 just as they had always been incapable of proceeding 
 against Bosler and Kittle, it had nevertheless been their 
 duty to ferret out the perpetrators and to bring them to 
 trial. She remembered, too, how glad she had been that 
 her father had left the committee before the hanging of 
 the two men. 
 
 And now she was told that her own husband, the one 
 in all the world most dear to her, whose whole mind was, 
 she thought, trained in the paths of justice, and truth, and 
 uprightness, whithersoever they led, had not only been 
 the leader of the committee on that eventful night, but 
 had sat in judgment on those men, had condemned them 
 to death, and had ordered their execution. Was it all 
 true ? Had this woman, for some nefarious purpose of her 
 own, come to her with these lies upon her lips ? That she 
 was malicious and unscrupulous was very certain ; that she 
 had misrepresented the characters of the two scoundrel? 
 
DOUBTS ABE DISSIPATED. 99 
 
 was unquestionable. These were matters of very little 
 consequence to Theodora. Had she uttered a falsehood 
 when she declared that Geoffrey Moultrie had sent those 
 men to their death ? That was the question that concerned 
 her. For, if true, not only had he, in her opinion, com- 
 mitted a grievous wrong, but he had, by keeping her in 
 ignorance of his act, been disloyal to her, his wife, 
 whose inmost thoughts had always been open to him. 
 She sat with her hands covering her face, while every 
 now and then a tear dropped from between her closed 
 fingers. She tried to believe that the woman had lied. 
 At one moment she had almost fully persuaded herself 
 that it was a falsehood, just as was the assertion that 
 Moultrie had insulted the women at the meeting. But 
 the merciless logic of circumstances soon came to brush 
 away the flimsy wall she had set up against being con- 
 vinced, and she brought to mind many events that went 
 to show that what the woman had said was true. 
 
 She remembered the night on which Bosler and Kittle 
 were hung. Moultrie was staying at her father's house 
 at the time. All that day there had been many persons 
 calling to see him. He had announced that business 
 would take him away early in the evening, and that he 
 should probably be absent all night. He did not tell her 
 what his business was, but at eight o'clock he had left 
 the house, with a large army-revolver buckled around his 
 waist. She did not see him again for several days, and 
 then he was with Tyscovus on the butte. He had found 
 his daughter she who for many years had been supposed 
 to be Bosler' s child. But the night on which he had 
 left Chetolah, Bo&ler and Kittle were hanged to the 
 giant pine-tree that stood half-way up the butte. She 
 had never asked him for the details of his adventures, 
 
100 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 and he had never volunteered any information on the 
 subject, beyond the fact that Lai had escaped from Bos- 
 ler's cabin at Bighorn Spring after her reputed father 
 had informed her of his intention to marry her to Luke 
 Kittle, had taken refuge with Tyscovus on the butte, 
 and had there been found by her real father. 
 
 Since then the hanging of the men had often been the 
 subject of conversation between her and her husband, 
 but he had never by one single word intimated that he 
 had had anything whatever to do with the deed. If he 
 had been the leader of the committee, the judge, the 
 executioner, he had not taken her into his confidence, 
 but had, by his silence, left the fact to corne to her 
 knowledge by the mouth of a vulgar woman, who had 
 insulted her in her own house, and had left it with 
 threats of vengeance. Was it possible that he would 
 wilfully keep her in ignorance of an act of his life second 
 to none other in importance, and which so nearly con- 
 cerned a member of her household, his own daughter ? 
 Ah ! if it were true, then indeed had her idol fallen 
 from the lofty height on which she had placed him. 
 She might forgive him the act. She remembered that 
 her own father had held the position which she had 
 now been told her husband had occupied ; she recalled 
 to mind the fact that she herself had looked with leniency 
 upon the doings of vigilance committees, which, though 
 unlawful, were nevertheless in the interests of law and 
 order. But all that was before their deeds had been 
 brought home to her by the knowledge that her own 
 husband had been the chief actor in an illegal execution. 
 It was a shock to her. It would have distressed her had 
 he himself told her of the part he had taken, but she would 
 have condoned it yes, and much more anything, in 
 
DOUBTS AKE DISSIPATED. 101 
 
 fact, that lie could have done, whether against the laws of 
 God or man, if he himself had whispered in her ear the 
 story of his sin or crime. But to have lived for more 
 than two years under his roof, to have had his lips press 
 hers, to have lain upon his breast, and to have listened to 
 the beating of a heart that she had thought was open* to 
 her in all its inmost recesses, and then to find that she, 
 his wife, had been shut out from all knowledge of a 
 secret that was known to a low-minded person, such as was 
 this Bremen woman, and which by to-morrow would be 
 the town talk this was gall and wormwood to her. It 
 was a sin and a crime both not one only ; one sin, one 
 crime she could have forgiven but repeated every 
 moment of their two lives since she had been his wife. 
 Yes, that very morning he had kissed her, and spoken 
 words of love to her, and with a smile upon his face, as 
 though she were all in all to him, while at the very time 
 there had been treason in his heart. That she felt she 
 could never forgive. 
 
 She raised her eyes, and looked at the Sevres porcelain 
 clock that stood on the mantel -piece before her. It was 
 nearly eleven o'clock. The woman had made threats 
 against her husband of which it was her duty to warn 
 him ; and then, though she saw no loop-hole through 
 which to escape from the conviction that she had been 
 told the truth relative to his connection with the hang- 
 ing of Bosler and Kittle, she could not rest till she had 
 had the confirmation or denial from his own lips. He 
 had never lied to her of that she felt he was incapable 
 and even in his refusal to give her his confidence there 
 was no dishonor. There might be something he would 
 say that would take from this act all its sting, and then 
 ah, yes ! then she would forgive him. 
 
102 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 She went into her boudoir adjoining, and sat down at 
 her desk to write him a note, requesting him to return 
 to the house immediately, as matters of great importance 
 required his immediate presence. His photograph, taken 
 just after their marriage, stood on a little easel before 
 her. She stopped writing to look at it ; and as she 
 looked, all her past married life came in rapid review be- 
 fore her. It seemed to her as though she saw with super- 
 natural power every act of love and kindness that he had 
 ever done her. His brave, manly, straightforward life 
 was all before her. She recalled how he had made for 
 himself a name that all the world honored ; how moun- 
 tains, and deserts, and rivers had yielded before his well- 
 directed energy and power ; how in all the trying situa- 
 tions in which he had been placed in all his successes, in 
 all his misfortunes he had borne himself before all men 
 with honor and courage, and that his name was a tower 
 of strength to anything with which he was connected. 
 
 And she for one fault, which, perhaps, was not a fault, 
 had said in her heart that she could never forgive him, 
 and this without hearing a word from him. " My God ! 
 what was I about to do ?' ' she exclaimed aloud. c * My 
 pride has blinded me my selfish pride. Oh, my love ! 
 my love ! it is I who am disloyal." She pressed her 
 lips to the photograph as she spoke, and then throwing 
 down her pen and closing her desk, rang the bell. 
 " Order my coupe immediately," she said to her maid. 
 Then she put on her hat and shawl, and went to Lalage's 
 room. "I am going down-town to see your father," 
 she said. "Something has occurred that requires his 
 immediate attention. Have you any message for him ?" 
 
 Lalage looked up from the book she was reading, and 
 on which Mrs. Bowdoin was making comments in the 
 
DOUBTS ARE DISSIPATED. 103 
 
 nature of explanations and amplifications. She noticed 
 the slightly agitated manner which not even Theodora, 
 with all her self-control, could altogether subdue, and a 
 little feeling of alarm arose. 
 
 4 ( It is nothing much," said Theodora, observing the 
 expression in Lalage's face, " only something about 
 the election that requires to be looked after at once, and 
 and " she added, hesitatingly, " concerning those two 
 men, Bosler and Kittle, who " 
 
 Lalage's face became pallid, and she staggered as 
 though she would have fallen to the floor. She man- 
 aged, however, to recover her composure for Theo- 
 dora had stopped speaking on seeing the effect produced 
 upon the girl and to say, " Have they been heard 
 from?" 
 
 " Heard from !" exclaimed Theodora. " Why, don't 
 you know what became of them ?" 
 
 " I only know that they got away from the Yigilance 
 Committee. I never heard anything more, and 1 was 
 always afraid to ask. ' ' 
 
 Then he had not even told his daughter, thought 
 Theodora. She thanked God that no other person, at 
 any rate, had been his confidant. Yes, he must have 
 had good reasons for keeping the matter secret from 
 both ; but it was not for her to reveal the truth. 
 
 " Oh, no," she said, with as much coolness as she 
 could command, and with the intention of relieving 
 Lalage's fears, " there is no fear of their ever coming 
 back ! They will never show their faces again to any of 
 us." Then she called to mind the fact that Lai was 
 Geoffrey's daughter, and she put her arm around the girl's 
 neck and kissed her. " I don't believe you half know 
 how much I love you, dear," she continued. " You be- 
 
104 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 long to him, and everything that is his is mine. Good- 
 by ; I'll give your love to him, and tell him I found you 
 hard at work." Then with a smile and a nod to Mrs. 
 Bowdoin, she was gone. 
 
 Her coupe was at the door. The footman touched his 
 hat as she crossed the sidewalk. " To Mr. Moultrie's 
 office," she said, as she stepped into the carriage. She 
 felt that every moment was of value. " And tell John 
 to drive fast," she added. 
 
 " Somethin's up, John," said the man, in a low 
 tone, as he mounted the box, " and you're to drive like 
 the devil." 
 
 ".All right!" answered the coachman; "like the 
 devil she goes, then. But what do you think it is, Joey ? 
 I don't think the madam's been down to the office for 
 more'n a year. " 
 
 " Well, I don't know ; I ain't in her secrets, you see. 
 But there's Frenchy, he'll know all about it. Them 
 dinin'-room fellows has got the start on us." 
 
 " Yes, that's true ; but then, Joey, we knows 
 where they go, and that's a good deal with some on 
 'em." 
 
 " "Well, it ain't much with these 'ere swells, 'cause, you 
 see, they don't go nowhere out o' the way." 
 
 Down Fifth Avenue they went, and then down Broad- 
 way as rapidly as the crowded state of that thoroughfare 
 would permit. 
 
 " I think it's the 'lection, Joey," said John at last, 
 after a silence of several minutes, during which whatever 
 brain- work he could divert from the task before him of 
 guiding his horses had been given to the solution of the 
 problem that had suggested itself to his mind. " Did 
 you read them sintiments in the Avenger this mornin' ? 
 
DOUBTS ARE DISSIPATED. 105 
 
 I tell you that they went for the boss like a thousand o' 
 brick." 
 
 " Did I read 'em !" answered Joey, with a tone of 
 offended dignity. " Why, ain't I one o' O'Leary's com- 
 mittee in this 'ere precink ! Or in the one where he 
 lives," he continued, remembering that he had travelled 
 several miles from Moultrie's stable, in which he had his 
 legal residence. " There ain't much as goes into that 
 paper as I don't see. It did give the boss perticler fits. 
 But Lord bless you ! he don't care nothin' for Mike 
 Flanigan nor his paper, neither. I wish I could a' seen 
 him a-layin' out them women ! 1 don't believe he left 
 a grease-spot of 'em. As to the madam, I shouldn't 
 wonder if you was right about the 'lection. She's just 
 as much into it as if she was a-runnin' for Congress as 
 well as her husband. It's somethin' mighty strong, or 
 you wouldn't see her goin' down-town at this time o' 
 day." 
 
 " And there ain't no way as we can find out, 'cept 
 from Frenchy, and he's just about as likely to get things 
 mixed as not," said John, with an accent of regret. 
 "I'll bet a dollar it's a mighty big thing as takes the 
 madam down-town to-day. She's in an awful hurry." 
 
 " I say, Joey, ain't you goin' to vote for the boss ?" 
 he remarked, after another five minutes' silence. 
 
 " John, if I tell you a secret don't you never breathe 
 it to a livin' soul." 
 
 "I'm mum, Joey ; never a word passes my lips." 
 
 " Well, I'm goin' to vote for the old man. He's 
 always treated me fair, and I'm goin' for him ; but 
 it wouldn't do to let the boys know as I scratched 
 O'Leary." 
 
 " I'll shake your hand, Joey, for that when I get rid 
 
106 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 o' these reins. I'm goin' for the boss, too, though he's 
 runnin' agin' Jackson, the riglar nominee. He's a square 
 man, is the boss, and he's goin' to get my vote as sure as 
 you're born." 
 
 Just then the carriage turned into Wall Street, and in 
 a minute or two stopped at Moultrie's office, nearly op- 
 posite the Custom House. In an instant " Joey" was 
 off the box and the door opened. Theodora waited be- 
 fore getting out till the man, whom she sent at once on 
 the errand, returned to say whether Moultrie was in or 
 not. She did not have long to wait, for Moultrie him- 
 self came out. " Is anything the matter?" he said, 
 with a shade of anxiety in his voice and look. 
 
 " Nothing very special, but yet something of sufficient 
 importance to require you to be informed of it at once." 
 
 " Then you had better get out, as we can talk more at 
 ease in my room. Come !" She gave him her hand, 
 and he escorted her into his apartments. 
 
 " Now, dear," he said, as he placed her in a comfort- 
 able chair in his private room before a cheerful fire, 
 while he stood leaning against the mantel-piece, "I 
 must first thank you for taking the trouble to come all 
 the way down here to tell me in person this important 
 piece of news." 
 
 " Yes, I think it is important. I had a visit this 
 morning from a woman calling herself Miss Billy 
 Bremen." 
 
 "Ah! she is one of the committee I am accused of 
 insulting." 
 
 " The same. She came to tell me that she had infor- 
 mation in regard to you that she was about to publish, 
 and which, when known, would defeat your election to 
 Congress." 
 
DOUBTS AEE DISSIPATED. 107 
 
 " She overestimates its importance. There is nothing 
 I have ever done that would lose me one vote. There 
 is one thing that I regret, but the publication of that 
 would gain me a thousand votes more than I would 
 otherwise get ; for the world at large would look on it 
 in a different light from that in which I see it. I have 
 never told it to you, my darling, because I have been 
 ashamed of the part I took, and I feared yes, without 
 cause I know now," as Theodora, rising from her chair, 
 threw herself into his arms, " that you might think me 
 a little less worthy of all your love." 
 
 " 1 know it all, Geoffrey. That woman told me." 
 
 " Ah, well," he said, with a little sadness in his tone, 
 as he pressed her head against his breast, " it was not so 
 much the deed that was wrong as were the motives that 
 led me to do it. When it was suggested to me, in the first 
 place, that I should take the command of the Viligance 
 Committee that had been organized for the purpose 
 of ridding the Territory of desperate characters whose 
 crimes had terrified the people, and whom the law was 
 powerless to reach, 1 declined, because my heart was not 
 in the work, and I really disapproved of the method of 
 procedure contemplated. When I was told that one of 
 the men to be seized, tried, and executed was the wretch 
 who had stolen my child and had been the cause of my 
 wife's insanity and death, I reconsidered my determina- 
 tion, and accepted the leadership that had been offered 
 me. Herein was my wrong : that which 1 was unwilling 
 to do for the good of the public I undertook from motives 
 of personal vengeance. The hanging of those men was 
 a righteous act, but it was a sin for me to be the one to 
 condemn them to death. 
 
 " I soon became aware of this for at first, led away 
 
108 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 by the sense of the wrongs 1 had endured, I did not per- 
 ceive it and then, knowing your own high standard of 
 right, I feared to tell you what I had done, lest you should 
 see in me some one lower than the ideal you had con- 
 ceived. That is all." 
 
 He ceased speaking, but she made no response, though 
 he could feel her form trembling in his embrace. 
 Almost imperceptibly his arms clasped less strongly. 
 Did she really condemn him ? he asked himself. He 
 had not spared himself in the confession he had made ; he 
 had appealed to feelings that are supposed to reside to 
 some extent in every woman's heart, but she had been 
 silent. For a moment it seemed to him as though he 
 had lost her forever, for he was one of those men with 
 whom it must be everything or nothing. It was not, he 
 thought, a case for argument, but yet he felt as though 
 he must make one last effort to bring her heart back to 
 him. 
 
 " For nearly seventeen years," he continued, " I had 
 suffered agonies which, fortunately for mankind, few are 
 called upon to endure. The certainty of the death of 
 my child would have been a relief, but that certainty 
 was denied me. Night after night I had lain awake or 
 had paced the floor, thinking of her who was lost to me, 
 and haunted by visions of what might be her fate. On 
 the arid plains of Russia, amid the snows of the Andes, 
 the image I had formed of her was ever before me. 
 Then, when I had abandoned all hope, I was told that 
 my child was found, and that the wretch who had brought 
 all this sorrow upon me was within my reach. If, in the 
 fulness of my joy, I yielded to the feeling that, for 
 good or evil, is in every man's breast, and did that 
 which in calmer moments I perceived was arrogating 
 
DOUBTS AEE DISSIPATED. 109 
 
 to myself powers* that belong to God, it seems to me 
 that" 
 
 4 ' You would have been only a little less than divine to 
 have resisted !" exclaimed Theodora, raising her face 
 and throwing her arms around his neck. " Yes, it was 
 wrong," she continued, " but it was human, and I really 
 think now I should have loved you less had you allowed 
 the men to escape. But I was not silent from any doubt 
 as to how I should act toward you," she continued, as 
 he kissed her again and again, " but because I felt I 
 had been unjust to you, and my mind was full of self- 
 reproaches. When 1 reflected," she went on, after a 
 pause, and moved by that frankness that was one of the 
 most charming traits of her character, u upon what that 
 woman told me, I was at first overcome with sur- 
 prise, and my pride was piqued that you had kept the 
 matter secret from me. That, I think, caused me to see 
 but one side of the question, and for a moment I felt as 
 though I had suffered a great injury, and that you had 
 committed a serious crime. But it was only for a mo- 
 ment, and I came here confident that you would dispel 
 every cloud from my mind. But never be again afraid 
 of testing my love. If you were to kill fifty men you 
 would still be dear to me." 
 
 "I suppose that is a very womanly expression," he 
 said, smiling, " but I don't propose to test your love to 
 that extent, though I shall not in future refuse to put it 
 on trial, should occasion require. I have never told Lai 
 of my part in the hanging of the men. Indeed, she does 
 not even know that they are dead. But here, I think, I 
 had more justification for silence than I had with you, 
 for you know that, notwithstanding Bosler's bad treat- 
 ment of her at the last, he had, as she said, been kind to 
 
110 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 her after his way for many years, and* she is not one to 
 forget such things. She cannot, however, learn the truth 
 more appropriately from any one than from me, and I 
 shall take an early opportunity of telling her all. I am 
 only sorry that your knowledge should have come from 
 Miss Billy Bremen instead of from your husband." 
 
 " But don't you think, dear, that something should be 
 done to counteract any steps to injure you that she may 
 take ? Depend upon it, the statement she will make 
 public will be full of lies from beginning to end. ' ' 
 
 Moultrie thought for a moment, and then answered in a 
 tone of decision, " Yes, and I think we shall take the wind 
 out of her sails. I shall at once prepare and send to the 
 evening newspapers a full statement of the whole affair, 
 or rather I shall request the editor of each of the three 
 principal evening papers to send an interviewing reporter 
 to me at once. That will be better. The account will 
 be copied by the morning papers, so that Miss Billy will 
 find her news partaking somewhat of the character of 
 ancient history. " 
 
 He went to a table and hurriedly wrote three notes. 
 Then he rang a bell, and told the man who answered to 
 take them at once to the offices of the papers to which 
 they were directed. " Now," he continued, "I shall 
 telegraph to the Governor of Colorado and request him 
 to send me a statement in regard to the characters of 
 Bosler and Kittle and the feeling in the Territory rela- 
 tive to the propriety and necessity of the course of the 
 Vigilance Committee ; and also to state what action 
 was taken by the legislature concerning the matter at its 
 session a few weeks subsequently. Although 1 cannot 
 get an answer in time for this evening's papers, it will 
 arrive in ample season for those of to-morrow morning." 
 
DOUBTS AEE DISSIPATED. Ill 
 
 While Moultrie was speaking and arranging his plans 
 for the circumvention of Miss Billy Bremen's schemes, 
 Theodora's face wore an expression of intense satisfac- 
 tion. Here, indeed, she thought was a man of whom 
 she might be proud to be the wife. Without the least 
 sign of annoyance, still less of fear, he had at once taken 
 in all the possibilities of the situation, and had arranged 
 his plan of action with a boldness that excited her 
 warmest admiration. She saw at once how completely 
 he would neutralize the designs of his enemies by the 
 measures that he proposed taking. Indeed, as he had 
 said, there was no doubt that the facts of his connection 
 with the Vigilance Committee would be regarded as being 
 to his advantage rather than to his detriment, and would 
 increase his vote several hundred above that which he 
 would otherwise receive. 
 
 When he had finished she prepared to take her leave. 
 " I am so glad 1 came down," she said. " It is such a 
 pleasure to me to be of any service to you, and this time 
 1 have helped you a little, haven't 1 ?" 
 
 He took her face between his hands and kissed her. 
 " You have not only rendered me a great service, but 
 you have done still more for me by giving me your 
 love and causing me to understand that nothing I am 
 likely to do will make me lose it. ' ' 
 
 11 No, nothing," she answered, smiling, " not even 
 your refusal to advocate woman's rights in Congress. 
 But I had almost forgotten," she continued, drawing, as 
 she spoke, a letter from her pocket. " Just after you 
 left the house this morning a messenger brought me this 
 communication, and 1 want your advice as to what an- 
 swer to give." 
 
 She handed him the letter, and he read as follows : 
 
112 A STKONG-MLNDED WOMAN. 
 
 " 7 WEST -TH STREET, NEW YOKK, ) 
 November 4, 1874. i 
 
 "DEAK MADAM: I am directed by the Board of 
 Trustees of the ' Martha Washington Medical College for 
 Women ' to notify you that at a meeting held this evening 
 you were unanimously elected a member of the Board. 
 
 " I am also instructed to inform you that you were at 
 the same time, and by a like vote, appointed Professor 
 of Physiology in the College. 
 
 u In thus endeavoring to secure your valuable services 
 to the institution under its charge, the Board hopes it is 
 acting in accordance with your wishes, and that it may 
 look for an acceptance of both positions. 
 
 " I am, madam, with great regard, 
 1 1 Your obedient servant, 
 
 " RACHEL MEADOWS, Secretary." 
 
 " Why, that's the young lady who spoke last night at 
 the meeting, and whom I am accused of insulting !' ' ex- 
 claimed Moultrie. " Well, my dear, to use a slang ex- 
 pression, ' What are you going to do about it ?' " 
 
 " That is for you to say," she answered. " No wife 
 has the right to undertake any public work or duty of 
 any kind without her husband's consent. The first thing 
 she has to consider is its possible effect upon him. ' ' 
 
 " Perhaps you are right, generally speaking ; at any 
 rate, it is very kind of you to think so. But I should 
 feel like a tyrant were I to interfere with you in such a 
 matter as this. I see there are two appointments. In 
 regard to the trusteeship, 1 should think there could be no 
 doubt relative to the propriety of your acceptance, pro- 
 vided only that your associates are ladies. Do you hap- 
 pen to know who they are ?" 
 
DOUBTS AEE DISSIPATED. 113 
 
 " Yes ; an announcement of the college came with the 
 letter. I did not bring it with me, but I looked over it 
 and examined the list of officers. Among the trustees 
 are Mrs. Gosford, Mrs. Fay, Mrs. Darby, Miss Oxworth, 
 and Miss Meadows, the secretary. They are all ladies 
 of good position, and several of them are acquaintances." 
 
 " Then we will regard that part of the proposition as 
 settled by your acceptance, provided it is entirely agree- 
 able to you. The other part is more important, for it is 
 a position that involves publicity and great responsibility, 
 and the assumption of which by you will immediately 
 cause more or less friendly and unfriendly comment 
 among your acquaintances all of which requires con- 
 sideration. Are you prepared to give an answer now ?" 
 
 " Yes, as fully as 1 ever shall be." 
 
 " Do you feel competent to tackle the subject ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Now, my dear child," he continued, "I am per- 
 fectly free to say that your acceptance of this appointment 
 would not interfere in the slightest degree with me or 
 any of my plans. Neither would it offend my sense of 
 what is right for my wife to do. When 1 married you 
 I knew what the course of your studies had been, and 
 I saw that you were correct in the opinion that you once 
 expressed to me, that there is nothing incompatible be- 
 tween anatomical and physiological studies and the most 
 bewitching womanly delicacy. Well, my darling, a 
 married life of over two years has not taught me differ- 
 ently. You are still to me the sweetest woman the sun 
 ever shone upon, and I do not believe you will be any 
 the less tender and fascinating as a professor of physiology 
 than as plain Theodora Moultrie. " 
 
 " Oh, Geoffrey, how good you are !" cried Theodora, 
 
114 A STKONG-MINDED WOMA-N. 
 
 her lovely face beaming with the pleasure his words pro- 
 duced. "And am I all that to you?" she continued. 
 " I never would have believed it if you had not told me. 
 So you advise me to accept the professorship ?" 
 
 " Ah, my dear !'' he exclaimed, laughing, " I did not 
 say that. Advice and approval are two very different 
 things. I shall be most pleased at your doing that which 
 pleases you best. It is a selfish feeling with me, I admit. 
 I wish to see you happy. I perceive how strong a hold 
 your studies have upon you ; therefore, when you tell 
 me that you feel competent to teach physiology to 
 women, and that you would like to do it, 1 find my hap- 
 piness in giving my consent." 
 
 " And would you like it better if I declined ? Oh, 
 Geoffrey, I do so want to please you ! Suppose," she 
 continued, as she made him sit down, while she placed 
 herself on his knee, and put one arm around his neck 
 " suppose I were to tell you that I did not care to 
 take this appointment, would you be better pleased than 
 you are now, that you think I wish to accept it ? Oh, 
 my love, tell me what you wish me to do without regard 
 to me !" 
 
 " You little witch, you would seduce the very elect, I 
 do believe. Have I not told you, dear ?" 
 
 " Yes ; but you must answer my question." 
 
 " Well, I will. If you were to tell me that you did 
 not care to accept the professorship, you would make me 
 very unhappy." 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 4 ' Because I should feel that you were telling me what 
 was not true in order to please me." 
 
 " You think, then, that I am anxious to take the 
 place ?" 
 
DOUBTS ABE DISSIPATED. 115 
 
 " Yes ; I know you are." 
 
 " You are right," she said, gravely, after a moment's 
 pause. " I am anxious ; but you will believe me, Geof- 
 frey, when I say to you, as I do now in the sight of God, 
 and with my heart beating against yours, that I would 
 take more pleasure in acting according to your wish than 
 in doing anything else in all the world." 
 
 " I do believe you, dear ; but woman is ever ready 
 to sacrifice herself for the man she loves, and to take 
 pleasure in the act. Generally, he is willing enough to 
 accept the immolation. It assures him of her love, and 
 gratifies his vanity at the same time. Now, I need no 
 such proof of your affection, and shall I tell you ? I am 
 vainer of your knowledge and your good sense than I 
 am of any qualities of mine that cause you to love me. 
 Therefore, you will please me best by accepting the pro- 
 fessorship tendered you ; and I here pledge you my 
 hearty support, and promise you that no word of mine 
 shall ever reproach you." 
 
 " Oh, Geoffrey, are you sure of all that ?" 
 
 " Quite sure, dear. If you were to decline, you 
 would grieve me very much." 
 
 " Then, I shall take it !" she exclaimed, rising. " I 
 shall go home and write my acceptance at once. But re- 
 member, I shall hold it only during your pleasure." 
 
 " You will hold it as long as you please, and that will 
 be during my pleasure. " 
 
 He stopped to write his telegram to the Governor of 
 Colorado, and then the two left the room. She sent the 
 carriage home empty, and he walked with her as far as 
 the corner of Wall Street and Broadway, and saw her 
 safely over the latter street at this, its most crowded 
 part. Then he sent the telegram to the governor, and 
 
116 A STKONG-MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 returned to his office to meet the three reporters. Two 
 hours afteward the true story of the hanging of Jim 
 Bosler and Luke Kittle was scattered broadcast over the 
 city. 
 
 There was but one opinion among people of all 
 classes in regard to the act, and that was, that it was a 
 righteous deed well done. But there were many who 
 professed different views from those they really held. 
 There was much impotent gnashing of teeth on the 
 part of some of the more virulent of Moultrie's political 
 enemies, for they saw their strongest card rendered use- 
 less. The people at the Avenger and Controller offices 
 felt particularly indignant, for they had each had a visit 
 that morning from Miss Billy Bremen, who, with much 
 malicious glee, informed them that the publication would 
 fill the hearts of Moultrie and his friends with terror. 
 Now they saw that, so far from being scared at the idea of 
 his connection with the affair becoming known, he had 
 voluntarily told the whole story. Toward evening, 
 they, as well as the other papers to be issued in the morn- 
 ing, were provided with copies of the governor's tele- 
 gram, which was as follows : 
 
 li DENVER, November 5, 1874. 
 u To GEOFFREY MOULTRIE, ESQ., NEW YORK. 
 
 " The execution of James Bosler and Luke Kittle in 
 the fall of 1872, by the Vigilance Committee of Hell- 
 bender, in this Territory, met with the universal approval 
 of the people. Both were of the worst type of scoun- 
 drels, and Bosler had murdered eleven men. The law 
 was powerless to reach these men, and the public safety 
 demanded their death. In accordance with the general 
 wish expressed by the people in public meetings and 
 
DOUBTS ARE DISSIPATED. 117 
 
 through the press, an act of indemnity and of thanks was 
 passed by the Legislative Council at the session of 1873- 
 74, which I had great pleasure in approving. 
 "W. C. PKENTISS, 
 
 " Governor of Colorado." 
 
 On receiving a copy of this telegram the Avenger and 
 the Controller thought it advisable not to mention the 
 affair, though the other morning papers published it in 
 full, besides making copious extracts from the account of 
 Moultrie's interview with the reporters. 
 
 After the return from Jerome Park, Moultrie com- 
 municated to Lalage the whole story of his connection 
 with the hanging of Bosler and Kittle. That she was 
 surprised was a matter of course, for she had not even 
 known that they were dead. It can scarcely be said, how- 
 ever, that she regretted that she was now absolutely safe 
 from them in the future ; for with all the sense of security 
 she experienced as Moultrie's daughter, and with the 
 utmost reliance on his power to defend her, there was 
 at times a vague feeling of apprehension in regard to 
 these men, that nothing could altogether allay. Lai was 
 endowed with excellent common-sense. She was capable 
 of at once perceiving all the salient points of a subject 
 submitted to her mind. Her early associations had been 
 such as to make her familiar with the theory and practice 
 of vigilance committees ; and though she had been brought 
 up by Mr. and Mrs. Bosler to hate them, she knew that 
 there was no repressive agency so greatly feared as' this 
 swift, silent, but expeditious power, which struck its 
 deadly blows in the name of law and order. She knew, 
 too, with what thorough contempt Bosler had regarded the 
 law, and how he had repeatedly said that it would be im- 
 
118 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 possible to convict him even if the officers dared to 
 make his arrest for any act he might commit. ' ' Why, ' ' 
 he used to say, " two or three on us owns them constables, 
 body and soul, and we bought 'em cheap, too. And as to 
 juries, I'd jist like to see twelve men in a box in Costilla 
 County, and me with nary a friend among 'em. It's 
 jist on possible. The rope that's to hang me ain't bin 
 made yit, nor the rope-walk built, nor the men born as 
 is to make it." 
 
 But with all his bragging, she knew that he had a 
 wholesome fear of vigilance committees, and that this 
 feeling had often restrained him from the commission of 
 contemplated crimes. It was, therefore, no difficult 
 undertaking for Moultrie to convince her that there were 
 times in the lives of states and of men where the laws 
 that men had made for their own good must be disre- 
 garded in the presence of circumstances for which the 
 laws made no specific provision. He reminded her that 
 the killing of a man in the abstract is no crime. Homi- 
 cide in personal self-defence is a justifiable act, and homi- 
 cide in defence of the State a still more righteous deed. 
 Even killing in the protection of property is perfectly 
 legitimate. 
 
 He told her how, in the suppression of a mutiny, an 
 army or navy officer does not hesitate to kill on the spot ; 
 that policemen in making arrests are often obliged to 
 take life, and that under all circumstances and in all 
 situations the safety of the people is the first law, 
 although it is written in no statute-book. 
 
 But while justifying the executions of Bosler and 
 Kittle, Moultrie did not attempt to gloss over his own 
 share in the transaction. He admitted that the desire to 
 punish Bosler for the acts against him that he had com- 
 
DOUBTS ARE DISSIPATED. 119 
 
 mitted was the determining cause of his participation in 
 the proceeding. With the hanging of Kittle, however, 
 he had had nothing to do, as he had turned over the 
 command of the committee and the functions of judge 
 before that individual was brought to trial. It was a 
 wrong motive in him, and he could only plead his 
 humanity in extenuation. Had it been the only incen- 
 tive, he would, he declared, long ago have demanded a 
 trial ; but he was conscious that he had been to a great 
 extent actuated by a regard for the public welfare, and 
 in conducting the proceedings against Bosler he had stu- 
 diously refrained from intruding his own private griefs and 
 wrongs upon the committee. The wretch had been tried 
 solely for the murder of a man named Hallam, whom he 
 had killed wantonly, for the mere amusement of com- 
 mitting murder, and for that crime he was executed. 
 Mankind, he pointed out to her, would not regard his 
 motives as unworthy a man of honor. The destroyer of 
 the peace of a household, such as was Bosler, can find no 
 refuge among civilized mankind from the vengeance of 
 those who have suffered at his hands. If he had met Bos- 
 ler after becoming acquainted with the fact that he was 
 the abductor of his child, the cause of his wife's mental 
 derangement and death, and of his suffering during 
 seventeen years if he had encountered this man in the 
 streets of any city in the United States, with the memory 
 of his wrongs strong in his heart, and had shot him down 
 like a dog, no jury could have been found to convict 
 him. All this, however, did not make his conduct right 
 in his own sight, and ever since he had not ceased to re- 
 proach himself for his agency in the affair. He had had 
 his punishment was still receiving it, in fact, and he ad- 
 mitted the justice with which it was meted out to him. 
 
120 A STBONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Time," lie said, " may soften the infliction, but prob- 
 ably will never altogether remove from my mind the 
 consciousness that I did a sinful act. 
 
 " And yet, dear," he continued, as Lai raised his 
 hand to her face wet with tears, " I am not morbid over 
 the matter. I have so much to make me happy, that 
 continual sorrow would be impossible, I think. But 
 every now and then the pang comes. It is instantaneous. 
 It goes as quickly as it strikes, but while it is there it 
 is severe. And thus I am reminded that in taking upon 
 myself the office of an avenger I violated that mandate 
 of God, ' Vengeance is mine I will repay ! ' " 
 
 " No, no," cried Lai, as she put her arms around his 
 neck and drew his head to her breast ; " don't say that 
 to me. Don't you remember how he sold me to Luke 
 Kittle, and tied me with ropes and straps like a sheep as 
 is sold to the butcher ? Whar would 1 a' bin now ef it 
 hadn't bin for you and the others as was agin him ? Oh, 
 father," she continued, in an agony of grief, and tears, 
 and sobs that almost choked her utterance, " my 
 darlin', ef I thought as you war goin' to feel like that 
 all your life, I'd never smile agin oh, no, never agin !" 
 
 It was sweet to him, this tempest of emotion, that 
 rose like a mountain torrent of the Sierra Madre, sweep- 
 ing everything before it in its resistless course. Her 
 tears were sweet, her sobs were music to his ears, but 
 dearer than all were the words that welled up from her 
 heart and rushed forth in the homely dialect of her 
 childhood. Yes, if anything in all the world could 
 banish his remorse, it would be the love of this dear 
 child, whom he had rescued from a fate worse than death. 
 Once more he pressed her to his heart. 
 
 " I'd a' killed him myself onst," continued Lai, " ef 
 
DOUBTS AKE DISSIPATED. 121 
 
 I'd had a knife. Oh, I was mighty fierce then, I tell 
 you ; and when he was a- try in' to put them cords and 
 straps around me his life warn't worth a cent to me ! 
 And now you're goin' to make yourself miserable all 
 your life for him as would a-done them things to me ! 
 1 jist can't stand it. I'd rather die. Oh, yes, I'd rather 
 die right now ! And all on account of a man as stole me 
 and killed my mother !" 
 
 " My dear child," he said at last, " every word you 
 say is inexpressibly sweet to me. 1 think if I had told 
 you all at the very first you would have done much to 
 lessen the regret I experienced, and to prevent its taking 
 so firm a hold of me. I think I can promise you that it 
 will not trouble me much henceforth. "What argument 
 and reason could never have done the outpouring of your 
 sympathy and love will scarcely fail to accomplish. 
 Come ! dry your pretty eyes," he continued, with a 
 smile, " and get back into a civilized form of speech. 
 Do you know that for the last five minutes you have been 
 talking like a ' Wild Girl of the West,' or ' a Prairie 
 Rose, ' as Tyscovus calls you ?' ' 
 
 The sunshine of her smile came out again, as with her 
 arm in his she went into the drawing-room. 
 
 That night Theodora wrote her acceptance of the two 
 appointments that had been tendered her. 
 
CHAPTEE TIL 
 
 AN ELECTION AND ITS RESULT. 
 
 THE election was over. Each of tlie three parties had 
 exhausted all its devices for reaching the sophisticated 
 and the unsophisticated voter, according to his kind ; 
 but the two opponents of Moultrie had felt all day that 
 the chances for either of them were slim. The publica- 
 tion of the fact that he had headed a vigilance committee 
 organized for the purpose of ridding Colorado of a set of 
 desperadoes that had for many years disturbed the peace 
 of the Territory and had defied the law had aided him 
 greatly, very much to the disgust of Miss Billy Bremen 
 and her coadjutors. Men reasoned that he had shown 
 his readiness to accept the most weighty responsibilities, 
 and to do his utmost while they were on his shoulders 
 to carry them through to a successful termination. No 
 quality appeals more strongly to the heart of the average 
 man than courage, especially that moral species of the 
 faculty that causes the possessor to stand up and face the 
 consequences of his acts. 
 
 The poll had been a large one, and according to the 
 returns received at Moultrie's headquarters, his vote was 
 greatly in excess of that given to either of his opponents. 
 Still, although all reports were of an encouraging nature, 
 nothing definite could of course be known till the count- 
 ing of the ballots was finished. He had not visited 
 the polling-places during the day, notwithstanding the 
 
AN ELECTION AND ITS KESTJLT. 123 
 
 fact that his u committee" thought it would be advisable 
 for him to show himself to his adherents, if only for the 
 purpose of keeping up their spirits. He had invited the 
 Hon. Tom Burton to dine with him, and had asked two 
 other personal friends to meet him. The gentlemen 
 were in the library after dinner smoking their cigars and 
 awaiting, without much apprehension as to the result, the 
 reception of the semi-official returns. It was now 
 eight o'clock, and they could not be much longer de- 
 layed. 
 
 " I shouldn't be at all surprised," said Mr. Burton, as 
 he shook the ashes from his cigar into a little silver dish 
 that stood on the table by his side, " if you had a plu- 
 rality of three thousand over O' Leary. I suppose there 
 is no doubt that he will lead Jackson." 
 
 " I am not so sure of that," said Mr. Braden, a prom- 
 inent lawyer, who had taken great interest in Moultrie's 
 canvass. " Jackson has great strength among the Ger- 
 mans and among a certain class of manufacturers who 
 do not know what is good for them. I think it will be 
 close between them ; but I am quite certain that Jack- 
 son will poll more votes than O'Leary." 
 
 " Burton is right, I think," observed Judge Miller, a 
 portly gentleman about fifty years of age, who spoke 
 with great deliberation, as though he were weighing 
 every word that escaped from his lips. " Of course it 
 would not do for a member of the judiciary to take an 
 active part in an election. At least, that has always been 
 my idea. But in a quiet way I have been an observant 
 spectator, and I am very certain that O'Leary will poll a 
 much larger vote than Jackson. He has, in the first 
 place, as you know, the ' indorsement,' as it is called, of 
 Tuscarora Hall, and that has gone far to add to his 
 
124 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 strength. He will get a good portion of the German 
 and nearly the whole of the Irish vote." 
 
 " Yes, that is so !" exclaimed Burton ; " but did you 
 hear how every Italian vote in the district was secured 
 for our friend here ? I don't believe he knows. But, 
 as it's over now, I suppose I may as well tell him." 
 
 u I hope," said Moultrie, gravely, " that no mislead- 
 ing representations were made to them. ' ' 
 
 " Oh, no," answered Burton, laughing ; " it was not 
 so bad as that ; but at the same time it shows how easily 
 votes can sometimes be obtained. I think I shall have 
 to tell, if only to show that fact, as well as to let you 
 know how readily some of these foreigners learn the art 
 of manipulating their people. 
 
 " Well," he continued, as a general assent was given, 
 " since I've been here in New York I've occasionally 
 taken my meals at FiescolL's restaurant, for I'm rather 
 partial to Italian cookery. About a week ago, as I was 
 eating a dish of maccaroni, as only Fiescoli can cook it, 
 I called him to me, and complimented him on its excel- 
 lence. He was greatly delighted with my praises, and 
 seeing that his heart was open to the reception of grand 
 ideas and sound political truth, I asked him how he was 
 going to vote. Without any hesitation he informed me 
 that he should vote for Jackson, mainly, however, as 
 he said, because all the Irish were going to vote for 
 O'Leary, and because some one had told him some 
 emissary of Jackson's, as 1 afterward learned that Moul- 
 trie was a Frenchman. Now, Fiescoli hates the French 
 almost as bad as he does the Irish, so that he naturally 
 went in for Jackson. 
 
 " 1 soon disabused his mind of the idea that you were 
 anything else than an American of over two hundred 
 
AN ELECTION AND ITS RESULT. 125 
 
 years' existence in the country, and then I tackled him 
 on the tariff. ' How much does your maccaroni cost you 
 a box ? ' I inquired. 
 
 " ( Four dollars,' he answered, with a groan. 
 
 " ' And what is it worth in Naples ? ' 
 
 " ' Less than two dollars,' he replied, with a sigh that 
 seemed like the distant rumbling of Mount Vesuvius. 
 
 " ' Well, my friend,' I said, though with some diffi- 
 culty, for 1 had just put a mess as big as a teacup into 
 rny mouth, and was adjusting it to its new situation, ' the 
 difference goes into the pockets of the " Sweetwater 
 Maccaroni Manufacturing Company," who, you will 
 doubtless admit, make a devilish bad article. ' 
 
 " l I should think so !' he exclaimed in his picturesque" 
 the Hon. Tom was not always precise in his use of 
 adjectives " English ; ' I wouldn't presume to set it 
 before you. You wouldn't eat it, though I have been 
 told that that rascal Mali gives it to his customers be- 
 cause it costs a few cents less on the box.' 
 
 " i You'd like to get your maccaroni fresh from 
 Naples, wouldn't you, and just as cheap as you could 
 there, with the little addition of the freight ? ' 
 
 " ' Of course I would. 1 have a cousin who makes 
 it. I'd buy more, and I'd sell more, for 1 could sell it 
 cheaper. ' 
 
 u ' My friend ! ' I exclaimed, jumping up, '" give me 
 your hand ! You are a political economist of the first 
 water. Now, Mr. Moultrie is in favor of letting in all 
 the maccaroni Naples can make free of duty. He's the 
 man for you. Don't you see ? ' 
 
 i i "Well, to cut the story short, 1 not only secured his 
 vote, but I arranged a meeting of Italians to take place 
 in his restaurant. About fifty of the prominent mem- 
 
126 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 bers of the colony attended. I ascertained first that there 
 were at least three hundred Italian voters in the district. 
 Not many, perhaps, but every vote counts in an election. 
 I ordered a supper of maccaroni, ravioli, frittura, olives, 
 and other Italian dishes, with plenty of Yino di Capri 
 and Montepulciano to drink, and with the cry of c Free 
 maccaroni ! ' 1 sent my disciples out into the wilderness ; 
 and the consequence was that every Italian vote was cast 
 for Moultrie." 
 
 u And the further consequence will be," said Mr. 
 Braden, laughing, " that when they find that they 
 won't get their maccaroni any cheaper next year than 
 they do this, they will visit their indignation on Moul- 
 trie." 
 
 " Oh, well," exclaimed Burton, u c after me the del- 
 uge ! ' Still, it was all fair ; I did not misrepresent Moul- 
 trie, for he is in favor of free maccaroni." 
 
 " So I am, or, at least, very nearly so, ' ' said Moultrie ; 
 " but I am afraid you misled them in regard to my power 
 to make the change. You ought to have been more exact 
 on that point." 
 
 " Oh, they'll find that out soon enough, I promise 
 you ! Then you can write a letter to them that will 
 quiet them till the next election comes round." 
 
 Just then a servant entered with a telegram, which he 
 handed on a salver to Moultrie. 
 
 "The first returns," he said, as he opened the en- 
 velope. " Yes," reading the communication, " ' Six pre- 
 cincts give Moultrie 2275, O'Leary 1250, and Jackson 
 1021.'" 
 
 " Hurrah !" exclaimed Burton, rising in his excite- 
 ment and swinging his handkerchief. " By George ! 
 you'll beat 'them both together. You'll get returns 
 
AN ELECTION AND ITS RESULT. 127 
 
 pretty rapidly now, and in half an hour we'll know 
 who's elected." 
 
 " May we come in ?" said Theodora, holding aside the 
 heavy portiere, and revealing herself and Lai standing in 
 the doorway. " We're ever so anxious to hear the news, 
 and we don't mind the smoke a bit." 
 
 Every gentleman was on his feet in an instant, and the 
 cigars were dropped. 
 
 " Of course you may," said Moultrie, laughing, " pro- 
 vided you'll promise not to cry if I'm defeated." 
 
 " Oh, we'll promise anything ; but we won't come un- 
 less you will go on with your smoking." 
 
 " You've been well brought up, Mrs. Moultrie," said 
 Burton, and amid the general expression of the pleasure 
 their company would give, the two ladies entered the 
 room, and were escorted to chairs by Mr. Burton and 
 Judge Miller. They had hardly got seated before 
 another communication was brought in. 
 
 " ' Eighteen precincts,' 5 said Moultrie, reading, 
 "'give Moultrie 4280, O'Leary 2830, and Jackson 
 1450.' " 
 
 " Jackson is running behind, as I said he would," ex- 
 claimed Burton ; " but by the immortal shade of Sam 
 Houston, what a magnificent vote you're polling, Moul- 
 trie ! Madam," turning to Theodora, " I am almost 
 ready to congratulate you. How many precincts are 
 there in this district, Judge ?" 
 
 "About thirty, I think," answered that gentleman; 
 " but the heaviest are to come in yet. Still, 1 don't see 
 how any other than the result we desire can be obtained. " 
 
 All through the dinner Burton had been so enraptured 
 with Lai's appearance that he could not keep his eyes off 
 of her, and she was more than sufficient to banish all 
 
128 A STEONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 recollection of Rachel Meadows from the susceptible 
 Texan's heart. He was one of those men who are taken 
 with every pretty face they see, and whose constancy in 
 matters of the affections is, up to a certain point, no 
 more to be relied upon than that of the direction of the 
 wind. 
 
 - " In all my life," said he to himself, as he stole a 
 furtive glance at her, " I never saw such a beauty. She's 
 the sort of a woman a man goes through fire and water 
 for if necessary. I wish she'd ask me to do something 
 for her. If she'd drop her glove into a den of wild 
 beasts, I'd get it for her devilish quick, and I wouldn't 
 throw it in her face, either, as did that blackguard De 
 Longe. 
 
 " ' And she thought the count my lover is as brave as brave can be. 
 He surely would do desperate things to show his love for me.' 
 
 If the house now would only catch fire or a burglar make 
 his appearance just behind her chair, I'd show her what 
 a Texan gentleman would do." 
 
 " You Southerners take more interest in politics that 
 we Northerners do," said Theodora, addressing Bur- 
 ton. 
 
 " Yes, madam, even yet ; but you Northerners have 
 done about the best you could to destroy the breed of 
 Southern gentlemen as it was before the war. But I 
 thought you were Southern. ' ' 
 
 " So I am ; I'm a Virginian ; but a woman goes with 
 her husband, you know." 
 
 " Not always," he answered, laughing ; " I can call 
 to mind many instances on the breaking out of the war 
 in which the husband went with the wife, and she hur- 
 ried back to her plantation as soon as she could." 
 
AN ELECTION AND ITS RESULT. 129 
 
 He waited a moment to see if Theodora had any inten- 
 tion of continuing the conversation. Then, as she said 
 something to Judge Miller, he turned to Lai : 
 
 " Do you take much interest in politics, Miss Moul- 
 trie?" 
 
 " Only this time," she answered, with a smile that 
 sent Burton into the realms of bliss, " and and one 
 other," with a little hesitation, and a blush that made 
 her look still lovelier. 
 
 " That's the Polish count," thought Burton. " He's 
 running for delegate to Congress from some western 
 Territory. A Polish count to get that angel ! My 
 God ! what are we coming to ! I've seen three Polish 
 counts in my day one was a barber, one a runner for a 
 steamboat, and the third tried to pick my pocket, and 
 got knocked down and sent to Blackwell's Island for his 
 pains. He was the most enterprising of the lot, but not 
 altogether a desirable acquaintance. I wonder if this 
 one is any better ! Oh, he must be ! Moultrie is too 
 sensible and the girl, too, to allow any frauds about. 
 1' 11 draw her out a little. 
 
 " And the other is ?" he said, interrogatively. 
 
 Without the least hesitation Lai answered, " The 
 other is Mr. Tyscovus of Colorado. He is a Polish 
 gentleman. My mother was a Pole. " 
 
 " Ah ! that," he said, with feigned ignorance, " ac- 
 counts for your interest in him. Foreigners are getting 
 all the best places now," and, he added to himself, " all 
 the pretty girls, too." 
 
 " He is half an American. His mother was a New 
 Yorker." 
 
 " And you are half Polish. Delightful !" 
 
 " Yes, it is very nice," said Lai, simply. 
 
130 A STKONG-MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 " All, there's another report !" said Mr. Braden, as 
 the man entered with the salver and the despatch. 
 
 Moultrie handed it to Theodora. " Read it, my 
 dear," he said, and then, in a low voice to her, "if it 
 contains good news it will be all the more welcome from 
 you." 
 
 She smiled lovingly on him as she opened the en- 
 velope. 
 
 " ( Twenty-five precincts, ' " she read, " t give Moultrie 
 7930*, O'Leary 4200, and Jackson 3482. Seven more 
 precincts to be heard from. Moultrie certainly elected 
 by a majority over both the other candidates.' ' 
 
 " Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah !" cried Burton, 
 springing to his feet and waving his handkerchief. 
 " What did 1 tell you ? I'll have to stay in New York 
 to teach you fellows politics. ' ' 
 
 Theodora had already given her hand to Moultrie ; 
 Lai was the next to congratulate him, and then the gen- 
 tlemen followed, Burton being the most enthusiastic. 
 Then he shook hands with Theodora and with Lai, 
 actuated probably in this latter instance more by a desire 
 to get her little hand in his than by any other motive. 
 
 "Miss Moultrie," he said, "I hope that 'other' 
 will have as fortunate a termination as this." 
 
 " I do not know," she answered ; " it is very doubtful. 
 The election took place to-day, but I do not expect to 
 hear before to-morrow. " 
 
 "Well, 'a happy issue out of all your afflictions,' 
 as the Bible says. ' ' 
 
 " That is not in the Bible, Mr. Burton. That is in 
 the Prayer-book." 
 
 " Oh, yes, to be sure ! I knew I had seen it in some 
 familiar place. " 
 
AN ELECTION AND ITS RESULT. 131 
 
 Theodora had rung the bell, and "'Joey" was entering 
 with champagne in silver coolers. " I had this pre- 
 pared," she said, " for 1 felt sure you would succeed." 
 
 " Happy the woman who has confidence in her hus- 
 band !" exclaimed Burton. " Now, Mistress Moultrie, 
 if you'll be kind enough to send that man away and 
 allow me to act as Ganymede to our Jupiter and the 
 other gods and goddesses, you will do me a great favor." 
 Then, without waiting for an answer, he took the bottle 
 from the man, and the wires being already removed, cut 
 the strings that held the cork, and in true Southern style 
 allowed the bottle to pop. " Now, ladies and gentle- 
 men," he continued, " your glasses, please. My friend," 
 sotto voce to " Joey," who was lingering with the 
 other bottle, " won't you be kind enough to get out of 
 the way ?" " Joey" looked indignant, but at a sign 
 from his mistress disappeared. 
 
 The Hon. Tom Burton was now in his element. 
 He had already distributed glasses all around, and / 
 was engaged in filling them with the foaming liquor. I 
 " ' Yeuve Clicquot, etiquette jaune,' as I'm a living 
 sinner ! The only champagne fit for a gentleman to 
 drink." All this to himself. " Now," he continued, 
 addressing the whole party, " here's to the health of the 
 Hon. Geoffrey Moultrie, Member of Congress elect 
 from the city of New York. May he live a thousand 
 years, and may we all be at his funeral !" 
 
 u What a horrid man !" said Lai to Theodora, after 
 the toast had been drunk and the congratulations re- 
 newed. " I do not like him at all." 
 
 " A little effusive, my dear, but yet very sincere, I 
 think, and quite funny sometimes." 
 
 " A final telegram," said Moultrie, at the end of a 
 
132 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 few words of thanks, and as the missive was handed to 
 him. " I suppose this will give us the total result. 
 Yes, here it is : 
 
 " ' All the precincts in. Moultrie, 10,115 ; O'Leary, 
 5610 ; Jackson, 4002. Three cheers for Moultrie ! 
 Good-night.'" 
 
 " So your plurality over O'Leary is 4505," said Bur- 
 ton, who, with paper and pencil, had already made the 
 calculation, " and your majority over both him and 
 Jackson 503. If it had not been for my Italians, it would 
 only have been 200. Come, gentlemen, ' ' to the Judge 
 and Mr. Braden, " won't you accompany me to the Fifth 
 Avenue Hotel, where we shall learn something from 
 the rest of the country ? The whole political interest of 
 the campaign is not concentrated in this room." 
 
 He stayed a few minutes longer, mainly apparently 
 for the purpose of finishing the second bottle of ( ' Veuve 
 Clicquot, etiquette jaune," and then he and the other 
 two gentlemen took their departure. 
 
 Moultrie followed them out into the hall. " I owe a 
 good deal to you, Burton," he said, shaking his hand 
 again. " You're the best political manager I ever saw, 
 though I think that perhaps you went a little too far 
 with the Italians." 
 
 " Perhaps so," said the other, looking very much 
 pleased at the expression of Moultrie' s opinion ; " but 
 you can make it all right by giving them a reception at 
 Fiescoli's, and asking them to bring their wives and 
 children. As to my services, I am delighted to hear you 
 say what you do. Now," he added, in a lower tone, 
 " if you have any influence with the Administration 
 and doubtless you will be high in favor there and you 
 think I'm fit for it, get me the consulship to Barcelona. 
 
AN ELECTION AND ITS RESULT. 133 
 
 I'm interested in Spanish art and history, and, by 
 George ! I want an office of some kind. I think the 
 desire for office was born in me, and I've been out in the 
 cold now a long time.' ' 
 
 " I'm quite sure of your competency, but I am afraid 
 you overestimate my influence. Certainly, however, I 
 will do what I can, and with great pleasure." 
 
 " I speak Spanish as well as I do English, " continued 
 Burton. " How many consuls, or even ministers, can 
 speak the language of the country they go to ? Not one 
 in a hundred." 
 
 " That is true," relied Moultrie, laughing. " Many 
 of them can't even speak their own language prop- 
 erly." 
 
 Hardly had Moultrie returned to the library, after 
 seeing the gentlemen out of the house, than another tele- 
 gram was brought to him. He looked at it, and then 
 handed it to Lai. " This is for you, my dear," he said. 
 " It is probably from Tyscovus." 
 
 She took it, and with hands that trembled a little 
 opened the envelope. A gleam of pleasure at once ap- 
 peared on her face, and deepened as she read. 
 
 "Oh, father," she exclaimed, "he is coming! He 
 will be here in less than three weeks, and he is elected." 
 
 " Read it aloud, Lai, dear." 
 
 " It is very short, only a few words : 
 
 u ' HELLBENDER, COLORADO, ) 
 November 5, 1874. ) 
 
 " i To Miss LALAGE MOULTRIE, No. FIFTH AVENUE, 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 " ' Returns not all in, but enough received to make it 
 certain that I am elected delegate by over 1500 majority. 
 
134 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Will be in New York on or before the 25tli inst. Write 
 to me at Planter's House, St. Louis. 
 
 " ' JOHN TYSCOVUS.' " 
 
 " We are in luck to-night," said Theodora. " Every- 
 thing seems to go well with us. This only was want- 
 ing to make our happiness complete." 
 
 " He will make his mark in Congress, my dear, even 
 though he has only the right to speak, without that of 
 voting," said Moultrie to Lalage, who stood by his side, 
 with her hands resting on his arm. " Indeed, his whole 
 career in this country has been somewhat remarkable." 
 
 " And before he came here it was still more so. 1 did 
 not know it all when I left him on the butte, or I really 
 think I could not have come away. But he wrote me a 
 long letter once oh, a very long letter ! many sheets 
 of paper and he told me his whole life." 
 
 " He has exhibited the most wonderful perseverance 
 and courage, and suffered greatly. Now, however, my 
 dear child, he has, so far as we can perceive, only hap- 
 piness to look forward to. But I see you want to think 
 over your telegram and its possibilities," he added, 
 smiling, " so good-night, dear, and don't sit up so late 
 as to spoil your eyes." 
 
 She smiled sweetly as she kissed them both good-night. 
 " I am very happy to-night/' she said " oh, yes, very 
 happy !" 
 
 She went to her own room, and began her prepara- 
 tions for going to bed. First she sent her maid away, 
 for this was a night on which she wished to be alone. 
 She stood in front of the mirror of her dressing-table, 
 arranging her hair for the night. Perhaps she did not 
 see what everybody else perceived, that she was wonder- 
 

 AN ELECTION AND ITS RESULT. 135 
 
 fully beautiful. She was not heavenly or angelic, or in 
 any way supernatural, as are some of the women one 
 hears described. She was only a human woman, but one 
 of the loveliest specimens of the creation that ever walked 
 the earth. Yes, she must have known that she was 
 beautiful, for as her arms were raised above her head, 
 and her hair fell in its raven-hued masses over her neck 
 and shoulders, far below her waist, she smiled and whis- 
 pered softly to herself, " I think he will love me more 
 than ever now. 1 think he will like to see me." She 
 finished what she had to do, and then putting on a 
 wrapper of some soft material, and with her feet encased 
 in little velvet slippers, she sat down by a square table 
 in the centre of the room, on which stood a carcel-lamp. 
 Then she opened, by touching a spring, a little antique 
 iron cabinet that was on the table, and took from it a 
 small book bound in vellum. The cover was very elab- 
 orately gilt in a diamond-shaped pattern, the interstices 
 being occupied by fleurs-de-lis in gold. She opened 
 the book, and read on the fly-leaf : "To Lai, from her 
 friend John Tyseovus. The Butte, September 13th, 
 1872." Yes, that was when she had begun to love him. 
 Her thoughts went back to that day. She saw herself 
 on the floor at his feet, her arms clasped around his knees 
 in an agony of mingled grief and joy. She saw the lov- 
 ing look in his eyes as he raised her from the floor ; she 
 recalled the strange, new feeling of rapture and bliss, 
 tinged with fear, that had swept through her like a tem- 
 pest, and that had impelled her to run away from him 
 before he could say a word more. It was very dear to 
 her, this little vellum-bound book, for it marked the 
 boundary-line between her two lives. It was the em- 
 blem of her renaissance y it had been his. She pressed 
 
136 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 it to her lips, then to her heart, and held it there as 
 though it were the form of him she loved. For she was 
 a woman almost as nature had made her, with all her 
 fresh young feelings springing up in her breast, un- 
 curbed by any prudish ideas that it was wrong to exhibit 
 emotion, even to herself, in the privacy of her own 
 chamber. 
 
 " Oh, how 1 love him !" she said, as she still held the 
 book close to her heart. She seemed to lose herself in 
 the memories of the past, for she began to speak in the 
 low, soft, melodious voice that captivated every ear that 
 ever heard it, and in that rude dialect that, when she 
 was greatly moved, asserted its power. 
 
 " And then that night that awful night, as I run up 
 the butte to git away from them men as I thought was 
 after me. I was awful skeered, and I wasn't quite sure 
 as he'd keer to see me agin. I knowed some one was 
 after me, for I heard the stones rollin' down the butte. 
 I thought as how I mought git in the other room and 
 stay thar till mornin', and then go away and he never 
 know as I'd bin thar at all. I run jist about as hard as 
 I could, and that warn't fast, for I was clean near broke 
 down. I guess ef I'd had another ten yards to go, I'd 
 a' giv out ; but I got to the top, and thar he stood right 
 afore me, with his dear arms ready for me. Oh, yes, for 
 me ! And I heerd him say, ' Lai, my darlin' ! ' and 
 then I knowed I was safe, and that he keered for me 
 more'n any one else in all the world. 
 
 " And now he's comin'. Oh, my love! my love ! 
 Onst agin you'll call me ' Lai,' and I'll see you and talk 
 to you, and and oh, yes ! and kiss you, jist as I did 
 that last time when I come away, and left you all alone 
 on the butte, and me with my heart 'most broke." 
 
AN ELECTION AND ITS RESULT. 137 
 
 She had not seen him since that parting, over two 
 years ago. It had been arranged that he should visit her 
 twice' a year ; but when the first six months had expired 
 an extra session of the Legislature of which he was a 
 member had been called on account of Indian disturb- 
 ances, and was to meet in a few days. The session had 
 lasted over a month, and then had come the Navajo war, 
 in which he had taken an active part, and then the nomi- 
 nation as delegate to Congress, and the necessity of re- 
 maining in Colorado to look after interests that were of 
 vital importance. So all visits had been omitted, and 
 his final appearance to claim his bride had been delayed 
 a month ; but at last he was coming ! 
 
 Every night since she had left him she had, as she had 
 promised him she would, read a little from the book he 
 had given her, and which she now held in her hand. 
 She remembered with what difficulty she had been able 
 to make out the meaning of many of the words when 
 she had first attempted its perusal. It was nearly three 
 hundred years old, and printed in type that was strange 
 to her inexperienced eyes ; but she had persevered, and 
 even then she had managed to read and understand the 
 words of wisdom with which the little book abounded. 
 Now she knew it by heart. There was not a page that 
 was not familiar to her ; but every time she brought the 
 words before her eyes she discovered some thought that 
 had never before been revealed to her. 
 
 She opened the book and began to read ; but although 
 it was easy enough for her now for she had read almost 
 every spare moment of her time since she had left Colo- 
 rado the thoughts excited by the knowledge that within 
 twenty days at farthest she would see the man she loved, 
 caused her mind to wander somewhat from the subject 
 
138 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 before her. Nevertheless, she persevered bravely, and 
 had stopped to think of what she had just read, when a 
 light knock at the door disturbed her. She rose and 
 opened it, and admitted Theodora. 
 
 " I left your father in the library," she said, " and I 
 thought I would come and talk with you a few minutes. 
 He has a great many letters to write, and some other 
 business to do that will keep him up late." 
 
 " You shall have the nicest chair in the room," said 
 Lai, pushing up one in front of the fire that was a mass 
 of soft, yielding upholstery, and into which Theodora 
 sank with an air of fatigue. " Now, put your feet on 
 the fender and warm them well. That is what I do 
 every night before I go to bed." She replaced her 
 book in the iron cabinet, and drew up her own chair in 
 front of the fire. 
 
 " Oh, Lai !" said Theodora, after sitting a few mo- 
 ments in silence, " I am afraid I have done something 
 very wrong, and that I am going to be very unhappy." 
 
 Lai looked at her mother in. utter astonishment. She 
 could say nothing, for she had no idea upon which to 
 base a word in the nature of a reply. She could only 
 stare fixedly, waiting in eager expectancy for some ex- 
 planation. 
 
 " I ought to have been content with the world of 
 happiness that I had here in my own household, where 
 every wish of my heart is law, where I am beloved, and 
 where I love ; but I was not satisfied ; my mind has been 
 trained in ways that caused me to feel that there was a 
 wider domain at my feet than that of my own home, 
 and one in which I could not only gain distinction, but 
 benefit mankind. Perhaps in time this would have 
 worn out, for we are so much the creatures of habit, and 
 
AN ELECTION AND ITS RESULT. 139 
 
 I tried my utmost to crush the desires that had gotten 
 possession of me ; but in an evil hour they were revived 
 tenfold by an offer of a professorship of physiology in a 
 medical college for women. I would not have taken this 
 place if your father had advised me not to do so, but he 
 saw what my wishes were, and he is so kind and gener- 
 ous, and he loves me so much, that he would interpose 
 no objection." 
 
 " But he was willing for you to take it, was he not ?" 
 
 " Yes, he was willing." 
 
 " Then that is enough, I think." 
 
 " No, my dear, I think not. Perhaps you do not un- 
 derstand. He was willing for me to accept, but it 
 was only because he thought I would be unhappy if he 
 showed the least lack of approval. He sacrificed his own 
 wishes in order that mine might be gratified." 
 
 "Ah, that is like him !" 
 
 " Yes, it is like him." 
 
 "I suppose," said Lai, with great earnestness, "if 
 you were to go to him now, without waiting one mo- 
 ment, and tell him that you had thought it all over, and 
 that you had found out that you would be happier at 
 home than in lecturing in a medical college, and that 
 you would rather give your mind as well as your heart 
 to him, and," she added, rising from her chair and put- 
 ting her arms around Theodora's neck, " to me, he 
 would be very glad, would he not ?" 
 
 " Yes, dear, 1 am sure he would be very glad." 
 
 " Then go ! I will go with you we will go together. 
 He loves us better than he does all the rest of the world. " 
 
 " But I have accepted the professorship, and I have 
 an answer acknowledging the receipt of my letter, and 
 stating that the lectures will begin week after next." 
 
140 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Can you not, dear, take back your letter ?" 
 
 "No, I think not." 
 
 " But you can give up this place. What do you care 
 for teaching medicine to women when you have father 
 and me to look after ? Besides, if you are busy in a 
 medical college you cannot go to Washington with him 
 this winter." 
 
 " That is true, and he wants me to go with him. He 
 has laid all his plans for himself and me. He looks for- 
 ward with delight to seeing me at the head of his house, 
 and he will be awfully disappointed if I do not go." 
 
 " Give it up, dear oh, give it up !" cried Lai. 
 
 " It will make me ridiculous if I do. People will say 
 I do not know my own mind." 
 
 "Let them say what they please! You will have 
 him. Better be ridiculous than make him and yourself 
 miserable." 
 
 " Yes, yes!" cried Theodora, bursting into tears. 
 " I know that oh, 1 know it well! But then I have 
 been brought up in such a way that these things have a 
 hold on me that I cannot shake off. Till 1 met your 
 father I thought 1 should never marry, but that I should 
 give my whole life to science ; and then he came, and I 
 loved him, and for a time I thought I loved him more 
 than I did my books and my studies. I was honest in 
 that, God knows I was ! But I now see that 1 cannot 
 shake off the old love, do what I may. There is a con- 
 stant spirit of unrest in me that I cannot resist. I have 
 tasted of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and I must 
 go on eating it all my life." 
 
 " I do not think I understand," said Lai, very slowly, 
 and as though speaking to herself. u You do not mean 
 to say that you love all these things about such matters 
 
AN ELECTION AND ITS KESULT. 141 
 
 as electricity and dead animals better than you do my 
 father and your husband ?" 
 
 " I don't know. I love him with all my heart ; but, 
 God help me !" she added, bitterly, " I am afraid the 
 heart is all crushed out of me. I ought to be willing to 
 go to him, as you say, and tell him that my world is in 
 him, but 1 cannot do it." 
 
 " I am very sorry, " said Lai. ' ' 1 have many thoughts 
 in my mind that 1 cannot speak, for, you see, I do not / 
 know enough yet to say what 1 feel. But if I was / 
 John's wife I should think that I could not be anything I 
 else, for everything that took me away from him woulcH 
 make me just that much less his wife. I should think 
 every day of all that he had done for me, and I should 
 feel that, if I was to live thousands of years, I could 
 never pay him back. It is not much that women can 
 do for men but love them, and I do not see how teach- 
 ing all these things in a college is going to make father 
 any happier, except it is just because he thinks you like 
 it. But after a while he will get tired of that. Here 
 in my book the one that John gave me I read that 
 men are different from women in that one thing that 
 unless women try to keep their love they lose it. A 
 woman has to be always trying to keep the man loving 
 her. That is what I read. If father was to stop loving 
 you it would be very bad, would it not V ' 
 
 " If he was to cease loving me I should not care to 
 live." 
 
 " Well, that is what it will come to. There is noth- 
 ing in that book that is not true. Not one single word," 
 she added, with a strong emphasis on each syllable. " I 
 think I will read you just two or three lines, and then 
 you will see. There is great danger oh, yes, very 
 
142 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 great danger ! But this will show you, and then you 
 will know what to do. ' ' 
 
 She opened the cabinet, and taking out the book, soon 
 found what she wanted, and read as follows : 
 
 " c Let me tell you, my dear child, now that you are 
 about to marry the man you love, that however much 
 he may be worthy of your affection, and however much 
 he may adore you, that man is by nature inconstant, and 
 that Stephen does not differ from others of his sex in 
 that respect, whatever he may say to you. It is neces- 
 sary that you should always be on the alert, ever watch- 
 ful in order to keep his love for you as fresh and as in- 
 tense as it now is. If, therefore, in the years to come 
 you should fail to exhibit toward him the same tender- 
 ness and concentrated devotion that you feel to-day, 
 there will be danger that the warm love that now fills his 
 heart may, little by little, grow cold. ' ' 
 
 " Lai, my darling, you have taught me something to- 
 night," exclaimed Theodora " something for me to 
 think over ! Every word of that is true, and I, a phys- 
 iologist, as I have called myself, have never known it 
 till now!" 
 
 " Let the single women and the widows give the lect- 
 ures," laughed Lai, in triumph over her victory, "if 
 women must lecture ; but for us who are married, or 
 going to be very soon, there are better things, and the 
 best of them is keeping the love of our husbands. Oh,. 
 I was sure the book would set you right !" 
 
 " Good-night, dear. You are Geoffrey's child, and 
 you are my friend. Kiss me," embracing her as she 
 spoke. " Now go to bed, for I have kept you up much 
 later than is usual for you." 
 
 Oh, I have to write to John yet, and then 1 must 
 
 c< 
 
AN ELECTION AND ITS KESULT. 143 
 
 copy a page out of my book ! I am copying it all, so 
 that he will see how much 1 think of it. See ! 1 am 
 now at the three hundred and tenth page, and there are 
 only nine more left. It will all be done by the time he 
 gets here. It is a great book ; it saved me, and now 1 
 think it will save you." 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THEODORA DECIDES. 
 
 ALTHOUGH Rachel Meadows thought it due to her dig- 
 nity and her peace of mind to resign from the executive 
 committee of the " United Women of America," she 
 could not, upon reflection, find that she was yet prepared 
 to altogether abandon the movement in favor of the ad- 
 vancement of women. She had taken great interest in 
 the organization of various schemes tending to extend the 
 field of labor for her sex. There was a woman's art- 
 school, where girls were taught needlework, painting on 
 canvas, porcelain, etc., wood-carving and designing pat- 
 terns for carpets and other textile fabrics. There was a 
 commercial college for women, where the pupils were in- 
 doctrinated into the mysteries of bookkeeping, and thus 
 qualified for positions as clerks in mercantile and other 
 establishments ; and then last, but by no means least in 
 her estimation, was the " Martha Washington Medical 
 College for Women." 
 
 This institution had been founded with a great flourish 
 of trumpets by a meeting in Chickering Hall, with a 
 bishop and fifty or more persons on the platform, among 
 them being clergymen, physicians, lawyers, capitalists, 
 and a very few professional agitators. Nobody except 
 a dozen or so narrow-minded doctors had made any active 
 opposition to the movement. Chief among them was a 
 certain Dr. McPheeters, a little, sour-visaged, and still 
 
THEODORA DECIDES. 145 
 
 more sour-souled individual, of whom a prominent and 
 witty member of the profession had said that he never 
 met him without involuntarily writing a prescription for 
 twenty drops of essence of peppermint on a lump of 
 sugar. This shining light had never contributed an idea, 
 or even a surgical instrument, to the science of medicine, 
 but his opinion, from the oracular manner in which it 
 was delivered, his confident reference to the u dignity of 
 the profession," and the assurance that Hippocrates, if 
 alive, " would hang his honored head in very shame," 
 went for something with certain of his medical brethren. 
 Dr. McPheeters headed a little band, who resolved that 
 they would not countenance the entrance of women into 
 the ranks of the profession. They declared that not only 
 would they not consult with them, but that they would 
 not consult with any other physician who recognized 
 them. This, the fulmen Jovi of the stagnant medical 
 man, had been hurled, but it did not seem to have had 
 much effect, for not only were there several prominent 
 physicians on the platform at the meeting, but there 
 were many more equally as noted in the body of the 
 audience. All these were men that had made their mark 
 on the science, and whose names were well known 
 wherever medical books were read. Any one of them 
 had done more toward the advancement of medicine or 
 surgery than Dr. McPheeters and all his coadjutors put 
 together, and as a consequence each was correspondingly 
 hated by the " stagnants." For it is a lamentable fact 
 that there is in the medical profession a small class of 
 do-nothings, or at best men who do nothing but routine 
 work that has become automatic with them, and who 
 force down to the utmost of their power those that show 
 the slightest spark of originality in their composition. 
 7 
 
146 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 The physician that does not believe with them on any 
 question of medical science is conceived to be a humbug, 
 or even a fraud. " The man,' ' said McPheeters, at the 
 Minerva Club, " who holds the opinion that women 
 should be allowed to practise medicine must necessarily 
 be a fool, and is probably a knave. I would not consult 
 with such a man ; 1 would have no confidence in the 
 correctness, or even the honesty, of any opinion he might 
 give." However, the meeting took place, the medical 
 college was organized, and was soon afterward, with an 
 ample endowment and well equipped in the matters of 
 laboratories, museum, and all needful appliances for 
 medical teaching, in the full tide of a successful experi- 
 ment. For this result Rachel Meadows was in a great 
 measure responsible. She had managed to interest many 
 persons eminent in the several walks of life and possessed 
 of ample means in the welfare of the college, and had 
 not only obtained their influence, but what was of equal, 
 if not of more importance, their pecuniary contributions. 
 Rachel was the daughter of Commodore Meadows, of 
 the United States Navy, who, after having served faith- 
 fully, was retired from active service on arriving at the 
 age of sixty-two, and had soon afterward died in disgust 
 and chagrin so his friends declared at being laid on the 
 shelf like a useless piece of apparatus, when he felt he 
 was just as good as ever. He had left beside his widow 
 only one child, Rachel. He had not seen much of her, 
 for the greater part of his forty-six years of service had 
 been passed at sea. No sooner would he return from 
 one cruise than he was ordered on another, and thus he 
 had only been with his family at intervals of three or 
 four years, and only for a few weeks at a time, till a year 
 before his death. Perhaps matters in this respect would 
 
THEODORA DECIDES. 147 
 
 have been different had there been a little more con- 
 geniality between the Commodore and his wife. But he 
 was a natural born tyrant, whose innate tendencies had 
 been fostered by his education. His house was his 
 quarter-deck, and everybody in it was, he conceived, as 
 much under his command as were the sailors who manned 
 his ships. He always addressed his wife as " Madam," 
 and any difference of opinion with him was either insub- 
 ordination or mutiny, to be punished with the utmost 
 rigor of naval law, if only the laws of the State of New 
 York had permitted. Upon one occasion he had locked 
 his wife in a dark closet, and had kept her for twenty- 
 four hours on bread and water. This little exercise of 
 marital authority had nearly cost the Captain, as he was 
 then, his commission ; for Mrs. Meadows, who was by 
 no means a patient Griselda, and who could generally 
 manage to hold her own with him in any wordy conflicts 
 that might be going on, had complained to the Secretary 
 of the Navy, and this official had gone so far as the pre- 
 ferment of the charge of " conduct unbecoming an officer 
 arid a gentleman," with six distinct specifications, alleg- 
 ing water- thro wing up through pinching to imprison- 
 ment. But Mrs. Meadows had gone to Washington, and 
 had begged so effectually with the authorities for his for- 
 giveness, and had declared that she would not testify 
 against her husband before any court-martial that might 
 be ordered, that they had made a virtue of necessity, and 
 had ordered him to sea. 
 
 Kachel was at that time about fifteen years of age, and 
 had no more idea that woman was being oppressed by 
 the male portion of humanity than such as she obtained 
 from observing her father's conduct to her mother. She 
 knew very little of men outside of the family circle, but 
 
148 A STEOISTG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 that little rather inclined her to view them with feelings 
 of fear and contempt. And it must be said that Mrs. 
 Meadows, by her example and precept, encouraged this 
 conception, so far, at least, as concerned those men who 
 " went down to the sea in ships" belonging to the naval 
 establishment of the United States. From her intimate 
 acquaintance with Lieutenant, Lieutenant-Commander, 
 Commander, Captain, and Commodore Meadows, sho 
 had, after the manner of some of her sex, jumped at the 
 conclusion that all naval officers were brutes. " There 
 isn't one of them," she had said to Rachel, " who 
 wouldn't hit you on the head with a marlin-spike if he 
 dared." 
 
 " What is a marlin-spike, mamma?" Rachel had in- 
 quired. 
 
 "It's a rolling-pin, my dear, that the cook uses to 
 make his beastly duff with on board ship. ' 
 
 " And what is duff, mamma ?" 
 
 " Duff is a vile compound, made of flour and water 
 and lard, that they feed out to the sailors on Sundays. 
 Now, don't please ask rne any more questions about 
 those nasty ship-things. 
 
 "Promise me one thing, Rachel," said her mother 
 one day, after she and the Commodore had had a rather 
 severer tussle with the English language than usual, 
 i i that you will never marry a naval officer. !N ot even 
 after I'm dead." 
 
 " Oh, there is not any danger of that, mamma, for I 
 don't know any, and they are not likely to come to the 
 house !" 
 
 But soon after that, when she was scarcely eighteen, 
 one did come to the house, and not only once, but several 
 times. Rachel learned very soon, after making the ac- 
 
THEODORA DECIDES. 149 
 
 quaintance of Ensign Middleton, that all naval officers 
 were not like her father. She did not exactly love him, 
 but she liked him very much, and she would probably 
 have married him on his return from the cruise on which 
 he went only shortly after she got to know him, had he 
 not been killed under Farragut at the battle of Mobile 
 Bay. 
 
 Then Rachel took to hard study, and from hearing a 
 series of lectures by Miss Richardson, and by reading an 
 essay of John Stuart Mill's on the " Emancipation of 
 Woman," she gradually, very much to the disgust of her 
 father, and somewhat to that of her mother also, imbibed 
 ideas of woman's duties, responsibilities, and rights, 
 which, as the Commodore said, made his hair stand on 
 end. u It's the most demoralizing exhibition the world 
 has ever seen," he said one evening, after he and Rachel 
 had been discussing several of the possibilities of the 
 future of the sex " doctors, lawyers, clergymen, or 
 t clergy women,' I suppose you'll call them, postmis- 
 tresses, and the Lord only knows how many other things. 
 After a while I suppose they'll be taking to ths navy 
 and wanting to command steam frigates ! The Lord be 
 with them ! when that time comes P d steer devilish 
 clear of them, I know, unless I wanted to go to the bot- 
 tom. And to think a daughter of mine should be aiding 
 and abetting by her example all these turnings of the 
 world upside down ! Running with a lot of short-haired 
 women, getting all sorts of notions stuck in her head 
 about the i tyranny of man,' and, the ' equality of the 
 sexes,' and other damned nonsense. This is your 
 work, madam," turning to his wife, who was engaged 
 with a game of solitaire. " I left my daughter with 
 you to educate and bring up with ideas befitting the 
 
150 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 daughter of an officer and a gentleman. Yes, madam, 
 a gentleman, although yon did do your best to have me 
 tried on the charge that I wasn't, and this is what you've 
 made of her. She'll be wanting trousers next. Isow, 
 you listen to me !" again addressing poor Rachel, who 
 had done nothing but ask his permission to study Latin 
 and Greek ; " I'll have no Latin and Greek learned by 
 any daughter of mine ; and if you don't stop going with 
 that Richardson old maid, and others of that kind, and 
 get your mind on some useful things that women ought 
 to know and that they don't, I'll not leave you one 
 cent, and you can get your living by lecturing, if you 
 want to." 
 
 Mrs. Meadows only looked up for a moment while 
 this tirade was being delivered, and had then gone on 
 with her game. Tears had come into Rachel's eyes, but 
 she wiped them away, and a stern spirit of determination 
 took possession of her. The next day she began the 
 study of elocution from a lady who .had once been an 
 accomplished actress. Then she worked harder than 
 ever to master all the phases of the woman question, and 
 finally she undertook to learn astronomy and to learn it 
 as thoroughly as was possible, with the view of making 
 her living by teaching it and delivering popular lectures 
 upon some of its wonders. She had gone to Professor 
 Symonds, who had a well-furnished observatory, and she 
 had become his pupil. Five years of unremitting labor 
 had made her an accomplished astronomer, so that the 
 old professor, her teacher, boasted of her as the best 
 pupil lie had ever had. About that time her father 
 died. He had been as good as his word, and had left 
 his entire estate to his wife. 
 
 Although Mrs. Meadows was perfectly willing to be 
 
THEODORA DECIDES. 151 
 
 at the expense of Rachel's maintenance, the girl would 
 hear of nothing of the kind. She declared that she was 
 perfectly able to support herself, and that she intended 
 to do so. She at once announced in a neighboring city 
 a course of lectures on astronomy, in which the great 
 members of the solar system, as well as the laws that 
 govern their motions, were to be described in accordance 
 with the principles of the highest science. These were 
 delivered, and being well illustrated with apparatus, 
 diagrams, and stereopticon pictures, proved remarkably 
 successful. Indeed, her lecture on the Sun received 
 complimentary notices from several eminent astrono- 
 mers, both in this country and in Europe. Then she 
 travelled throughout the United States and Canada, at- 
 tended only by her maid, and preceded by her man of 
 business, received everywhere with respect, and making a 
 solid reputation and an ample pecuniary profit. The 
 year previous to her introduction to the reader she had 
 been induced to prepare a couple of lectures on the 
 woman question, and to start out on a crusade for the 
 purpose of influencing public opinion in favor of the de- 
 mands that a few progressive members of the sex were 
 advancing. This campaign, however, had not resulted 
 so well as the other. She found her own sex indifferent 
 to the subject of their rights, and this fact interfered 
 very materially with the size of her audiences. It was 
 at one of these lectures that the Hon. Tom Burton had 
 first met her. 
 
 Rachel's efforts to get her own living in a respectable 
 way had, as is usual in similar cases, been accompanied by 
 slights from many of her fashionable friends. The idea 
 that one of their set should descend to anything partak- 
 ing of the character of work was an insult to their par- / 
 
152 A STKONG-MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 venu souls that was not to be forgiven. Her position, 
 so far as the age and respectability of her family were 
 concerned, was not excelled by that of any other person 
 in the city of New York. Her father was a direct de- 
 scendant of that Baron Maedu who, in conjunction with 
 others of his peers, had brought King John of England 
 to terms, and her mother was a Pelham. Yet Miss Sorby, 
 whose grandfather had driven a custom-house cart, and 
 whose grandmother had kept an apple-stand in the 
 Bowery, turned up her aristocratic little nose or rather 
 added to the inclination toward the stars that Nature had 
 given it whenever Rachel's name was mentioned in her 
 presence. And Miss Boggs, whose own father had begun 
 life as the deck-hand of a ferry-boat, looked out of her 
 carriage, with its armorial bearings, and gazed at her 
 former acquaintance with a stony stare that would have 
 done honor to Stoozjunkare. 
 
 Rachel, however, cared little for the slights of such 
 people. She was entirely capable of holding her own 
 in the great battle of life, and to give blows as well as 
 to receive them. She therefore went about her work 
 with that assiduity and independence of character which 
 could not but attract the attention of many worthy and 
 influential people. She was not very extravagant in her 
 demands for the recognition of her sex, and on several 
 points she had been convinced against her will, or rather 
 had imagined herself convinced, till she had had time to 
 reflect fully on the subjects, and then doubts had arisen 
 that, like Banquo's ghost, would not go down. And 
 though she had acted with the " United Women of 
 America," she had done so not because her heart was in 
 the work, but because the hearts of several of her best 
 friends were in it, and she did not care to desert them. 
 
THEODORA DECIDES. 153 
 
 But her heart was in all that concerned the education 
 of women in contradistinction to those points that were 
 related to their so-called political rights. She thought 
 that woman should be allowed to do anything in the way 
 of getting her livelihood, or of mental improvement, that 
 she chose to do, though she recognized the fact that some 
 occupations and some studies were better suited to her 
 than others. But this was, she contended, a matter of 
 which woman alone should be the judge. If she under- 
 took work for which she was not qualified, the world 
 would very soon find it out. She had the right to make 
 the trial unrestrained by legal or social restrictions. If 
 she failed, so much the worse for her ; if she succeeded, 
 fresh fields for labor were opened to her, and she and 
 society would in the end be the gainers. 
 
 It was with such feelings that she had undertaken the 
 work of organizing the " Martha Washington Medical 
 College for Women." She had succeeded in getting 
 together a fairly good faculty, in which men and women 
 were in about equal proportions. The professorship 
 of physiology had, however, been very unsatisfactorily 
 filled, and she had for several months been on the look- 
 out for somebody who could perform the duties of the 
 chair with more credit and usefulness than the existing 
 incumbent, who was only holding on till a successor 
 should be found. Then Rachel had read an account in 
 the Journal of Physiological Science of Theodora's ex- 
 periments in evolution and in regard to the velocity of 
 the nerve-force. Inquiry had resulted in the discovery 
 of the fact that the author was now the wife of Mr. 
 Geoffrey Moultrie, the wealthy and distinguished gentle- 
 man who had done more than any other man in the 
 country to subjugate the forces of nature and to over- 
 
154 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 come the physical obstacles that impede the advance of 
 civilization. She knew that Mrs. Moultrie was one of 
 the most fashionable women of the city of New York, 
 and for a while she despaired of obtaining her aid tow- 
 ard the furtherance of medical instruction for women. 
 Moreover, she came to the conclusion that since her mar- 
 riage Mrs. Moultrie had given up all scientific studies, 
 and that, therefore, her heart could not have been very 
 deeply in her work. At first she thought she would 
 ascertain for herself by a personal interview just how 
 matters stood, and then her natural timidity for, not- 
 withstanding the fact that she could face an audience 
 from the rostrum, she never did so without fear and 
 trembling stood in the way, and she resolved that it 
 would be better to bring the subject before the board of 
 trustees, and to appoint Mrs. Moultrie to the chair with- 
 out further ceremony. There could not possibly be any 
 grounds for offence by such a procedure, and the reci- 
 pient of the honor would decide for herself, uninfluenced 
 by extraneous solicitations. 
 
 The letter announcing Theodora's election had been 
 sent on the afternoon of the day on which the committee 
 of the " United Women of America" had presented 
 themselves at Moultrie's meeting, and at which Rachel 
 had advocated the claims of her sex to political advance- 
 ment. The views expressed by Moultrie had quite 
 effectually dissipated any idea she may have had that his 
 wife would accept the appointment tendered her. Al- 
 though he had said nothing definite, she was irresistibly 
 led to the conclusion, by what he did not say, that he was 
 opposed to the entrance of women into any domain hith- 
 erto regarded as exclusively appertaining to the male sex. 
 It was with great surprise and delight, therefore, that 
 
THEODORA DECIDES. 155 
 
 she had received, on the morning of the election, Theo- 
 dora's answer of acceptance, with a request for an early 
 interview. She would have called at once had not mat- 
 ters of immediate importance engaged her attention. 
 These, connected as they were with her retirement from 
 the executive committee of the " United Women of 
 America," kept her busy all that day, and it was there- 
 fore not until the following afternoon that she was able 
 to visit Theodora at her residence. 
 
 Theodora had thought very seriously of the whole sub- 
 ject since her conversation with Lai of the night before. 
 She had, when they parted, nearly made up her mind to 
 recall her letter of acceptance, even if such an act should 
 lay her open to the charge of instability. It seemed to 
 her, then, that the happiness of herself and her husband 
 hung in the balance, and that persistence in her under- 
 taking would tilt the beam on the wrong side. But 
 when she awoke in the morning she found the reasons 
 for acceptance as strong in her mind as they had ever 
 been, and those against it greatly weakened in force and 
 vividness. She watched Moultrie with all the keenness 
 that women situated as was she bring to bear on their 
 perceptive faculties, and she could see no signs of dis- 
 content with the choice she had made. Indeed, he sev- 
 eral times alluded to the subject, extolling her flow of 
 language, her knowledge of the subject she was to teach 
 a knowledge that was not, as he said, obtained altogether 
 from books, but which had been acquired by her own 
 observations and experiments, and predicting for her a 
 success such as no woman had ever yet obtained in the 
 domain of physiology. 
 
 He bade her remember how on the revival of letters 
 and of learning women had taken a position among the 
 
156 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 very foremost ; how they had taught theology, and had 
 brought converts by the thousand into the bosom of the 
 Church ; how they had indulged in controversies with 
 learned doctors of the opposite sex, whom they had often 
 put to confusion ; how they had publicly supported theses 
 on doctrinal subjects ; how they had filled chairs of phi- 
 losophy, law, and medicine in great universities ; how 
 they had talked in Latin before the popes, and written 
 excellent verses in good Greek. 
 
 " I should not be at all surprised, my dear Theodora," 
 he had said to her, from the depths of his dressing-room, 
 "if you become in medical teaching what the young 
 JBolognese young lady was in law. Perhaps you are 
 familiar with the instance. It is very fresh in my own 
 mind, because I only learned of it yesterday. I am 
 studying up in all matters relating to women, for I may 
 be called upon to make a speech in Congress on the sub- 
 ject, and a display of learning has an immense effect in 
 that body. "Well, this young woman' ' here there was a 
 spluttering and a splashing of water, as though he were 
 being drowned, and it was several seconds before he re- 
 covered his breath sufficiently to go on. " As I was say- 
 ing," he at length resumed, "this young woman, who 
 appears to have flourished during the thirteenth century, 
 devoted herself to the study of the Latin language and 
 of the laws. At the age of twenty-three she pronounced 
 a funeral oration rather a bad beginning, I think in 
 Latin in the Cathedral of Bologna, that was regarded as 
 the most astonishing piece of oratory of the time. At 
 the age of twenty-six she took the degree of Doctor of 
 Laws, and began publicly to expound the Institutes of 
 Justinian, and at thirty her great reputation caused her 
 to be appointed to a professorship, and she taught law to 
 
THEODORA DECIDES. 157 
 
 large classes of students from all parts of the civilized 
 world. She joined the charms and accomplishments of a 
 woman to all the knowledge of a man. But such, adds 
 the chronicler, was the power of her eloquence, that her 
 beauty was only admired when her tongue was silent. I 
 am sorry to say," he added, after another series of splash - 
 ings, " that her name is not given." 
 
 She was astounded. Was he laughing at her ? For a 
 moment she felt inclined to be a little indignant, but 
 then she reflected that he saw the humorous side of many 
 subjects that he regarded seriously, and that a bantering 
 tone was with him no indication of a lack of grave ap- 
 preciation. 
 
 " The instance is an unfortunate one, I am afraid," 
 she said, laughing. " If such good looks as I have are 
 only to be noticed when I am not lecturing, please, sir, 
 keep away from me when I am at the college. And as 
 to her name : if she had been a man the whole world 
 would, even at this day, have known it. Unfortunately, 
 all the printing-presses were in the hands of men, and 
 they made no record of this prodigy's name." 
 
 " Ah, my dear, there I have you !" he exclaimed. 
 " This young woman, you will please to remember, flour- 
 ished in the thirteenth century, and printing was not in- 
 vented till the fifteenth. Some women, jealous of her 
 distinction, obliterated all traces of her name, though 
 they were not able to suppress the records of her deeds. 
 But, then, there was Modesta di Pozzo di Zozzi, and 
 Cassandra Fidele, and Giulia Frivulzio, and Spotta 
 JSTogarolla, and " 
 
 " For Heaven's sake, Geoffrey, where did you pick up 
 all those names ?' ' exclaimed Theodora, as he came into 
 her room, partly dressed. " Are you making fun of 
 
158 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 me," she continued, in a more serious tone, " or are you 
 merely trying to astonish me with your learning ?" 
 
 " As I said, I have been reading up for my speech. 
 Fancy the looks of admiration and awe that will over- 
 spread the faces of the honorable members from Hemp- 
 field, and Pitt's Four Corners, and Pig-in-a-Poke when I 
 rattle off those names as readily as though I had known 
 them all my life ! Laughing at you, Dory ! My dear 
 child, I may laugh at you sometimes, but not in connec- 
 tion with so weighty a matter as your professorship. " 
 
 " But you have apparently been giving me reasons for 
 accepting, and at the same time speaking of the subject 
 as though it were all a joke." 
 
 " My dear Dory," said Moultrie, " I thought I made 
 it clear to you the other day how seriously I regarded 
 the matter, and that it is one that you must decide for 
 yourself. I then told you that I would support you loy- 
 ally in the decision you made, and I am now beginning 
 to do so. If I show more than my usual hilarity in my 
 attempts to sustain you in your new role, you must at- 
 tribute it to the fact that I feel cheerful and contented 
 with what you have done." 
 
 " Then you advise me to accept. Oh, Geoffrey, if 
 you would only say that you do, my doubts would all be 
 removed !" 
 
 " But 1 cannot advise you to accept, my dear. If I 
 were to give my advice, it would be not to accept ; but 
 this is one of those things that I think should be abso- 
 lutely left to your own judgment. I know what your 
 inclinations are, and 1 should be very unhappy if they 
 did not have full opportunity to be gratified. But why 
 discuss the question again ? It is settled finally, and you 
 are Professor of Physiology in the i Martha Washington 
 
THEODORA DECIDES. 159 
 
 Medical College for Women.' It is already unfait ac- 
 compli, and 1 wish you all the success which I am con- 
 fident you will deserve." 
 
 ' ' I could resign. ' ' 
 
 " If you were to resign from conviction that you had 
 committed an error in accepting, that would be one thing. 
 Your resignation to oblige me would be quite another 
 thing." 
 
 " But there may be some points that you see and that 
 I do not see, and if you were to explain to me, would 
 convince me that I had committed an error. Oh, Geof- 
 frey, is it not a part of your duty to guide me when I 
 come to you, as I do now, and ask you to aid me to de- 
 cide aright ? You are older than 1, you know the world 
 more thoroughly, and, above all else, you know your own 
 heart. If I thought that, by taking this place, 1 should 
 lose one jot or tittle of your affection, do you think I 
 would ever enter the college ? What are professorships 
 or colleges, or the whole female sex to me compared to 
 your love ? Geoffrey, my husband, tell me what I am 
 to do !" She threw her arms around his neck, and 
 buried her face in his breast. " You are all the world 
 to me," she said, as he kissed her head, and drew her to 
 him ; " I am in distress, and I come to you in my 
 trouble. Help me !" 
 
 For a moment the words were on his lips, " Let the 
 college go to the devil, and stay with me !" but it was 
 only for a moment, and again in his own loving but de- 
 termined way he hardened his heart against an appeal 
 that was almost agonizing in its intensity. He knew that 
 she wished to take the professorship, and he was resolved 
 that she should submit to no sacrifice of herself in the 
 matter. He was very obstinate when he had once made 
 
160 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 up his mind to any particular course, and sometimes be- 
 came blinded, or at least indifferent, to all influences that 
 were against any decision he might have made. Doubt- 
 less this characteristic had been of vast service to him in 
 the conduct of the great engineering works he had ac- 
 complished. He had great faith in himself. In regard 
 to the question before him, he had grave doubts of the 
 advisability of his wife's acceptance. The idea of her 
 appearing in public as a lecturer, even though only be- 
 fore a class composed of members of her own sex, was 
 unpleasant to him, and the knowledge that the perform- 
 ance of her duties would necessarily divide her sympa- 
 thies and create in her interests different from those that 
 personally concerned him, was painful. He had known 
 all along that the simple statement of his wish, that she 
 should refuse the proposition of the trustees of the med- 
 ical college, would be sufficient for her ; but he thought 
 he knew equally well that in such a case she would ex- 
 perience ceaseless regret, and he could not bring himself 
 to speak words that would convey the idea that he was 
 unduly exercising his authority. If there was any sacri- 
 fice to be made, he intended himself to be the victim, not 
 the woman whom he loved better than himself. 
 
 But now she had, as it were, thrown herself at his feet, 
 and implored him to put his foot on her neck. No 
 abnegation of self could have been more profound than 
 hers, no sacrifice more complete. She was already a 
 marytr in spite of him, for no material sacrifice could 
 cost her more pain than the mental immolation she was 
 now suffering. Yet, somehow or other, he failed to 
 comprehend the grandness of her heroism, or, even in its 
 entirety, the helplessness that had characterized her ap- 
 peal. He could not dissociate in his mind her self- 
 
THEODORA DECIDES. 161 
 
 denial and reliance on him with her longing to get once 
 more into the traces of the student and the lecturer. He 
 did not question the sincerity with which she had plead 
 with him, hut he did doubt her thorough understanding 
 of herself. He was fully persuaded that, were she 
 through his influence to give up the idea of teaching in 
 a medical college, the time would come when, if she did 
 not openly, she would in her heart, reproach him for any 
 mental inaction or regrets that she might suffer. Strange 
 that he did not see that in her supplication to him for 
 help she had placed herself entirely under his guidance, 
 and had made him responsible for all the results of his 
 failure to give her the aid she asked, and which, as her 
 husband, he had no right to refuse ! Had she come to 
 him of her own accord, and said, " I prefer you to all 
 the colleges in the world. My interest is in you, is one 
 and indivisible. 1 am convinced that a married woman 
 has her own home to supervise, and not the education of 
 other women ; that if she attempts both, one or the 
 other will suffer, and I, therefore, have decided to re- 
 fuse the appointment, " he would have rejoiced beyond 
 measure. But she had never said this, or anything like 
 it ; on the contrary, he knew very well and she did not 
 deny it that she was wrapped up in her studies in physi- 
 ology, and that she would be delighted to teach ; and 
 that however much she might be willing to be guided 
 by him and this he did not doubt any action of his 
 looking to her resignation would be a disappointment to 
 her, to be borne cheerfully and loyally, doubtless, but 
 nevertheless a disappointment, even though she was now 
 unconscious of the liability to any such result. 
 
 Besides, he had thought that, as a mere matter of sound 
 policy that would eventuate in good to both him and her, 
 
162 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 it would be better that she should make the attempt to, 
 as it were, serve two masters. No lessons were so effec- 
 tive as those of personal experience. She would find out 
 for herself, and no great harm could be done by the ex- 
 periment. But yet, never had he been so greatly moved 
 as by the few simple words she had addressed to him. 
 Here was one woman, at least, that loved her husband, 
 and was willing anxious, to give up her most cherished 
 desire to please him, or even at his dictation, whether 
 reasonable or unreasonable. He had never loved her so 
 fondly as at that moment. For, like most men of tender 
 and loving hearts, though he did not desire that a woman 
 should sacrifice herself for him, he did desire that she 
 should be willing to do so. His own wife had shown her- 
 self equal to the emergency, and, so far as he could be- 
 stow it, she should receive her reward. 
 
 In all that he had said relative to the success of women 
 in the domain of learning, and of his confidence in her 
 abilities, he had said what he believed to be true, and he 
 said it honestly, in order to encourage her to do her best, 
 and to remove from her mind any lingering idea that 
 might lurk there that he did not yield a hearty support 
 to her wishes. Still, he could not, without doing violence 
 to his principles, advise her to accept. He felt that to 
 do so was entirely beyond his power ; but while he was 
 thus prohibited by strong conscientious scruples from 
 taking an active part for or against the proposed meas- 
 ure, he was equally strongly determined not only that he 
 would interpose no obstacles, but that he would do all in 
 his power to make her path clear, and to give her all the 
 moral and physical aid she might require. 
 
 " My darling," he said, when she had finished her in- 
 vocation to him, and was standing trembling in his arms, 
 
THEODORA DECIDES. 163 
 
 u there is nothing you are ever likely to do that could 
 lessen the hold that you have on my heart. If I knew 
 of anything that could come between us if I thought for 
 one moment that your acceptance of this professorship 
 would endanger our love, then it would be my duty to 
 speak, not only to give you my advice, but to beg you to 
 refuse the appointment. Now, my dear child," he con- 
 tinued, smiling, " I see that I must exercise the little 
 authority which the laws of the State of New York and 
 the customs of good society have left to a husband. It 
 is my will and pleasure that you shall do in this matter 
 exactly as you wish, acting entirely from the impulse of 
 your own heart, controlled only by your own reason. If 
 you wish to please me, you will do this without further 
 discussion, rememberiDg that I shall always be ready to 
 assist you faithfully to the utmost of my ability. Now, 
 then, as 1 am scarcely in a fit condition to appear at the 
 breakfast-table, perhaps you will allow me to finish my 
 toilet." 
 
 No more was said, and Theodora made up her mind that 
 the Polish ancestor of Tyscovus knew little of any other 
 man than himself. That afternoon Rachel Meadows 
 called. The conference was eminently satisfactory. All 
 the details of the matter were fully explained, and it 
 was arranged that Theodora should on the following day 
 visit the college on a tour of observation, and that her 
 lectures should begin on the twentieth of the month. 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 A JOKE OR A CRIME ? 
 
 MRS. SINCOTE had one peculiarity, which, while it some- 
 times gave pleasure to herself and others, more frequently 
 caused annoyance to all concerned, and sometimes real 
 distress. She was fond of practical jokes when she was 
 the perpetrator. A pleased victim has never yet been 
 observed, except in those rare cases in which jocose old 
 gentlemen have presented their scapegrace sons or neph- 
 ews with large family Bibles, with the admonition to 
 4 ( search the Scriptures, ' ' which doing after several years 
 of continued ungodliness they have found to contain one 
 hundred dollar notes between every two leaves. Or 
 those other still rarer subjects, physicians or lawyers, per- 
 haps, whose patients or clients indignantly refuse to pay 
 the moderate honoraria suggested, but who shy a stock- 
 ing or a night-cap at the " sawbones" or " limb of the 
 law," exclaiming, " There, you murderer," or, " There, 
 you shark, take that !" and which on being explored is 
 found to contain a check for five or ten thousand dollars. 
 Or those superlatively rare instance; in which an infatu- 
 ated lover is led by his Dulcinea to believe that she is de- 
 votedly attached to his rival, and who one day receives 
 a note requesting him to call immediately at the lady's 
 house on business of great importance, and who going, 
 finds her dressed in bridal array, surrounded by her 
 family, and the parson present, with book in hand, and 
 
A JOKE OR A CRIME ? 165 
 
 only waiting his arrival to begin the ceremony that is to 
 unite him to his jovial mistress, who all the time has 
 been dead in love with him, and has been studying his 
 character, when he has thought himself overwhelmed with 
 misfortune. 
 
 Moultrie had tried with his usual persistency to break 
 her of this habit, but had only so far succeeded as to 
 secure immunity for himself and the members of his in- 
 dividual family. She therefore understood that he, his 
 wife, and daughter were sacred, and that if she ventured 
 upon any annoying " pleasantry" in his household she 
 would feel the effects of his displeasure. He had ex- 
 tended his positive prohibition to the practice being in- 
 dulged in at all ; but as he was not ubiquitous or omnis- 
 cient, she felt herself entirely safe to perpetrate her 
 tricks upon the unwary, not even sparing her own mother 
 and daughter. 
 
 The morning after the election she had gone to Moul- 
 trie's to congratulate him on his success, a full account 
 of which she had read in the morning papers. The dow- 
 ager did not feel equal to the work of going out so early 
 in the day, but sent a very loving letter to her son, in 
 which she gave full expression to her feelings, and in- 
 dulged the hope that he felt a due sense of the responsi- 
 bility that had been laid on his shoulders. 
 
 When Mrs. Sincote arrived Moultrie and his wife and 
 daughter were still at the breakfast-table. Instead of at 
 once going into the room where they were assembled, 
 she announced to the servant that she would first go up 
 to Theodora's boudoir, in order to take a look at a por- 
 trait of Moultrie that had come home from the artist the 
 day before. She accordingly ascended the staircase to 
 the next floor, and having sufficiently examined and ad- 
 
166 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 mired the portrait, which stood on an easel in front of the 
 chair which Theodora usually occupied when she was 
 reading or was at leisure, she started to go down-stairs. 
 On her way she passed by the open door of Lalage's 
 room, and without stopping to think, or, perhaps, with 
 the consciousness that she had the freedom of the house, 
 she entered the apartment, and gave a glance around at 
 its luxurious furniture and arrangements. Almost at 
 once her attention was attracted by a letter that lay on 
 the table, and that was directed in Lalage's handwriting 
 to " John Tyscovus, Esq., Planters' House, St. Louis, 
 Mo. ' ' It w r as the letter that lie had requested Lai to 
 write, and that she had left unsealed, in order that she 
 might give him the latest intelligence of her father and 
 his movements, that she had intended to get at breakfast, 
 and add in a postscript. 
 
 Now, Julia Sincote was not a dishonorable woman at 
 that particular time, although, perhaps, not an over- 
 scrupulous one. She picked up the letter, read the 
 superscription, and then laid it down again, experiencing 
 no temptation to pry any further into its character. If 
 she could have obtained a knowledge of its contents 
 without being obliged to descend to the meanness of 
 opening and reading it, she would doubtless have been 
 glad. But she felt no desire to do so at such an ex- 
 pense to her sense of decency and propriety as she would 
 have thereby incurred. She sighed, however, as she 
 thought of her love for the man to whom the letter was 
 directed, and then she turned away. 
 
 Or, rather, she was just in the act of turning away 
 when she saw close to the letter an open sheet contain- 
 ing writing. Supposing it to be an exercise or a com- 
 position, she took it up and began to read it. Of course 
 
A JOKE OR A CRIME? 167 
 
 a scrupulous woman, or one with the fine sense of deli- 
 cacy that Julia Sincote, from her breeding and associa- 
 tions, ought to have possessed, would have 110 more 
 thought of reading an open writing not specially in- 
 tended for her eye than she would one enclosed in an 
 envelope. 
 
 Now, as we know, Lai had, after Theodora's visit of 
 the previous night, set herself to work at her letter to 
 Tyscovus and to the copying of a page from her treasured 
 book, as was her custom. She was a very methodical 
 and practical young woman, and to have omitted any 
 part of her daily routine of work would have caused 
 her no inconsiderable amount of unpleasant feeling. She 
 had, therefore, accomplished her task, although it was 
 long after midnight when she got through and laid her- 
 self down to sleep. It was this sheet, containing the ex- 
 tract from the book, which Julia Sincote had in her hand, 
 and which she began to read. It was a sheet of note- 
 paper, such as all the other extracts had been written on, 
 and of the same kind as that Lai used in her correspond- 
 ence. When the work was completed, she would, she 
 thought, have all the sheets bound together in handsome 
 style, and then she intended to present the volume to 
 Tyscovus. As the reader knows, this was the three hun- 
 dred and tenth page, and there were only nine more, and 
 then her work would be done. 
 
 As Julia Sincote read, a strange expression passed 
 over her face ; but she went on, apparently fascinated 
 with the knowledge she was receiving. When she had 
 finished, she laid the sheet upon the table though she 
 still held it between her fingers while she stood almost 
 breathless with amazement at what she had perused. 
 Again she examined the sheet, and then suddenly she 
 
168 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 burst into a laugh that was almost loud enough to have 
 been heard by the people in the breakfast-room. " 1574 !" 
 she exclaimed " three hundred years ago. Why, it's 
 only an extract from that precious book of hers, which 
 she keeps so religiously under lock and key ; and the 
 date ' November 16th' this very day three hundred 
 years ago! It would be a good joke," she continued; 
 "I think I will do it." She stood for a moment, 
 as though undecided whether or not to follow the sug- 
 gestion. Then, with a little heightened color, as though 
 blushing for the remote possibilities of her act, she dip- 
 ped her pen into the ink and changed the figure " 5" of 
 the year-date to an " 8," so that it was " 1874." Then 
 she took the letter from the envelope and replaced it 
 with the sheet, which she folded in exactly the same 
 manner. The letter she held in her hand for a few 
 moments, apparently in doubt as to what disposition to 
 make of it. Finally, without unfolding it, she placed 
 it between the leaves of a photograph-alburn that lay on 
 the table, and fastening the clasps, left the room, well 
 satisfied with the success that had attended her opera- 
 tions. On the stairs she met Lai age, who was coming 
 up in some degree of haste. 
 
 " Oh, Aunt Julia !" cried Lai, " is that you ? I did 
 not know you were in the house. ' ' 
 
 " I came in a few moments ago, and stole up-stairs 
 quietly to take a private look at your father's portrait. 
 It is an excellent likeness, as well as a lovely work of 
 art." 
 
 " Yes, it is very much like him. I am only going to 
 get a letter ; I will be down again in a moment." 
 
 Lalage was so quick in her movement that she and 
 Mrs. Sincote entered the breakfast-room together. After 
 
A JOKE OR A CRIME? 169 
 
 a few words of greeting and congratulation between the 
 latter and her brother and his wife, Lai produced her 
 letter. 
 
 " I will go into the library, father," she said, " and 
 write what you have just told me." 
 
 " And then," laughed Moultrie, " the postscript, as is 
 so often the case with women's letters, will be the most 
 important part. Perhaps you would not object if I 
 wrote a little note to Tyscovus and put it into the en- 
 velope with your letter." 
 
 " Not at all, father ; 1 think that would be very 
 nice, and that John will be glad to get a letter from 
 you." 
 
 " Yery well, my dear. Then I will go with you and 
 write it at once." 
 
 The two left the room together. Julia, though try- 
 ing to seem interested in what Theodora was talking 
 about, had her attention mainly directed toward the ad- 
 joining room, as if expecting every moment that her 
 joke would be detected. She was arranging in her rnind 
 the details of the defence she should be obliged to make, 
 for now the consequences of her folly loomed up in large 
 proportions before her, and she was quite sure that not 
 only would Lai be indignant, but that Moultrie, finding 
 that his most solemn injunctions relative to practical 
 joking with members of his family had been disregarded, 
 and that, too, in a manner so indelicate, would cause her 
 to feel the effects of his wrath in a way that would be 
 unpleasant to her. Several times she was on the point of 
 going into the library, acknowledging her act, and asking 
 forgiveness ; but the fear of Moultrie, and the fact that 
 she would be obliged to admit that she had tampered 
 
 with a letter not her own, restrained her. Yes, she 
 
 8 
 
170 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 would wait, she thought, till the explosion came, and 
 then she would get out of the scrape as well as she 
 could. 
 
 But to her surprise there was no explosion. Every- 
 thing seemed to be going on quietly. Finally she heard 
 Moul trie say, " Now, my dear, put that with your letter. 
 It will probably give him a clearer idea of the political 
 situation than anything you can write." There was a 
 short pause, and then Moultrie and Lai came from the 
 room, the latter having the letter in her hand. It was 
 closed. Evidently she had not read the sheet which had 
 been substituted for her own, and Julia perceived that 
 unless she spoke at once the deception would not be dis- 
 covered till Tyscovus received the letter. But she was 
 now terribly frightened. She had not supposed for a 
 moment that the matter could go so far without discov- 
 ery. Her joke had succeeded beyond her most sanguine 
 expectations, and she saw that unless she revealed imme- 
 diately the nature of the deception she had practised, it 
 bid fair to become a serious affair, arid possibly one reach- 
 ing the proportions of a tragedy. Lai stood with the let- 
 ter in her hand ; Moultrie was talking with Theodora 
 about some arrangements for the day. He was bidding 
 her good-by ; he approached Lai and kissed her. " "Will 
 you mail my letter for me, please ?" she said. He took 
 it, and still holding it in his hand, said " good-morn- 
 ing" to Julia, and left the room. " Don't put it into 
 your pocket," Lai called after him. "If you do you 
 will forget it." She followed him out into the hall, and 
 stood by him while he put on his overcoat and gloves. 
 Julia joined them ; she had made up her mind to confess 
 all, and to throw herself on the mercy of her brother and 
 niece. Lai had retaken possession of the letter while 
 
A JOKE OR A CRIME ? 171 
 
 Moultrie was drawing on his gloves. u Kow," she said, 
 as he finished, and reached out his hand for the missive, 
 " you will please to keep this in sight till you get to the 
 letter-box. Hold it right so," she continued, raising his 
 hand till it was on a level with his eyes, " and then you 
 will be sure to see it." He laughed and turned toward 
 the door. Now was Julia's last chance. The word 
 " Stop !" was OH her lips, her vocal organs were ar- 
 ranged for its enunciation, her chest inflated to give it 
 emphasis, her hand raised for the accompanying gesture, 
 when suddenly, as though it were a flash of lightning, 
 an idea swept through her mind with a force and a 
 vividness that almost stunned her. For a moment it 
 seemed to her as though her heart had stopped beating ; 
 then her hand fell to her side, a great sigh escaped her, 
 and she sank, as though utterly exhausted, to a chair that 
 stood by her side. Then she heard the front door close, 
 and Lai saying something to her in accents of alarm. 
 She roused herself and looked about her. He was gone. 
 It was too late now to stop him, even had she wished, 
 and confession was out of the question, for fhe first 
 seed of dishonor had been planted in her mind. 
 
 " It is nothing," she said in answer to Lai's inquiries ; 
 " I felt a little faint for a moment. It must have been 
 because 1 drank no coffee this morning. Please don't 
 trouble yourself, ' ' as Lai made a motion as though going 
 for assistance. " It is all over. I will go into the 
 library for a moment. Then, if you will order me a cup 
 of tea it will be all that I shall require." 
 
 Lai walked by her aunt's side till she saw her seated 
 in a large arm-chair, and then ringing the bell, gave direc- 
 tions to the servant in regard to the tea, 
 
 " Don't wait," said Mrs. Sincote. " You have your 
 
172 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 studies to attend to, and I think I heard Mrs. Bowdoin 
 go up-stairs a moment ago." 
 
 She was anxious to get Lai out of the way. She 
 wanted to think, and the presence of the woman she had 
 wronged interfered with the easy course of her thoughts. 
 Lai waited till the tea came, and then, seeing that there 
 was no further need for her presence, left the room. 
 
 As soon as she was gone Julia began to consider very 
 seriously the immediate and remote possibilities of the 
 situation. Her act, originally intended as a piece of 
 pleasantry to herself and a slight annoyance to her niece, 
 had passed beyond the limits of a joke. It had become 
 a crime, in which there was a certain amount of deliber- 
 ation, and which every moment became more and more 
 of an outrage. The letter was already mailed. It could 
 not be recalled ; she could, of course, confess her guilt, 
 and thus neutralize the consequences of her offence ; but 
 she had already begun to take pleasure in the contem- 
 plation of the possible results, and, at any rate^ so long as 
 she held her tongue, no one would ever know that she 
 had had anything to do with the deception of which two 
 innocent persons would be the victims. And then if 
 the result should be such as she now hoped for, and 
 which, so far as she could perceive, was almost a necessity 
 of the position of affairs, would it not be well worth all 
 the mental suffering she might be called upon to endure ? 
 She had never before attempted anything of a charac- 
 ter to call a blush to her cheek, and she was not, there- 
 fore, conversant with the feelings of a person accustomed 
 to the perpetration of dishonorable acts. She had a 
 vague idea the result of information from books and 
 plays that the unpleasantness resulting from the prick- 
 ings of conscience became less with each transgression, 
 
A JOKE OR A CRIME? 173 
 
 and after many repetitions not only was no pain experi- 
 enced, but that a positive pleasure was produced. This 
 process was what she understood by " hardening in 
 crime." Certainly, therefore, she was not a hardened 
 criminal, and yet she did not experience any remorse at 
 the contemplation of what she had done. On the con- 
 trary, her mind now that she had recovered from the 
 immediate effects of the shock due to the conversion of 
 her joke into a crime, to which restoration the two cups 
 of strong tea she had drunk had doubtless materially 
 contributed was well at ease both as regarded herself 
 and the rest of the world. The thought of possible dis- 
 tress to Lai and Tyscovus never occurred to her ; cer- 
 tainly not in any form or to such a degree as to cause 
 her discomfort. That if everything succeeded accord- 
 ing to her hopes there would be disappointment she well 
 knew, accompanied, perhaps, by tears on one side and 
 anger on the other, but that there would be any severe 
 emotional disturbance she did not believe. Lai was 
 young ; she had pledged her faith to Tyscovus when she 
 knew nothing of the world not even her own mind 
 and hence could not be supposed to be capable of very 
 keen suffering from a love-affair with a man from whom 
 she had parted almost as soon as she had made his ac- 
 quaintance, and whom she had not seen for more than 
 two years. 
 
 As for Tyscovus, she was not prepared to form any 
 very definite conclusions in regard to his probable course 
 on receipt of the false letter. She knew very little of 
 him personally, not having met him more than half a 
 dozen times, and then not being the recipient of any 
 marked attention from him. But she had been struck 
 with his appearance and manner from the very first 
 
174 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 moment that she had laid her eyes upon him, and it was 
 a source of bitter regret to her when she learned, as she 
 did soon afterward, that he was the accepted lover of 
 her niece, then an ignorant and uncouth, though beauti- 
 ful girl. "What he could see in Lai beyond good looks 
 she could not then perceive. Subsequently, though 
 much against her will, she had been forced to acknowl- 
 edge to herself that the girl was possessed of many at- 
 tractions and of some qualities that w r ere calculated to 
 excite in her wholesome feelings of respect and of fear. 
 
 But to come back to Tyscovus : " What," she asked 
 herself, " will he do when he reads the letter ? Will he 
 indignantly write for an explanation ? Will he hurry on 
 to New York and seek an interview with Lai, or will he, 
 regarding the letter as a finality against which there is 
 no appeal, accept the apparent situation, and preserve a 
 dignified silence toward a woman worthy only of his con- 
 tempt ? If," she thought, " he should write or come, 
 exposure must, of course, be the immediate consequence. 
 Fortunately, there is nothing to implicate me, and they 
 may wonder who is the perpetrator till they grow gray, 
 and never suspect that I had a hand in it. Should he 
 accept his dismissal in silence and remain absent from 
 her, what then ? That requires a good deal of consider- 
 ation. She, finding that he does not come, or even 
 write, will at first be surprised ; then after a little while 
 she will begin to think that he did not receive her let- 
 ter, and she will write again. Then, of course, there 
 will be a clear understanding between them, and all this 
 will come to naught. I don't know how it will end. 
 There are too many contingencies to make it safe to 
 predict. Time alone can show. 
 
 " But how will it, in any event, benefit me ? Is it at 
 
A JOKE OR A CRIME ? 175 
 
 all likely that I shall ever see him again ? Ah !" she 
 exclaimed, as an idea occurred to her, " he will be in 
 Washington this next winter, and so will Geoffrey. It 
 would be very easy for me to be there, and in all proba- 
 bility Lai will remain in New York. Yes, it might then 
 be possible." 
 
 Julia Sincote was by no means a profound woman, 
 but at the same time she was certainly not a fool. 
 While not given to intellectual pursuits of any kind, 
 rarely reading a book that required any considerable ex- 
 ercise of her thinking faculties, she had, by the use of 
 sharp perceptive powers and abundant opportunities for 
 observation, picked up a good stock of knowledge of 
 contemporaneous events and of human nature. More- 
 over, she had for many years indulged in the reading of 
 romances and other works of fiction, the chief interest 
 of which centred upon intricate plots, and in reports of 
 notable trials in various parts of the world in which deep- 
 laid conspiracies were exposed. She had hence become, 
 to a certain extent, familiar with the ways of the perpe- 
 trators and victims of crimes, and could predict with ex- 
 actness what such or such a character would do under 
 the particular fortunate or unfortunate circumstances in 
 which he or she might be placed. She was bringing to 
 bear on the present matter, therefore, a mind trained in 
 the investigations of human nature when surrounded with 
 difficulties and subjected to misfortunes. The fault in 
 her mental processes was that they had been to a great 
 extent constructed upon models that were not those of 
 human nature at all, but of false, morbid, and impossible 
 types, created by writers who mistook their vivid flights 
 of imagination for descriptions of real character and 
 potentiality. She accepted these incongruities of per- 
 
176 A STKONG-MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 sons and conduct as actualities, failing to perceive that 
 the creators and writers had scarcely ever been consistent, 
 and that unless they had caused the personages of their 
 stories to do the very things which rational persons would 
 not do, there would have been no ground for continuing 
 to write. 
 
 She had never, in any of the many true and fictitious 
 plots with which she was familiar, met with two such 
 personages as her niece Lalage and Tyscovus. Neither 
 had she come in contact with their counterparts in real 
 life. But these facts did not disturb her very much. 
 She recalled to mind incidents in several novels which 
 were not essentially different from that which was now 
 the subject of her meditations, and in which the most 
 terrible confusion and disasters had resulted from false 
 letters. In one instance the receiver of a forged letter, 
 purporting to come from the woman he loved, had seized 
 a pistol and blown his brains out. She shuddered a little 
 as she thought of this, but she did not believe Tyscovus 
 was the man to kill himself for the sake of a woman 
 that he believed had deceived him. In another, the 
 man who had, by a fraudulent communication, been 
 brought to the belief that the woman he was about to 
 marry had discarded him, had killed her that he thought 
 had played him false. This was not like Tyscovus. She 
 had no fear for Lai's life. In another, the woman whose 
 false friend had alienated from her the affections of her 
 lover had died gradually of a broken heart. " Well," 
 she thought, " I don't believe Lai is that kind of a girl ; 
 but if she is, and I can gain his love, she must take the 
 consequences." 
 
 There were many other similar events that had resulted 
 from the misunderstandings of lovers, brought about by 
 

 A JOKE OE A CRIME? 177 
 
 interested parties acting dishonorably, that occurred to 
 her as she sat thinking, her mental activity more than 
 usually developed by the tea she had drunk ; but in none 
 of them had the sufferers been possessed of the strong 
 natures that she had reason to believe were inherent in 
 Tyscovus and her niece. She knew enough of them 
 both to be aware that whatever action either of them 
 took would be marked by decision, honesty, generosity, 
 and firmness, without any element of weakness being 
 present ; but what that action would be she could not 
 determine. As she had said before, time alone could do 
 that ; and for the present all she had to do was to wait 
 patiently and prudently for the consequences. The 
 matter was out of her hands. She had thought the sub- 
 ject over with about as much thoroughness as she was 
 capable of at that time, so she rose languidly from her 
 semi-recumbent position in the deep arm-chair, and was 
 on the point of leaving the room when Lalage entered. 
 
 " I hope you are better, Aunt Julia," she said. " Yes, 
 you look much better. I came to see if I could find the 
 copy I made last night from my book. I left it on the 
 table in my room, but it is not there now, and I thought 
 I might have brought it down-stairs this morning with 
 my letter. No, it is not here," she continued, as she 
 looked among the books and bric-d-brac on the library- 
 table. " I cannot imagine what has become of it." 
 
 " Did you ask Mary ? Perhaps she moved it when 
 she arranged your room." 
 
 " I asked her, but she says she did not touch it. She 
 never disturbs my table. She does not even dust it ; I 
 do that myself." 
 
 " It may have blown out of the window. There was 
 quite a high wind when I came in." 
 
178 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 44 Yes, that is quite likely. I opened all the windows 
 when I came down. And now I think of it, I did not 
 see it when I went up for my letter." 
 
 " Was it of any great consequence ?" 
 
 " Oh, no ; I can easily copy it over again." 
 
 A strange fascination, such as is sometimes seen in per- 
 sons who feel irresistibly impelled to visit the places 
 where their crimes have been committed, or to talk of 
 incidents connected with them, took possession of Julia. 
 Although she knew that the exhibition of any unwonted 
 degree of interest in what, after all, was, so far as Lai 
 was aware, a trivial matter concerning only herself, 
 would be liable to excite suspicion against her, she could 
 not refrain from plying her niece with question after 
 question relative to the matter the size of the sheet, 
 the kind of paper, the exact position it occupied on the 
 table, whether it was open or folded, and a dozen others 
 of no importance, but the answers to which she knew 
 as well as did Lai. And then there came another, also 
 unnecessary, and which, if there had been any suspicion 
 of her duplicity, might have led, by the agitation she ex- 
 hibited, to her discovery. 
 
 " What was it about ?" she asked ; " something very 
 amusing, I suppose." 
 
 " Oh, no, it was not in the least amusing. Indeed, it 
 was very sad ; but you could not understand it unless 
 you knew all about what took place before. It was a 
 letter written by a lady to a son of Count John Tyscovi- 
 cius, who was the great ancestor of Mr. Tyscovus. ' ' 
 
 Now, although Julia was perfectly conversant with 
 the subject-matter of the letter, she knew nothing what- 
 ever of the circumstances under which it had been writ- 
 ten. She had never even so much as seen the little 
 
A JOKE OR A CRIME? 179 
 
 book from which the extract had been made, though, as 
 it was a family matter, she knew the history of it, its 
 general character, and the manner in which it had come 
 into Lai's possession. Here, then, was an opportunity not 
 only for ascertaining the causes that had led to the orig- 
 inal letter being written, but also for discovering how 
 Tyscovus's ancestor had acted when he received it. 
 "Surely it might," she thought, "be reasonably sup- 
 posed that the descendant would act in a similar manner 
 under like circumstances. And what a wonderful fact," 
 she continued to herself, " that three hundred years to 
 a day after the original had been sent to the ancestor a 
 copy should be sent to the descendant!" Julia had 
 heard something of history repeating itself, but she had 
 never heard of such an exact duplication as this, and she 
 really began to feel a sort of pride in her connection 
 with so remarkable an event. 
 
 " Now, my dear," she said, settling herself again in 
 the deep arm-chair, " I am not in a hurry this morning, 
 and you can surely give me a few minutes of your time, 
 in which to tell me all about this letter. I have a sort 
 of a presentiment that it is a very interesting story. Sit 
 down there," pointing as she spoke to a low chair near 
 her ; " make yourself comfortable, and tell me the whole 
 story of that letter from first to last. " Lai smiled at her 
 aunt's eagerness. She glanced at the clock on the mantel- 
 piece ; " I can give just ten minutes, Aunt Julia," she 
 said. "It is a very sad story, but it is good for us 
 sometimes to hear such things ; and if you would really 
 like to know about the letter, why, I will tell you." 
 
 " Yes, I wish to know all about it. I am very cheerful 
 this morning, and though I am not one of those morbid 
 individuals who are never happy unless they are miser- 
 
180 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 able, a little sadness to-day would be quite acceptable. 
 So go on, dear." 
 
 " Count John Tyscovicius," said Lai, " had a son also 
 named John, and he was about to marry the Countess 
 Louisa Karpinski, when he was arrested and thrown into 
 prison on suspicion of conspiring against the State. He 
 was not guilty of the crime with which he was charged, 
 but he was kept confined in a dungeon and loaded with 
 chains for more than a year before he was let out. 
 
 " Just before he was put in jail he parted with the 
 Countess Louisa as he thought only for a few days ; but 
 that night he was taken from his bed by soldiers and 
 carried to the prison. The countess sent him word that 
 she would be faithful to him,. though he might be kept 
 there all his life, and this thought gave him courage to 
 endure the cruel treatment he received, and to make him 
 long to get out. 
 
 ' ' But just as his innocence was about to be shown, 
 and he was already being treated better than he had been, 
 he received a letter from the Countess Louisa which for 
 a while almost made him wish he was dead. That was 
 the letter I copied, and I suppose I will now have to do 
 it all over again. ' ' 
 
 " How very interesting!" said Julia. " But, my 
 dear, what did she write that was so horrible ? Of 
 course she did not give him up in the midst of his suf- 
 ferings ? No true woman would have done that." 
 
 "No," exclaimed Lai ; " no woman but one whose 
 heart was full of falsehood or whose mind was very weak 
 would have done such a thing, and for a while Count 
 John could not believe that she had written it ; but it was 
 in her handwriting, and signed with her name. But 
 shall I read you the letter ?" she continued, taking the 
 
A JOKE OR A CRIME? 181 
 
 little vellum-bound volume from the bosom of her gown. 
 " Then you will see what a wicked letter it was oh, 
 yes, what a very wicked letter !" 
 
 Mrs. Sincote expressed her intense anxiety to hear the 
 letter read. Her interest was excited beyond measure. 
 
 " 'NOVEMBER 16, 15Y4. 
 
 " ' DEAR JOHN : It is with a heart full of sorrow,' " Lai 
 read, " ' that I write this letter. How little we know 
 our own souls, even when we think we know them best ! 
 You were my first friend ; the recollection of your good- 
 ness to me when I was in sore trouble can never fade 
 from my memory ; I would rather die than cause you 
 pain, and yet I must speak the truth, even though we 
 both suffer more than we have ever suffered in all our 
 lives before. You yourself, even though you may blame 
 me now, will erelong admit that I am right ; for you 
 are a lover of the truth. 
 
 " ' I thought I loved you with all rny soul ; for when I 
 parted with you, more than two years ago, I felt as 
 though I were leaving behind me all that I valued on 
 earth. But now that I have had time to search my 
 heart, I discover to my dismay that it was not love that 
 filled it, but only a great regard, such as one friend might 
 feel for another. Remember how ignorant I was ; how 
 little I knew of the world, and forgive me any pain that 
 this declaration may cause you. 
 
 " l We may never meet again ; but whether we do or 
 not, be always my friend, as I am yours. L.' ' 
 
 " And what did he do when he received the letter ?" 
 said Julia, leaning forward in her chair, with anxiety 
 depicted on her countenance. 
 
182 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " For a while it goes on to say here he sat in his 
 cell without saying a word. He was just like a person 
 in a trance. He was going to be released the very next 
 day, and then he expected to marry the woman who was 
 now so false. Everybody that has ever borne the name 
 of Tyscovus or Tyscovicius, as it was then, has been good 
 and noble," continued Lai, her face suffused with pride, 
 " and this one was a brave and generous man, who could 
 not do a low act. But he did a foolish one, as the book 
 says." 
 
 " What did he do ? I am all anxiety to know." 
 
 " Countess Louisa Karpinski had one aunt, a widow, 
 who was very beautiful but very wicked." 
 
 " Go on !" cried Julia, in a husky voice, as Lai stop- 
 ped for a moment. 
 
 " Yes, she was very wicked, for she was in love with 
 Count John herself, and she wrote him a letter, telling 
 him how false the Countess Louisa was, and how she had 
 endeavored to prevent her writing that letter ; and she 
 had all the time been trying to persuade the Countess 
 Louisa to marry another man, the Count Stephen Os- 
 karof." 
 
 Julia had risen to her feet, and was walking the floor 
 with an agitated manner that gave ample evidence of the 
 effect that the story was producing upon her. 
 
 " What did he do ?" she said, approaching Lai, who 
 was busy turning over the leaves of the book, and who 
 had apparently taken no notice of the excitement dis- 
 played by her aunt. " Will you never come to it ?" 
 
 " In one moment, aunt ; I am coming to it. For a 
 long time," she continued, "he sat without saying a 
 word. Then he read the letter over again. i She 
 thought she loved me with all her soul,' he said. ' Per- 
 
A JOKE OR A CRIME? 183 
 
 haps she really did, but her soul is so small that it takes 
 very little love to fill it. ' Then he walked the floor of 
 his prison, for his chains had been taken off, and he had 
 been given a large room, and it happened that he glanced 
 into a looking-glass that hung on the wall, and there he 
 saw that his hair and beard, which had been very black, 
 had become as white as snow." 
 
 " How horrible !" exclaimed Julia. " How much he 
 must have suffered ! But what did he do ?" 
 
 " The next day he was released from prison, and there 
 at the door, waiting for him in a splendid sleigh, with 
 costly robes to keep him warm, was the treacherous aunt. 
 At first she did not know him, for his hair and beard 
 were entirely white, and his face had a sad look that she 
 had never seen there before. But she took him to her 
 castle, and nursed him till he got well and strong, all the 
 time pitying him on account of the bad way in which he 
 had been treated by the Countess Louisa. And she was 
 so kind, and her sympathy was so sweet to him, that he 
 thought he would marry her ; for although he liked her 
 very much he did not yet love her. 
 
 " But she began to feel badly about what she had 
 done ; she felt that she had committed a great sin, and 
 that she must ask forgiveness of God for her wickedness. 
 And she was very wicked," continued Lai, her own in- 
 terest deepening as she went on, and her manner becom- 
 ing more animated, " much worse, Aunt Julia, than you 
 think, and as you will find out directly. So she ordered 
 her sleigh, and went off over the plain, ten miles or more, 
 to a monastery, where there was a good man she knew. 
 She got there, and saw the good man, and told him what 
 she had done everything. He was very angry, but very 
 sorry, too, and he told her that he could not ask God to 
 
184 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 forgive her till she had shown by her works that she re- 
 pented. Then he commanded her not to go home, but 
 to go to a convent near by, and to stay there and fast 
 and pray for five days, and then to come to him again, 
 and he would help her to undo all the wrong she had 
 done. She left him, promising that she would do all he 
 had ordered. But no sooner was she out of his sight 
 than she changed her mind, and resolved that, no matter 
 what happened, she would marry Count John the next 
 day, as had been arranged. Well, she got into her sleigh 
 and wrapped herself up in her warm robes, and told the 
 driver to go home to her castle as fast as he could. It 
 was night, but the moon was shining so brightly on the 
 snow that it was almost like day. On they went like 
 the wind, and then suddenly she heard a single bark of 
 a wolf, and then in an instant another, and then almost 
 at once a thousand barks from wolves that seemed to 
 spring up from the snow all around them. The driver 
 plunged his horses through those that were in front of 
 him, and lashed them with his whip ; and though he was 
 closely followed by the starving wolves, he got back to 
 the castle gate just as his horses fell dead. He turned 
 to help his mistress out of the sleigh, and then he found, 
 to his horror, that she was not there. The wolves had 
 dragged her out and eaten her, and he, in the noise and 
 confusion, did not know it till then. The following day 
 they found her bones and her clothing scattered over 
 the plain." 
 
 " Oh, how shocking !" cried Julia, covering her face 
 with her hands, as though to shut out the image of the 
 perfidious aunt being torn to pieces by wolves. 
 
 " Yes, it was very shocking ; but the worst is to come." 
 " Worse than that ! Did Count John kill himself ?" 
 
A JOKE OR A CRIME? 185 
 
 Lai was a natural-born story-teller. She had carefully 
 kept back the acme for its proper place at the end, and 
 had skilfully concealed certain facts which, but for her 
 method, would have lessened the interest of her listener. 
 But the crisis was now to come. 
 
 " Worse and better. Count John did not kill him- 
 self, but he had been very weak and foolish to allow 
 himself to be deceived by the aunt, for it was found out 
 that the Countess Louisa had always been faithful, and 
 that she had not written the letter at all, but that it had 
 been forged by her aunt, who was really in love with 
 Count John, and who was wicked enough to do all kinds 
 of dishonorable things to separate him from the Countess 
 Louisa. In a few weeks the Count John Tyscovicius 
 and the Countess Louisa Karpinski were married ; but 
 he, though a young man, always remained gray-haired 
 and gray-bearded, and " 
 
 A smothered groan and the sound of something falling 
 heavily caused Lai to turn to where her aunt had stood, 
 but where she stood no longer, for her senseless body lay 
 a motionless mass upon the floor. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 A SOCIETY QUESTION. 
 
 THE acceptance of the professorship of physiology in 
 the " Martha Washington Medical College for Women," 
 by Mrs. Geoffrey Moultrie, was an event which caused 
 no small amount of commotion in the fashionable and 
 unfashionable worlds of New York and the country at 
 large. The secular press had noticed the fact in terms 
 of high commendation ; the medical journals were di- 
 vided. One portion that representing the progres 
 sive section of the profession spoke of it approvingly, 
 and predicted that the new professor would still further 
 extend her reputation as a skilful and original investiga- 
 tor, besides advancing the cause of science. The other 
 portion speaking for the conservative and more numer- 
 ous division predicted failure, and declared that physiol- 
 ogy was one of those things that no woman could expect 
 to study either with advantage to herself or to scientific 
 medicine. It called attention to the alleged fact that 
 woman was wanting in exactness in her mental proc- 
 esses ; that she was prone to jump at conclusions ; that 
 she was not capable of weighing evidence and of decid- 
 ing irrespective of her likes and dislikes ; and while it 
 was perhaps possible that certain chairs in a medical col- 
 lege for women might be moderately well filled by her, 
 physiology was the one of all others for which she was 
 utterly unsuited. The Medical and Surgical Erebus 
 
A SOCIETY QUESTION. 187 
 
 was especially severe upon the appointment. This rep- 
 resentative of conservatism in medicine was edited by 
 Dr. McPheeters, whose views upon the subject of women- 
 physicians are already known to the reader. This gentle- 
 man denounced the appointment in unmeasured terms. 
 He declared that Mrs. Moultrie's previous researches were 
 of no consequence ; that her experiments in evolution 
 were ridiculous ; that the result of her investigations rela- 
 tive to the nerve-force had never been accepted by physi- 
 ologists as at all worthy of being incorporated into the 
 science of physiology, and that if there must be women- 
 physicians a necessity that he did not believe existed 
 the proper teachers were men, who had the ability and 
 the nerve to conduct such experiments as were needed 
 to demonstrate the facts of the science. As for him, he 
 was already of the opinion that no woman could study 
 physiology without experiencing a loss of the delicacy 
 of sentiment which should characterize her. No useful 
 purpose was subserved by teaching a school-girl where 
 her liver was, or that she had such an organ as a spleen, 
 or that there were two hemispheres of the brain, or other 
 anatomical knowledge, the possession of which simply 
 tended to destroy her proper feminine mental character- 
 istics, without giving her any adequate return for the loss. 
 Then he mailed a copy of the Medical and Surgical 
 Erebus to Moultrie, and another to his wife, and walked 
 up Fifth Avenue looking more colicky than ever. 
 
 But in " social circles" the discussion was still more 
 acrid, and was maintained for a much longer period. 
 Without ever having been in an ultra-fashionable set, 
 whose whole minds are devoted to a continual round of 
 gayety and dissipation, the Moultries had always occu- 
 pied a position in society among the very best people in 
 
188 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 the city of New York. That they did not go to any of 
 the semi-public balls or to many of the private ones was 
 simply because they did not affect that kind of amuse- 
 ment. They went to a few dinner-parties every winter, 
 given by people whom they liked, and at which they 
 were sure of meeting individuals noted for something 
 else besides the possession of city lots and railroad stocks, 
 and they gave half a dozen or so in return, at each of 
 which men or women who had honorably distinguished 
 themselves in science, literature, or art were certain to be 
 found. 
 
 Moultrie, although democratic in everything relating 
 to the rights of the people, was very tenacious of his 
 position as a member of the aristocracy of education. 
 He would no more have thought of admitting to his 
 house the Fifth Avenue millionaire who knew nothing 
 but dollars, and who had done nothing but pile up wealth 
 by sharp practices, than he would have held social fel- 
 lowship with a coal-heaver. Indeed, if the latter could 
 by any possibility have been a refined and educated per- 
 son, he would not have hesitated a moment in meeting 
 him on socially equal terms. But ignorance and vul- 
 garity were repulsive to him, especially in those who, 
 having acquired wealth, made pretensions to gentility 
 which neither their origin nor their education warranted. 
 
 Now, it was chiefly among this latter class that adverse 
 criticisms on Theodora's course abounded. Miss Sorby, 
 for instance, who had been so very hard on Hachel 
 Meadows when she took to making her own living by 
 her brain work, whose grandfather had, as we know, 
 been a truck-driver, and whose grandmother had retailed 
 apples from a stand in the Bowery, did not see how any 
 lady could continue to notice Mrs. Moultrie or touch a 
 
A SOCIETY QUESTION. 189 
 
 hand that, " for all we know, my dear," as she talked 
 the latter over in her opera-box with her friend Miss 
 Boggs, whose father had been a deck-hand on a ferry- 
 boat, " may not, five minutes before, have dabbled in 
 human gore." 
 
 " Yes, or who has just been talking about livers and 
 lights and all them things to a lot of old maids." 
 
 " There she is now in her box, with her husband and 
 step-daughter. You'd think, to look at her, that butter 
 wouldn't melt in her mouth ; but 1 guess she's thinking 
 of all them horrid things she's going to talk about to- 
 morrow. ' ' 
 
 " Well, ma says she'll never ask her to our house 
 again. We called soon after she came to the city, for pa 
 owned some of the railroads that Mr. Moultrie worked 
 on, and we thought we'd be civil to 'em ; but she only 
 sent cards in return the next day ; and though we asked 
 'em to our receptions, she never had the decency to 
 come or to invite us to her house." 
 
 " How rude! For my part," said Miss Sorby, "1 
 hate vulgarians, and now I guess she'll go down out of 
 notice. Of course she's rich, but mere riches, my 
 dear," tossing her narrow head as she spoke, " don't go 
 for much in our set. Pasdetout" 
 
 " Well, I declare !" exclaimed Miss Boggs, whose 
 opera-glass had been levelled at the Moultries' box, " if 
 that isn't disgraceful ! There's the French Minister and 
 Prince Bromkouski setting in their box. Pa and my 
 brother, Maximilian von Wied, left cards on them yes- 
 terday. I suppose they'll call to-morrow. The prince 
 is awful rich. But I think after this I shall treat them 
 both pretty coldly." 
 
 " Oh, the prince is only there," assented Miss Sorby, 
 
190 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " because the step-daughter is half Polish ! Her mother, 
 so they say," she added, with sharp emphasis, " was a 
 Polish princess, and the girl was lost on the prairie, or 
 something of that sort, when she was a baby, and was 
 only found again about a year ago. For my part, I 
 don't believe much in them long-lost daughters. Do 
 you, Maria ? No impostures of that sort for me, I thank 
 you ! I don't think they ought to be tolerated in good 
 society. ' ' 
 
 " Oh, as to that !" exclaimed her friend, laughing im- 
 moderately, in which Miss Sorby joined, " I've known 
 whole families of just such daughters ; but then, you 
 see, they didn't set in opera-boxes with their so-called 
 step-mothers. Oh, no, not at all !" 
 
 " Neither of the gentlemen has spoken a word since 
 they entered the box," said Miss Boggs, who had con- 
 tinued her observations. " I guess they don't find their 
 company very entertaining." 
 
 " Oh, these stuck-up people think it isn't decent to 
 talk at the opera while the singing's going on. What 
 are a lot of opera-singers, I'd like to know, that we 
 shouldn't talk before them ? I'll talk where I please, 
 and laugh, too, if I want to." 
 
 " Not in church you wouldn't, Selina," remarked 
 Miss Boggs, in a serious tone of voice, befitting the 
 solemnity of the speech. 
 
 "Well, no, of course not in church ; but here I'll do 
 it as much as I like. The last night I was just talking 
 and laughing with Billy Barlow, not loud, neither, and 
 a man setting in the next box, who came with them 
 Abercrombies, who, I may say, are as much stuck-up as 
 the Moultries, tried to stare me out of countenance ; but 
 the more he stared the more I talked and laughed, 
 
A SOCIETY QUESTION. 191 
 
 and at last he gave it up as a bad job, and left the 
 box." 
 
 ""What impudence! I wonder you didn't tell your 
 brother. ' ' 
 
 " Oil, Maximilian von "Wied is so fiery that if I had 
 told him there'd have been a row, sure, and some one 
 would have got hurt. But what do you think the man 
 did ? You couldn't guess if you were to try for a week. 
 It was just the rudest thing I ever knew of in my life. 
 He went out and complained to the manager, and he 
 sent an usher to tell us that we must make no noise. 
 And when I said, t Suppose we talk just as much as we 
 please^ what then ? ' ( Well, miss,' said the fellow, ' if 
 you keep on making a noise I'll have to complain to the 
 policeman in attendance, and I suppose he'll take you 
 out.' " 
 
 " How scandalous ! I never heard anything quite so 
 bad as that." 
 
 " No, my dear, nor I, either. Pa says he's going to 
 give up his box, and that he'll never take it again as 
 long as Stapleton is the manager." 
 
 "To go back to the Moultries," said Miss Boggs, 
 dropping her glass arid turning away from the stage on 
 which Patti, as Annetta, was singing in the duet in the 
 second act of Crispino e la Commare. " They say that 
 Mr. Moultrie is very much opposed to his wife taking a 
 professorship in a medical college. Tommy Pincham 
 told me last night, at the Philanthropists' ball, that 
 Jimmy Sandwich told him that he had it from good 
 authority that Mr. Moultrie became perfectly infuriated 
 when he heard of his wife's intention, and said that he 
 would just as soon have her go on the stage as an actress 
 as to have her teaching and becoming a public character.' ' 
 
192 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Yes, I heard something like that, only he said he 
 would as soon have his wife ride in a circus as show off 
 in a medical lecture-room. I had it from Johnny Mar- 
 lin, and you know he lives next door to the Moultries." 
 
 " Well, whatever it was, it was bad enough, and it 
 seems to be the general impression that it will end in a 
 divorce. I heard he was divorced from his first wife. 
 I wonder how they ever got into society here !" 
 
 " They'll be out now, pretty soon," said Miss Sorby, 
 after a careful study of the Moultrie party through her 
 lorgnette. " By the by, did you ever meet with a 
 rather original character, very intelligent, too Miss Billy 
 Bremen ? She's tolerably wealthy, seventy or eighty 
 thousand a year or thereabouts, daughter of a prominent 
 butcher, who died several years ago, leaving her all his 
 money. She isn't in society at all, but I suppose she 
 will be some of these days, or if she isn't, her children 
 will be." 
 
 " What, that little, fat, Dutch thing who keeps the 
 butchers' -shop on Sixth Avenue ?" 
 
 " She has a large abattoir at Locust Point, and a 
 receiving depot in Sixth Avenue, if that's what you call 
 keeping a butcher-shop," answered Miss Sorby, with a 
 little irritation in her voice. " I admit that she's little 
 and fat, but I deny that she's Dutch. She's of German 
 descent. Well, she told me that she went to see Mrs. 
 Moultrie on a matter of business, and that she was 
 ordered out of the house and threatened with a policeman 
 by her ladyship before she had uttered a dozen words." 
 
 " She must be a perfect termagant." 
 
 " Yes ; she is even worse than that other woman's- 
 rights woman, Miss Eachel Meadows, whom 1 had the 
 satisfaction of cutting dead some time ago." 
 
A SOCIETY QUESTION. 193 
 
 " So had I, and I enjoyed it mightily, I tell you. 
 The idea of her daring to attempt to keep my acquaint- 
 ance after going about the country lecturing." 
 
 Just then the curtain fell, and the two young ladies, 
 relapsing into silence, occupied themselves in scanning 
 with their opera- glasses the parties in the various boxes 
 and the gentlemen who stood in the aisles. 
 
 But in a higher class, though by no means a more 
 fashionable one, Theodora's step was considered from a 
 different standpoint from that in which it was regarded 
 by the Misses Sorby and Boggs and their set. Here she 
 had many warm friends, who took an interest in what 
 concerned her, and who liked her for her good sense and 
 for the pleasure they derived from her society. By most 
 of them her new departure was regarded with regret, 
 for they had notions in relation to woman's sphere which 
 were altogether incompatible with such an act as hers 
 appeared to them to be. They thought it was a lower- 
 ing of the high standard of femininity that they had 
 erected, and that they conceived a woman of her excel- 
 lence and prominence should endeavor to maintain, for 
 her to assume a position that required her to act a part 
 that, so far as their knowledge extended, had heretofore 
 been assigned exclusively to men. They believed that 
 no woman, especially a married woman, and, above all, 
 one who had everything about her to make her life hon- 
 orable and happy, should seek outside of her own home 
 for a field upon which to display her knowledge or to 
 make herself useful, unless it were one of charity or be- 
 nevolence. They did not question her ability, or the 
 honesty of purpose by which she was actuated, but they 
 did doubt her possession of that equable temperament 
 which, up to this time, they had given her credit for 
 9 
 
194 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Laving. There was no intention among these people of 
 dropping her acquaintance ; they did not look upon her 
 proposed act as one that was incompatible with her posi- 
 tion as a lady, but they were sincerely grieved that she 
 should have felt called upon to make such a tremendous 
 innovation in the manners and customs of women of 
 gentle breeding. It might all be very well for women- 
 graduates in medicine, who had sat on the benches with 
 men-students in the University of Zurich or of that of 
 Paris, to give lectures in a medical college. Delicacy 
 and refinement were not to be expected in them. Like 
 the grapes that are handled, the bloom had been rubbed 
 off, and it would not be any greater desecration of their 
 womanly natures for them to recapitulate as professors 
 what they had learned as pupils. These people, sensible 
 as they in general were, seemed to be incapable of grasp- 
 ing the idea by which, Theodora was animated. They 
 had travelled so long in one rut that it had become im- 
 possible for them to extricate themselves and to move 
 once more over unworn ground. 
 
 And they were disposed to hold Moultrie responsible 
 for the departure from the system of social observances 
 that Theodora contemplated. They held to the old- 
 fashioned idea that the wife should be completely under 
 her husband's influence, at least so far as concerned her 
 relations with the world outside of her own domicile. 
 St. Paul had declared that the husband was the head of 
 the wife, even as Christ was the head of the Church. 
 Nothing, they thought, could be stronger than this asser- 
 tion of Scripture ; and when Mrs. Castor, whose cousin 
 was a bishop, quoted and applied it with great unction 
 one day, in conversation with that irreverent old lady, 
 Mrs. Pollux, whose father had been a blockade-runner, 
 
A SOCIETY QUESTION. 195 
 
 or a slave-trader, or a pirate, or something else of the 
 kind, and was told in reply, " Very true, my dear ; but 
 if Christ is to be held responsible for everything the 
 Church has done, I am afraid he will require the grace 
 of God as much as we poor sinners, " she was shocked at 
 the quasi blasphemy, but her opinion was not in the 
 least shaken. 
 
 Both ladies were at the opera that evening, in their 
 respective boxes, and Moultrie, who knew them very in- 
 timately, visited them in turn during the next entr'act. 
 First he entered Mrs. Castor's box. The lady did not 
 care for music ; it was a bore to her ; but she went to 
 the opera because it was the proper thing to do, and 
 because Mr. Castor was infatuated with it ; but whether 
 with the music, or the lady singers, or the coryphees, 
 she could never exactly determine. She knew, how- 
 ever, that he did not, when his daughter was performing 
 on the piano, know one tune from another, and yet at 
 the opera he clapped his hands and cried " Irava!" 
 and whispered " beautiful !" as some intricate piece of 
 musical pyrotechnics was let off, or some complicated 
 Terpsiuhorean performance evolved out of the nether 
 limbs of the members of the corps de ballet. It was a 
 little suspicious, especially the latter circumstance, but 
 he had always declared that it was not the dancing that 
 enraptured him, but the admirable work of the orchestra. 
 Nevertheless Mrs. Castor thought that it was just possi- 
 ble he needed watching ; so she had an additional in- 
 ducement for attending the opera. 
 
 She greeted Moultrie very warmly, and made room 
 for him by relegating young Castor from the chair he 
 was occupying next to her to one at the back of the 
 box, where he was out of the way. " Sit here," she 
 
196 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 said; U I am so glad to see you. "We that is, Mr. 
 Castor and I, were just saying how well Mrs. Moultrie 
 is looking to-night, and how lovely your daughter is. 
 Is she to be brought out this season ?" 
 
 " No ; Mrs. Moultrie and I both think that she had 
 better not have her mind diverted yet awhile from more 
 serious subjects, and she is of our opinion. Next year 
 will be time enough.' ' 
 
 " Well, don't delay it too long. Girls, as Mr. Castor 
 says, are like city lots. You keep them, expecting that 
 business will reach them soon, and that then you will 
 sell, when suddenly you discover that trade has taken 
 all at once a tremendous jump, and has skipped them." 
 
 Moultrie smiled at this characteristic illustration, for 
 the Castors owed much of their prominence, socially and 
 financially, to the large number of " lots" owned by the 
 head of the house. 
 
 " I am not afraid of that for Lalage," he said. " As 
 you are an old friend, I may be excused for telling you 
 that her fate is sealed." 
 
 " What, engaged to be married, and not yet out in 
 society !" 
 
 " Yes ; she was engaged before she left Colorado." 
 
 " Will it be considered impertinent if I inquire who 
 is the happy man ?" 
 
 " Not at all. She will in a few months marry the 
 Count John Tyscovus of Poland, or, as he is now, the 
 Hon. John Tyscovus, Delegate to Congress from the 
 Territory of Colorado." 
 
 " Tyscovus ! Oh, yes, 1 know him ! He has been, 
 off and on, a good deal in New York society. His father 
 married an American woman, one of the Pinkneys, and 
 he has a large fortune, made up from both sides. To 
 
A SOCIETY QUESTION. 197 
 
 think of his turning up in Colorado as a Member of 
 Congress, and about to marry your daughter !" 
 
 " Yes, it is all very remarkable. But how do you 
 like the opera this evening ?" 
 
 " You know I don't care much for music, but I sup- 
 pose it is all very fine, if one may judge by the applause. 
 Besides, my whole mind is full of another matter. Will 
 you allow me, as an old friend," she continued, laying 
 her hand on his arm, " to talk with you a little about it ?' ' 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Castor, you may talk to me about any 
 subject you please. Your right as a friend is indisput- 
 able." He knew very well what was coming, and was 
 rather glad than otherwise of the opportunity to set his 
 friends right in regard to several points in which they 
 were clearly wrong. 
 
 " Thanks. You will not misunderstand my motives, 
 I am sure." She stopped for a moment, as though 
 thinking as she probably was how to begin. Then 
 she said : 
 
 " You are blessed with a lovely woman for a wife one 
 who wins the hearts of all who know her. You have 
 given her all that is calculated to make her life happy 
 good position, wealth, a refined home, and everything 
 that riches and taste and love can afford. Besides, and 
 above all else, you are a home-man, with home-interests 
 apparently above all other interests that is, you do not 
 spend your days and nights at your club, and your amuse- 
 ments are found with your family. Well, now I hear 
 that your wife is going into public life as a lecturer in a 
 medical college for women. My dear friend, you will 
 not be surprised if I ask why is this, for it is a question 
 that is on the lips of everybody who knows you or her." 
 
 " It is not likely, my dear Mrs. Castor, that you could 
 
198 A 'STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 offend me by showing that you take an interest in me 
 and mine, especially when you accompany your question 
 with so many kind expressions. And I should ill repay 
 your goodness were I to refuse to answer. You did not 
 know my wife before her marriage, and hence much of 
 what I am about to say may perhaps be a surprise to you. 
 My wife," he continued, after receiving an encouraging 
 glance from Mrs. Castor and they were now alone in 
 the box " was educated in a peculiar way entirely, in 
 fact, by her father and a Swiss governess, who was a 
 graduate in medicine of the University of Zurich. While 
 Theodora was yet a child her mother died, and her 
 father became imbued with certain notions relative to 
 women and their proper position in the social and the 
 political worlds, that exercised a preponderating influ- 
 ence over him in the matter of the education of his 
 daughter. He had her taught medicine and natural 
 science, especially anatomy and physiology, and tried to 
 instil in her a desire to enter politics. Here, however, 
 law was against him ; but she frequently gave lectures to 
 the people of the town in which they lived, in a lyceum 
 which he had instituted and liberally endowed. 
 
 "It was not, therefore, surprising that under such 
 influences her mind should have been developed in a 
 particular direction, and that she should have acquired a 
 great fondness for the sciences she studied. Her intel- 
 lect was good ; few men have more equally-balanced 
 minds than has she, and she possesses also that greatest 
 of all the mental faculties, the power of concentrating her 
 attention upon a subject and of keeping it there till she 
 has understood it thoroughly. She had ample opportu- 
 nity for several years, under the encouragement of her 
 father and teacher, to study and investigate to her heart's 
 
A SOCIETY QUESTION. 199 
 
 content. A laboratory admirably fitted up was built, 
 and here she not only devoted herself to the acquirement 
 of existing knowledge, but she made original experi- 
 ments that have materially added, as all physiologists 
 admit, to . the sum total of established facts in that 
 science. 
 
 "During five or six years this course of instruction 
 and study were kept up. She became more than ordi- 
 narily proficient in medicine ; and though she never 
 attended lectures at a medical college, and hence never 
 took the degree of Doctor of Medicine, she practised 
 quite extensively among the women and children of the 
 part of the country where she lived. Physicians have 
 told me that her knowledge was far above that of the 
 average doctor, and that, moreover, she possessed a de- 
 gree of tact and of judgment that would have done credit 
 to men in the profession of twice her age and experience. 
 
 " 1 suppose it is hardly possible for you, my dear Mrs. 
 Castor, to imagine that a young girl of good family, and 
 reared amid all the luxuries and refinements that large 
 wealth can give, could take an interest in such subjects, 
 or that, taking it, could preserve her natural sweetness 
 of character, and, above all, that she should develop into 
 a pure-minded, gentle woman, whose tastes for the 
 beautiful in nature and art should be as well marked as 
 though she had been brought up, for instance, under 
 your care. It would be difficult, I say, for you to con- 
 sider the possibility of such a thing, for to do so requires 
 a kind of experience that you have never had. You 
 might as well be called upon to give your views of the 
 characteristics of the inhabitants of the moon, if there 
 are any. 
 
 " And I am free to confess that when I first met 
 
200 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Theodora Willis my prejudices were not essentially 
 different from those that now actuate you. I saw that 
 she was beautiful ; I felt instinctively, as I watched her 
 movements and heard her speak, that she was refined, 
 modest, and free from those disagreeable peculiarities of 
 temper or disposition that so many young women of the 
 present day exhibit. And yet when I learned, as I did 
 the next day, in casual conversation with her father, 
 that she had studied medicine and had dissected ' all 
 kinds of animals, from man to insects,' I was shocked 
 beyond measure, and 1 determined that I would never 
 meet her again. But already her spell was around me. 
 I did meet her again, and many times ; and, little by 
 little, my prejudices faded away before the light of in- 
 dubitable facts, and then I knew that there was nothing 
 good or pure or noble in womanhood that was not in 
 Theodora Willis. I recognized then the grand truth 
 that there is nothing in the study of the works of God, 
 when undertaken with pure motives, that can tend to 
 debase the mind, either of man or of woman ; but that, 
 on the contrary, it is lifted above the meannesses and 
 trivialities of life to a plane of which those who grovel 
 in ignorance have no conception." 
 
 " Verily," exclaimed Mrs. Castor, " ' thou almost per- 
 suadest me. ' Your reasoning is good, and the truth of 
 all that you say of your wife is unquestionable. Doubtless 
 Mr. Castor would say as much for me if it should ever 
 become necessary, but up to this time I have never dis- 
 tinguished myself, except, perhaps, for my dinner-parties. 
 An eminence in that direction requires no defence. Now, 
 my friend, go on." 
 
 " After our marriage," continued Moultrie, " my wife 
 gave up her special studies, or at least the practical part 
 
A SOCIETY QUESTION. 201 
 
 of them, though she has always continued to take an in- 
 terest in all departments of natural science. I have done 
 nothing to discourage her, for I knew very well that a 
 mind as active and as intelligent as hers could not remain 
 content with the mere satisfaction of its emotional part. 
 I felt afraid, too, that the love for original investigations 
 and for a more thorough identification with scientific 
 pursuits was only dormant, and I have been expecting, 
 ever since I made her my wife, that the time would 
 come when the longing would rise to the surface. "Well, 
 it came when she was offered the professorship of phys- 
 iology in the ' Martha Washington Medical College for 
 Women. ' I saw that she was pleased, but I also saw 
 that she was resolved to allow me to decide for her. 
 One word from me would have stopped the whole thing. 
 Can you blame me, when the chief object of my life 
 is to secure her happiness, that I refused to interfere, but 
 that, on the contrary, I gave my full and unreserved ap- 
 proval of the acceptance ?" 
 
 " No, my friend, so far as your relations with your 
 wife are concerned I do not blame you ; but people who 
 live in the world are obliged to sacrifice something to 
 expediency. They cannot, in fact, afford to disregard 
 the prejudices of those among whom they live. For 
 instance, there would be nothing intrinsically wrong 
 in my walking down Fifth Avenue every morning at 
 ten o'clock in a bathing-dress; but don't you suppose 
 that if I were to do so I would become the subject of 
 censure or ridicule ; that I would attract a crowd of hoot- 
 ing men and boys, and that, probably, although I had 
 violated none of the canons of decency, I should be ar- 
 rested by the police ?" 
 
 " And I think," said Moultrie, laughing, " that if you 
 
202 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 did such a tiling from pure wantonness, or simply for 
 your amusement, or for the sake of making yourself no- 
 torious, that you ought to be arrested. You have chosen 
 an extreme case, but I will accept it. Now, suppose 
 that by walking down Fifth Avenue every day at ten 
 o'clock, clothed in a bathing-dress, you improved your 
 mind and showed other women how they could improve 
 theirs ; and suppose, further, that instead of being a 
 ridiculous and irrational performance, the act were one 
 necessary to the understanding of the noblest works of 
 God those comprised within the domain of organic 
 nature, from man down to the lowest vegetable forms 
 would it not be your duty to incur the derision of the 
 ignorant or the odium and contempt of the malicious 
 for the sake of the objects you had in view ? Remember 
 the fate of all reformers. They are in advance of their 
 time. In the Middle Ages we burnt them at a stake ; 
 now we visit them with social ostracism. My wife can 
 endure it, and with God's help I intend that she shall 
 not falter for want of a supporting hand from me. And 
 as to society, composed as it is in New York of elements 
 two thirds of which are beneath the contempt of edu- 
 cated and intelligent people, neither I nor my wife will 
 allow its action one way or the other to disturb our 
 equanimity." 
 
 Mrs. Castor was silent for a few moments. She was 
 evidently much moved by what Moultrie had said and 
 by his manner of saying it. Had he observed her closely, 
 he would have seen a tear in each eye and a little nervou^ 
 twitching about the corners of the mouth, which, try as 
 she would, she could not prevent. His hand, the one 
 nearer Mrs. Castor, rested on his knee, and presently he 
 felt her touch it. 
 
A SOCIETY QUESTION. 203 
 
 " When does your wife begin lier lectures ? " she said, 
 with a little tremor of her voice. 
 
 " To-morrow at three o'clock. I shall go with her to 
 the college and stay with her while she is delivering it. 
 Being her introductory, it will not be strictly of a scien- 
 tific character. At least, not deeply so." 
 
 " May I go with you?" As she said these words 
 Moultrie felt her hand press his with a little more force. 
 
 He did not speak, but his hand turned and grasped 
 hers, and he gave her a look, which was all the answer 
 she needed. 
 
 " Then if you will allow me," she continued, with- 
 drawing her hand and recovering her composure, " I will 
 take lunch with you at two o'clock, and you shall drive 
 me over with you to the college. My friend," she con- 
 tinued, " you are right. Your wife is a heroine, you are 
 a hero, and, please God, we will fight this matter through. 
 Now go ; there's old Mrs. Pollux looking at us through 
 her glass and grinning, and if you stay here much longer 
 she will circulate a story that you have been making love 
 to me, whereas it is I who have been making love to you." 
 
 There was nothing patronizing in Mrs. Castor's words 
 or manner. She was not the woman to attempt that line 
 with a man like Moultrie ; neither was he a person to 
 submit to it from anybody. He felt that she had been 
 honestly converted from her way of thinking, and that 
 she intended to " assist" at Theodora's introductory, not 
 so much for the purpose of giving countenance to her as 
 to show the world that she had undergone a change of 
 views. She was a very independent woman. She could 
 do pretty much as she pleased in New York, and be 
 certain of having any number of servile imitators. Once 
 lot it be known that Mrs. Castor had attended Mrs. 
 
204 A STEONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Moultrie's introductory lecture on physiology, and the 
 opinions of a hundred women which now hung in the 
 balance or were dead against women-lecturers would be 
 firmly settled in their favor. 
 
 Mrs. Pollux smiled graciously as Moultrie entered her 
 box, and holding out her hand, gave him a vacant seat 
 on one side of her. The chair on the other side was 
 occuplied by General Bluifum, on the retired list of the 
 army, who had attained high military rank by pursuing 
 the discreet policy of never differing with his superiors, 
 and by staying around "Washington, on bureau or staff 
 duty, thus keeping the u powers that were" constantly 
 aware of his existence a fact which, as he had never 
 been under fire, and probably never in front of an enemy 
 in the field, might otherwise have passed out of their 
 memory. The two gentlemen bowed to each other, and 
 Moultrie having taken the seat indicated to him, Mrs. 
 Pollux opened her batteries. 
 
 She was Mrs. Castor's best and most intimate friend, 
 though tile two ladies never met without having a dis- 
 pute, in wliich, owing to her utter indifference and reck- 
 lessness as to what she said, Mrs. Pollux, so far as words 
 went, generally had the better of it. She was older 
 than Mrs. Castor by at least ten years, having been fifty- 
 one at her last birthday ; but though she never denied 
 her own age, she insisted with the utmost vehemence 
 that " Tilly Castor might say what she pleased, but if 
 she ever saw fifty- two again it would have to be when 
 her soul was transmigrated into another animal younger 
 than the one that now held it." 
 
 " I'm coming to your wife's lecture to-morrow !" she 
 exclaimed, almost before Moultrie had fairly got settled 
 into his chair. " Indeed, I think 1 shall attend the 
 
A SOCIETY QUESTION. 205 
 
 whole course ; I've always had a curiosity to know why 
 people who never think should have brains. It seems 
 to me such a waste. I've been asking General Bluffum, 
 but he couldn't tell me. By the by, that reminds me 
 that as often as I've asked General Bluffum for infor- 
 mation I've never succeeded in getting any." 
 
 u If you would ask me about Egypt now," said the 
 General, u I could tell you a good deal about it. Spent 
 last winter there," he continued, addressing Moultrie. 
 " Brought home lots of embroideries, brass-ware, mum- 
 mies, and other antiquities. In fact, I quite spoiled the 
 Egyptians. Ha ! ha !" 
 
 " Spoiled the Egyptians, did you ?" said Mrs. Pollux, 
 a little sharply, for she had no idea of allowing the Gen- 
 eral to join in the conversation she wanted to have with 
 Moultrie. " Well, they're not the only things you've 
 spoiled in your time. You're fit for treasons, strata- 
 gems, and spoils. Had him that time," she continued, 
 in a whisper to Moultrie. ~^~^\ 
 
 u That's because I have no music in mr soul,'; replied 
 the Genera], good-naturedly. 
 
 " Now, whenever I hear General Bluffum talking about 
 his soul," growled Mrs. Pollux to Moultrie, " I wish I 
 had your wife's microscope handy, so that 1 could take a 
 peep at it. Now, tell me all about this new move of 
 your wife's. You needn't mind Bluffum. He knows 
 that it would be as much as his life's worth for him to 
 repeat anything he hears in this box." 
 
 u There is nothing to tell," said Moultrie, smiling, " ex- 
 cept that to-morrow afternoon at three o'clock Mrs. Geof- 
 frey Moultrie will give her first lecture on physiology." 
 
 "And do you approve of her doing so?" said Mrs. 
 Pollux, looking him straight in the face. 
 
206 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Of course I do. In the first place, I approve of 
 everything she does ; and in the second place, she does 
 nothing that I do not approve of." 
 
 " Spoken like a man and a brother !" exclaimed Mrs. 
 Pollux. " Give us your hand ! I must shake it after 
 that. You'll hold your own in spite of 'em. They're 
 a bad lot, these New York ' society women/ as they call 
 themselves most of 'em are, I mean ; up to-day and 
 down to-morrow. Giving a ball at Delmonico's this 
 week, and living on a flat in Long Island City the next. 
 And for the ' loiks o' thim,' as my coachman says, to be 
 conspiring against you and me is a little too much you 
 whose grandfather was a general in the Revolution, and 
 me whose father commanded the Bolivian navy ! What 
 time do you go ? Why can't you both come over and 
 lunch with me, and then we'll go together." 
 
 " Mainly, I suppose, because Mrs. Castor is coming to 
 lunch with us." 
 
 " Then ask your wife to send me an invitation to join 
 you, and I'll come too, and we'll all go together. But 
 you don't mean to tell me that Tilly Castor is going to 
 give you the light of Tier countenance !' ' 
 
 " Mrs. Castor certainly expects to be present." 
 
 " The inconsistent old thing ! But there goes the 
 curtain, and we mustn't talk any more. There are a 
 couple of young blackguards that Sorby girl and that 
 Boggs ditto in the next box, and they've done nothing 
 but talk about you all the evening. They kept it up all 
 the time the singing was going on, and I heard them 
 bragging how they had stared a gentleman out of coun- 
 tenance who tried to make them stop by looking at 
 them. 1 stopped them, but not by looking at them. 
 I took this,' ' showing a sharp gold pin, some four inches 
 
A SOCIETY QUESTION. 207 
 
 long, and with a head made of a single large diamond, 
 61 out of rny lace, and when the Sorby girl was talking 
 her loudest I very stealthily stuck it about an inch into 
 the small of her back. Lord ! 1 wish you could have 
 seen her jump. She knows I did it, but she can't prove 
 it, and she knows what I did it for. She hasn't opened 
 her mouth since. Good-night. Don't forget to ask 
 your wife to invite me to lunch, and we'll show 'em 
 who's who in New York." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A BEGINNING AND AN END. 
 
 THEODORA had made several visits to the u Martha 
 Washington Medical College for Women," and had be- 
 come familiar with the arrangements which the founders 
 of that institution had established for the furtherance of 
 the objects they had in view. The building had been 
 erected, at considerable cost, for the special purpose of a 
 medical college, and was far better supplied with the re- 
 quirements of such a structure than are most of those 
 used for the like object by the opposite sex. She had 
 thus often been brought into intimate association with 
 Rachel Meadows, and had also made the acquaintance of 
 Miss Richardson, who, though not a graduate in medi- 
 cine, or even a systematic student of the science, had 
 attended several of the courses of lectures, in order, as 
 she said, to make herself acquainted with those branches 
 of knowledge which, as she declared, every educated 
 person, man or woman, ought to know something about. 
 She had announced her intention of attending all the 
 lectures to be delivered by Mrs. Moultrie. 
 
 In order to show their appreciation of Theodora's 
 acquirements, and probably also for the purpose of pro- 
 viding for uniformity in the titles held by the several 
 members of the Faculty, the trustees had conferred upon 
 her the honorary degree of " Doctor of Medicine." 
 She smiled when she was called " Doctor" for the first 
 
A 1 BEGINNING AND AN END. 209 
 
 time, and she soon discovered that she was to receive 
 that handle to her name whenever she was addressed by 
 any one, officer pr student, connected with the college. 
 
 The class in attendance was a large one/and was made 
 up not only from all parts of the United States, but from 
 other countries of America, North and South, as well 
 as of a sprinkling from Europe. Most of them were 
 women who had passed the heyday of their youth, but 
 there were several who were not yet out of their teens, 
 and a few though not many, it must be confessed who 
 were possessed of great personal beauty. 
 
 The morning of the 20th of November, 1874, opened 
 auspiciously. The day was clear, cool, and crisp, and 
 Theodora was in such a condition of Men aise as to admit 
 of the same adjectives being applied to her. She had 
 worked hard at the preparation of her lecture, but at the 
 same time so systematically that she felt no fatigue. 
 She had one of those minds in which subjects are, as it 
 were to use the simile of an eminent scholar laid 
 away on shelves or hung up on pegs, ready for service 
 when needed. It was not much trouble for her to get 
 them down and to bring them into use when required. 
 Then when she had gotten them all arranged in the order 
 she intended she went to the opera, as we have seen, and 
 for the first time in her life Lai went with her. 
 
 But although she was ready, and felt that confidence 
 in herself which the person who has mastered what he 
 or she is about to discuss always feels, and although she 
 had no doubt in regard to her ability to communicate her 
 knowledge to others, she did not underrate the impor- 
 tance of the step she was about to take. She felt, indeed, 
 as though upon her had fallen the task of showing to the 
 world that it was not requisite that a woman who de- 
 
210 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 sired to live an active scientific life should cut herself off 
 from those associations which, in all ages of the world, 
 had been regarded as hers by right of custom and 
 nature. So far as she knew, no woman situated as she 
 was had ever occupied a chair in a medical college. 
 There had been women-professors in fact, there were 
 three in the college with which she was connected, the 
 others being men but they were all either single women 
 well advanced in years, who had given up all ideas of 
 marriage, or widows without any immediate family ties. 
 However, there was no denying the fact that none of 
 them was, either by manners or education, such a person 
 as she would have chosen as her social companion or 
 acquaintance. All of them were disorderly in their 
 dress and had certain offensive habits that would have 
 ruled them out of good society. 
 
 Thus, Dr. Susan Pike, who held a prominent chair in 
 the school, and who, so far as her medical knowledge went, 
 was probably competent to teach the branch assigned 
 to her, indulged in the use of " chewing gum" to such 
 an extent that not only were her jaws kept in perpetual 
 motion, even when she was not talking, but the secretions 
 of the salivary glands were so materially augmented above 
 all normal standards, that she was obliged to spit every 
 two or three minutes. On account of this habit she was 
 known among the lady-students as the " Llama," and a 
 bright girl in the class had drawn a caricature of her as 
 one of these useful, though disagreeable, animals, stand- 
 ing in the amphitheatre and giving a lecture, with a big 
 spittoon hung around her neck. 
 
 Another, Dr. Marie Antoinette Billings, an elderly 
 lady, who had buried two husbands, and had then taken 
 up the study of medicine, had had several severe contests 
 
A BEGINNING AND AN END. 211 
 
 with medical societies in the effort to obtain recognition 
 from the male members of the profession. There was 
 nothing at all singular in Dr. Billings's assumption of 
 the doctorate beyond the fact that she was a woman. 
 Nevertheless, in her own city, Philadelphia, she had been 
 refused admission into the county medical society on no 
 other ground than that of her sex. Whereupon she had 
 shaken the dust of the Quaker City from her feet and 
 had removed to New York, where, notwithstanding the 
 factious opposition of Dr. McPheeters and his " gang," 
 as she called them, she had been admitted to full fellow- 
 ship. Although nearly fifty years of age when she 
 began the study of medicine, she had acquired a sound 
 knowledge of its principles, and her experience, espe- 
 cially in the department of children's diseases, was very 
 considerable. Her success had been somewhat remark- 
 able, for her personal characteristics, to those of delicate 
 sensibilities, were not pleasant. She was nicknamed 
 " Saint Eufraxia," who, as the legend states, was a holy 
 woman belonging to a convent of one hundred and thirty 
 nuns, not one of whom ever washed her feet. The very 
 mention of a bath was an abomination to these good 
 ladies. Whether or not Dr. Marie Antoinette Billings 
 carried matters as far as did Saint Eufraxia and her com- 
 panions, it was very evident that she possessed the " odor 
 of sanctity" to such a degree as to make her room better 
 than her company. 
 
 Then there was Dr. Libby Johnson, a lady who had 
 passed the meridian of her life in single blessedness, wno 
 was very angular in her movements and postures, very 
 untidy in her person, very precise in her speech, and 
 very ignorant of the first glimmering of the idea of 
 the subject Materia Medica and Therapeutics which 
 
212 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 she had undertaken to teach to the suckling feminine 
 Galens at the u Martha Washington Medical College for 
 Women." 
 
 How Dr. Libby Johnson had succeeded in getting a 
 diploma was never known. That she had one, and from 
 a respectable college, was undoubted, for the governing 
 powers of the school were exceedingly strict in their 
 ideas of regularity, and " out-Heroded Herod" in their 
 adhesion to the code of ethics of the American Medical 
 Association, just as the Canadians, who are left out in 
 the cold, are more loyal to the throne than the English 
 themselves. 
 
 But it was very certain that she was not qualified to 
 fill the chair that she held. She managed, however, to 
 recapitulate verbatim the views of writers who knew 
 what they were writing about. All her lectures were 
 written out in full, and had been copied from authorities 
 whose teachings might safely be followed. 
 
 She had obtained her appointment through the per- 
 sonal influence of a wealthy lady, who had given ten 
 thousand dollars for the endowment of the chair, on con- 
 dition that Dr. Libby Johnson should be the first occu- 
 pant. Now the trustees were beginning to take legal 
 advice as to their power to remove Dr. Libby without 
 forfeiting their endowment, with a strong prospect of a 
 favorable opinion on the point. 
 
 Her peculiarity was an infirmity rather than a fault, 
 but it was one, nevertheless, that caused her to live a life 
 of comparative isolation, both on her own account and 
 that of others. She was afflicted with a species of St. 
 Yitus's dance of the muscles of the face, so that she 
 was either winking or grinning or exhibiting some other 
 expressional manifestation all the time that she was in 
 
A BEGINNING AND AN END. 213 
 
 company, unless she preserved a state of silence and of 
 indifference in regard to what was being said or done in 
 her presence. The very moment that she opened her 
 mouth to speak, that instant her eyelids, the corners of 
 her mouth, and her nose began to work. She had even 
 been known, when under more than usual excitement, to 
 " wag her left ear;" but ordinarily the twitchings did 
 not extend so far as that organ. It was very provoking, 
 however, to her and others, that when some particularly 
 serious remark had been addressed to her she should, be- 
 fore answering, elevate her brows and wink her eyes, 
 as though expressing surprise and doubt. Indeed, the 
 affliction would, but for her years, have excited the 
 censorious remarks of the ignorant and the malicious. 
 As it was, when a young gentleman had picked up her 
 fan which she had dropped, and was repaid by a kind 
 glance and a wink of her right eye, old Miss Scribner, 
 who saw the whole thing, was loud in her denunciation 
 of a woman " old enough to be his grandmother." 
 
 Such were the women members of the Faculty. As 
 to the men, the less said of them the better. They were 
 commonplace in every way. But then, so little ability 
 and knowledge are absolutely requisite in a professor in 
 a medical college, that they got along quite as well as 
 many of their brethren in more pretentious institutions. 
 
 It was one o'clock ; Mrs. Castor and Mrs. Pollux had 
 arrived in time for lunch, and Moultrie had come up from 
 his office to join them. Both ladies were profuse in 
 their compliments on Theodora's good looks and the 
 courage she was showing. She had spent the morning 
 in thinking over her subject and in familiarizing herself 
 with her thoughts, so as to get them into good working 
 order, to have them, as it were, at her tongue's end, ready 
 
214 A STRONG MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 for use the instant she wished to enunciate them. She 
 had not written a word of her lecture, nor did she even 
 intend to use notes in its delivery. She had studied it 
 thoroughly ; she was satisfied that she had done her best, 
 and whether it fell dead or took the public by storm 
 were alternatives that were now beyond her control. 
 
 " Are we not to have your lovely daughter with us, 
 Mr. Moultrie ?' ' said Mrs. Castor, as she took his arm 
 and went in with him to lunch. 
 
 " No ; I was just asking Mrs. Moultrie about her. 
 She is very busy, and begs to be excused." 
 
 " What a model scholar ! Does she allow herself no 
 relaxation from her labors ?" 
 
 u Yes; but it would be no relaxation for her to be 
 here, and especially for her to listen to her mother's lect- 
 ure. This evening we shall all talk it over." 
 
 " Do you know that there will be an immense audi- 
 ence ? All the most prominent scientific and literary 
 people in the city will be there, and any number of per- 
 sons who, like Mrs. Pollux and myself, know nothing, 
 but who go because we are anxious to see how a woman 
 conducts herself when she comes to deal with a serious 
 subject like physiology, and one, too, that requires such 
 intense application." 
 
 " I have no fear for her," said Moultrie, glancing 
 toward his wife, his face expressing the pride he took in 
 her. "A woman with her knowledge need never be 
 afraid to stand up before the most learned assembly in 
 the land and tell what she knows. She has had a train- 
 ing which, if I had had one half so good, would have 
 been greatly to my advantage." 
 
 " Oh, how I admire your confidence in her ! If men 
 were all as generous and as true as you are, how differ- 
 
A BEGINNING AND AN END. 215 
 
 ent we women would be ! 1 have seen many women 
 singers, actresses, ballet-dancers make their debuts be- 
 fore crowded assemblies, and face the ordeal with cour- 
 age and success, and I have witnessed some break down 
 and retire in confusion and tears ; but the strain in such 
 cases was not so severe as that that your wife will experi- 
 ence to-day." 
 
 " She will endure it, for she has the blood and the 
 breeding and the esprit of a family the members of 
 which, men or women, have never quailed in the face of 
 dangers or failed in the face of difficulties." 
 
 " What are you two talking about so mysteriously ?" 
 said Mrs. Pollux, who sat on the other side of Moultrie. 
 " Where there are only four together at table conversa- 
 tion should be general. Now, let me tell you what I've 
 done. I went out this morning and got all aU, I say 
 the works of Herbert Huxley and Tyndall Spencer, and 
 I've been through them. The consequence is, that I 
 wish I was dead. If I had known that an intelligent 
 person, such as I think I may, without undue vanity, 
 say 1 am, would have been expected to read those books, 
 I would never have been willing to be born. Is your 
 lecture to be about such things as cataplasm, or whatever 
 you call it, and the Lord knows what else besides ?" 
 
 " Darwin, and Huxley, and Tyndall, and Spencer are 
 our masters," answered Theodora, smiling. " Take 
 some of that pat/. I know you like English pheasants, 
 and when 1 heard you were going to be kind enough to 
 lunch with us I ordered the dish for your special 
 benefit." 
 
 " Yes, and 1 find I am being plied with wine, too, 
 doubtless for the purpose of putting me into such a con- 
 dition as will prevent me understanding your lecture. 
 
216 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 But you may spare your Chablis and your Lafitte and 
 your Pommery sec, so far as Mrs. Castor and I are con- 
 cerned. My mind and hers, too, although she will 
 swear she knows all you are going to speak about is as 
 blank as a sheet of paper, and all the wine in France 
 couldn't make it blanker." 
 
 " Speak for yourself, Carry, please," said Mrs. Castor. 
 " It would, we know, be almost impious for any one to 
 attempt to make an impression on your mind. It would 
 look like endeavoring to contravene the eternal decrees 
 of the Almighty. As for me, I happen to be familiar 
 with the teachings of the great men whose very names 
 you have confused, and I feel myself capable of under- 
 standing Mrs. Moultrie's lecture." 
 
 Never had Mrs. Pollux been answered by her friend 
 with so much spirit as now. For a moment she regarded 
 her with an expression of utter astonishment on her face. 
 Then she burst out : 
 
 " Hoighty-toighty !" she exclaimed. " The worm 
 has actually turned ! But no, no," with a melancholy 
 shake of her head and a ludicrous dropping of the cor- 
 ners of her mouth, as though she were about to burst into 
 tears ; " I see how it is : ' Much learning has made thee 
 mad.' Well, well, as the Member of Congress from 
 the Puddlefield district remarked the other day in de- 
 bate, <Ef I hadn't 'a' seed it I wouldn't V knowed 
 it.'" 
 
 " I shall not notice her further," said Mrs. Castor, 
 sotto voce, to Theodora. " She's a vulgar old woman, 
 and a thorough fraud." 
 
 Nevertheless, when they left the table to enter Mrs. 
 Moultrie's landau they had sent away their own car- 
 riages they were " Tilly -ing " and " Carry-ing" each 
 
A BEGINNING AND AN END. 217 
 
 other as though there had never been a cross word be- 
 tween them. 
 
 "When they arrived at the college they saw, from the 
 long string of carriages waiting on either side of the 
 street, that already a large audience was in attendance. 
 Moultrie and his wife ascended the steps and entered the 
 building. Mrs. Castor and Mrs. Pollux lingered behind 
 to scrutinize the carriages and the liveries, in the effort to 
 discover who were present. It did not take them long, 
 and they hurried to overtake the others, who were wait- 
 ing for them in the vestibule. " My dear," whispered 
 Mrs. Pollux in Theodora's ear, " everybody is here 
 everybody ! I never saw the like of it before. You'll 
 not only have wealth, but you'll have science and art, 
 literature and politics, to listen to you. Oh, you dear, I 
 could just hug you to death for joy !" 
 
 u Wait till my lecture is over," said Theodora, smiling. 
 " Perhaps then you will want to do it to revenge your- 
 self." 
 
 Then an usher came and conducted them into a room, 
 from which a passage-way led to the rostrum, and which 
 had been specially reserved for Theodora and her party. 
 A noisy orchestra was performing a selection of operatic 
 airs, for the lecture was not only the introductory to 
 Theodora's course on physiology, but was the opening 
 one of the session, and, as was usual on such occasions, 
 the trustees had lugged in music to add to the attractions 
 of the event a custom, perhaps, better honored in the 
 breach than in the observance. 
 
 There were yet about five minutes before the hour for 
 beginning. Theodora wished that she could be alone 
 with her husband, for her two garrulous friends kept up 
 
 a running fire of comments on the audience, which they 
 10 
 
218 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 were surveying through a convenient peep-hole, and 
 disturbed her thoughts. It can scarcely be said that she 
 was not interested in knowing who were to hear her ; but 
 certainly her two friends exceeded her in this respect. 
 Each new accession of some distinguished man or woman 
 was noted by them, and was the subject of delighted 
 comment. It was quite evident, both to Moultrie and 
 his wife, that the ladies were greatly relieved in mind 
 by finding that they were not the only " leaders of 
 society" to give their countenance to this new departure 
 of one of their number, and equally so, now that they 
 saw what a splendid indorsement the lecturer would 
 probably receive, that they were anxious not only to keep 
 in the advance, but to assume the directorship. 
 
 " As I live !' ' exclaimed Mrs. Pollux, whose eye was at 
 the peep-hole, " if there isn't Mr. Carp. He must have 
 come all the way from Washington on purpose. Yes, 
 and there are Mr. Hurse, and Mr. Bolster, and General 
 Marquand, and Bishop Crocker ; to think he should come 
 out to hear you ! My dear, that is an honor at least, 
 in Tilly Castor's eyes. Her cousin was a bishop, you 
 know. As to doctors, there's no end of them ; and law- 
 yers ! their name is legion." 
 
 " If you have quite surveyed the audience," said Mrs. 
 Castor, with a little asperity, " perhaps you will kindly 
 allow me to take one glance before we go on the stage." 
 
 " Certainly, my dear," replied Mrs. Pollux, giving up 
 her place, ' ' only it is a platform that we are going on. 
 I'm not yet quite ready to go on the stage. As to you, 
 my love, you've been such an actress all your life, that 
 you have been flattering yourself that at last you were 
 about to appear in public. But it's not a theatre, dear. 
 It's only a medical college." 
 
A BEGINNING AND AN END. 219 
 
 Mrs. Castor took possession of the peep-hole without 
 deigning a reply to this ill-natured speech of her friend's. 
 She looked search ingly around the room for about a 
 minute. Then she went over to where Theodora was 
 standing, and said to her : 
 
 " My dear child, such an assemblage was never seen in 
 this city before ! Everybody who is anybody is here. 
 Even Mrs. Stanhope, who never goes anywhere unless 
 she is certain to get the worth of her trouble, is here in 
 all her glory. And then there are Mrs. Yander Dunke 
 it ought to be D-o-n-k-e-y and her two daughters ; 
 Mrs. Delancey Darby ; the French minister and Madame 
 de Faux ; your friend Prince Bromkouski, and that odi- 
 ous Miss Gildersleeve, dressed like a man, as far as she 
 dare go, and looking like one, too. She's got her note- 
 book out, and she'll serve you up to-morrow in the Tat- 
 tler, no matter what sort of a lecture you give." 
 
 Just then an usher appeared, and stated that the trus- 
 tees and faculty were now ready to enter the lecture- 
 room. Our party went out into the passage-way, and 
 were there met by the head of the procession. A lady 
 whom Theodora knew very well, Mrs. Gilbert Mowbray, 
 the President of the Board, approached and offered her 
 her arm. From somewhere or other Mr. Castor ap- 
 peared and gave his to Mrs. Pollux, while Moultrie 
 escorted Mrs. Castor. The strains of the orchestra were 
 now heard in the form of the wedding-march from 
 Lohengrin^ the doors were thrown wide open, and in an 
 instant Theodora found herself facing a thousand peo- 
 ple. A round of applause greeted the procession, as Mrs. 
 Mowbray and Theodora appeared, which was continued 
 till the whole party had taken their seats in the pre- 
 scribed order on the platform. Then the music ceased, 
 
220 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 the Rev. Paul Stuart Hardcastle made a short prayer, 
 and then Mrs. Mowbray, as President of the college, read 
 an address, setting forth its struggles, its triumphs, and 
 its objects. 
 
 While the reading was going on Theodora took the 
 opportunity of looking around her. She saw many faces 
 of persons she knew, all wearing a kindly expression. 
 Among them was that of the Hon. Tom Burton, of 
 whose admiration for Rachel Meadows, Moultrie had 
 told her. He had probably come there as much for the 
 purpose of seeing again the woman who had so strongly 
 impressed him as to hear her lecture. Her eyes roved 
 around the sea of upturned faces. Yes, there was one 
 that was not friendly, for far off in a corner was Miss 
 Billy Bremen, the diamonds in her ears being her most 
 conspicuous feature, though the scowl on her broad face 
 was as marked as her features permitted her to make it. 
 
 And every eye was turned on Theodora. Never had 
 she looked more beautiful than she did then. Her color 
 was perhaps slightly heightened by the excitement of the 
 occasion, and her eyes were a little brighter ; but these 
 changes added to rather than detracted from her appear- 
 ance. Her admirable composure, the gentleness yet 
 dignity of her bearing, were the subjects of general ad- 
 miration ; and when, after a few words of introduction, 
 Mrs. Mowbray approached and offered her hand to lead 
 her to the desk behind which the speaker was expected 
 to stand, and Theodora rose to her feet, a murmur of 
 admiration, and then a tremendous round of applause, in 
 which Burton was seen as a leader, burst forth from the 
 large assemblage. 
 
 Theodora had removed her cloak and gloves, but she 
 wore her bonnet. Her gown was of dark blue velvet, 
 
A BEGINNING AND AN END. 
 
 one that had been sent over by Worth only a few days 
 before, and which she was now wearing for the first 
 time. At her corsage was a bouquet of her favorite 
 Jacqueminot roses that her husband had gathered for her. 
 For a single instant she stood facing the crowd. Then 
 ghe turned and bowed to the president, then to the audi- 
 ence, and then, while every one wondered what she was 
 about to do, she walked across the platform to where 
 her husband was sitting. He rose from his chair and 
 advanced toward her, thinking that something had hap- 
 pened ; but she stopped when about five feet from him, 
 and made him a graceful obeisance. In an instant a, 
 deafening shout arose from the crowd, always in New 
 York prompt to understand. It was the touch of nature 
 that made them all akin. It was the acknowledgment of 
 his headship of her vassalage. At once all perceived 
 that she gave up nothing of the woman, nothing of the 
 wife, in her assumption of the office of teacher. On the 
 contrary, there was not one of all those assembled there 
 that did not know that she looked to her husband as her 
 helper, her supporter, her friend, and that she did not 
 look in vain. 
 
 Moultrie was surprised. It was not in human nature 
 for him not to be pleased. He felt that she had won in 
 the friendly contest that had been begun when the idea 
 of the professorship was first suggested, and she had won 
 in a way that had caused his heart to bound with love 
 and admiration for her. But this was not the place for 
 the display of feeling. He held out his hand to her, and 
 then with the utmost composure led her back to the 
 desk. A renewed burst of applause followed, and then 
 every sound was hushed in anxious expectation of the 
 words that were to come from the fair woman's lips. 
 
222 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 "It is not usual," she said, in her clear, sweet voice, 
 which, without being raised to an unpleasant pitch, pen- 
 etrated to every part of the large room, " for a medical 
 lecture to begin with a text from scripture, and jet there 
 is one so apposite to the remarks I am about to make, 
 that I cannot refrain from quoting it, even if I am obliged, 
 in so doing, to give it an application not intended by 
 the sacred writer ' In the midst of life we are in death. ' 
 The thoughts which, in their ordinary acceptation, these 
 few words evoke in our minds are among the most 
 solemn that can occur to mankind, and there is not a day 
 or an hour that their truth is not brought home to some 
 of us with all the painful force which nothing so strongly 
 as death can exert upon our hearts. Far be it from me 
 to attempt to lessen their influence. 
 
 " But, after all, they are merely a terse statement of a 
 fact which every one knows. The researches of science, 
 however, enable us to give them another and perhaps a 
 nobler interpretation, for they teach us that while we are 
 really in the midst of death it is to that death that we 
 owe our life." 
 
 For nearly an hour, amid the most profound attention, 
 she went on, adducing fact after fact and illustration after 
 illustration in the elucidation of the doctrine that life 
 results from death. She began with the elementary cell 
 which is the origin of every tissue of the body, and from 
 that advanced to the several organs which subserve the 
 purposes of the living being in the performance of the 
 functions which are necessary to its existence or health, 
 and she showed that no sensation, no action of any kind, 
 can be initiated or continued without the death of some 
 portion of the body. 
 
 She was never at a loss for a word, and each well- 
 
A BEGINNING AND AN END. 223 
 
 rounded phrase that fell from her lips was exactly the 
 one that best expressed the thought she endeavored to 
 convey. There was no attempt at oratory, no gesticula- 
 tion, no impassioned utterances, but not a single sentence 
 failed of its due effect, and there were just those proper 
 inflections and pauses that served best to give emphasis 
 to her ideas, and to relieve her remarks from the least 
 suspicion of monotony. 
 
 Each division of her discourse occupied its logical posi- 
 tion, and helped to make a symmetrical entirety, which 
 could not fail to please every reflecting mind. But there 
 were no forced constructions, no straining after effect, no 
 appeals to the sympathies or prejudices of her auditors 
 nothing but scientific truths, expressed in simple English 
 speech, which every one could understand, and from 
 which deductions were drawn that no one could deny. 
 And then she came to the end. 
 
 " Thus," she said, " I have endeavored to show that 
 the law which declares that there can be no force with- 
 out a change in the constitution of matter is in as full 
 effect throughout the domain of organic as of inorganic 
 nature. We get the electricity that sends our messages 
 over thousands of miles of wire by changes that are in- 
 duced in a few pieces of zinc and a little sulphuric acid ; 
 we get the thoughts that enable us to invent the ma- 
 chines we use for this purpose, and by which the world 
 is made subject to our wills, by the destruction of a few 
 grains of the substance of our brains. The animal body 
 is, therefore, an intricate piece of apparatus, which, in 
 order that it may do its different kinds of work, consumes 
 its own substance for the production of the requisite 
 force. With every perception, therefore, that reaches the 
 brain from without, with every thought that it con- 
 
224 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 ceives, with every emotion that is felt, with every act of 
 the will, a certain portion of its substance dies, and new 
 brain take its splace. Every contraction of a muscle by 
 which the slightest motion is produced results directly 
 from the death of a part of that muscle ; and with each 
 pulsation of the heart a portion of the cardiac tissue is 
 decomposed, and at the very instant its place is filled by 
 new substance, ready for the work before it. The death 
 of the old, the birth of the new, are going forward in 
 our bodies with every instant that we exist, and this 
 ceaseless course is that which we call life. At last, how- 
 ever, the struggle for the mastery is decided once and 
 for all, so far as the earth is concerned. The processes of 
 decay gain the ascendancy ; weakness and disease result, 
 and eventually the triumph of death is complete. Here 
 science pauses ; it can go no further ; but here faith comes 
 in and bids us hope that with the last breath, the last 
 throb of the heart, the last thought that flashes through 
 the brain, a new existence is entered upon in another 
 world where death is unknown." 
 
 For a moment the vast audience was as silent as the 
 grave, apparently spellbound by the solemn words, 
 spoken, with ineffable grace and dignity and feeling, that 
 constituted the end of the lecture. Then round after 
 round of applause swept through the hall ; men waved 
 their hats, women their handkerchiefs, and some, over- 
 come by the thoughts that the discourse excited, could 
 only cover their faces with their hands and sob with the 
 . excess of their emotion. Old Bishop Crocker turned to 
 his friend Mr. Constant, the eminent lawyer, diplomatist, 
 and statesman, and declared, with tears in his eyes, that 
 he had never heard a sermon from the pulpit that could 
 compare with it for its teachings of natural religion. 
 
A BEGINNING AND AN END. 225 
 
 On the platform every one hurried to congratulate 
 Theodora on the marked ability she had displayed, her 
 husband being the first to take her by the hand and to 
 whisper his words of loving praise into her ear. " What 
 you say to me," she answered, while her cheeks flushed 
 with pleasure, " is worth all that the whole world could 
 say." Then Mrs. Mowbray, Rachel Meadows, Miss 
 Richardson, and the faculty and trustees expressed their 
 * thanks and commendations, and finally the Hon. Tom 
 Burton was seen climbing up the platform and coming 
 forward, with his intelligent face beaming with smiles. 
 
 "I'd climb Pike's Peak, Mrs. Mouitrie," he said, 
 holding out both hands in his effusiveness, " to express 
 my thanks and my delight, if you were standing on its 
 very apex. No man that ever I heard could talk like 
 that. I wish you'd let me attend the whole course. I'll 
 wear petticoats if it's necessary." 
 
 " No," answered Theodora, smiling ; " this is the 
 only time that the profane foot of man will be allowed to 
 cross the threshold. To-morrow our work begins." 
 
 " Well, I'm very sorry, and for the first time in my 
 life 1 wish 1 were a woman. But you can do me one 
 favor. Introduce me to Miss Rachel Meadows. ' ' 
 
 " Not here," she said, kindly ; " but if you will dine 
 with us this evening I'll ask her also, and then you will 
 have an opportunity of making her acquaintance." 
 
 He bowed his thanks and his acceptance, and was then 
 crowded out of the way by Mrs. Pollux, in whose wake 
 was Mrs. Castor, neither of whom had yet had a chance 
 to unburden their minds. 
 
 " Such a success was never before seen in New York !" 
 exclaimed the elder lady. " You will have to possess a 
 better brain than most people, my dear, to prevent being 
 
226 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 spoiled with the fine speeches and the flattering criti- 
 cisms you will be sure to receive." 
 
 " Yes," joined in Mrs. Castor ; " 1 think that not even 
 Miss Gildersleeve can find fault with either your matter 
 or your manner." 
 
 " She will, though, and with both," said Mrs. Pollux ; 
 " why, only last week the Tattler contained an insolent 
 attack on a lady who had written a book, and not only 
 that, but on the lady's father, and all because some friend 
 of the editor did not like the gentleman." 
 
 "I am not acquainted with Miss Gildersleeve," said 
 Theodora ; ' l consequently, while she may abuse my lect- 
 ure, she will scarcely venture to speak ill of me." 
 
 " Well, of course it's of no consequence what she says ; 
 but you wait till you see to-morrow's Tattler. If you 
 don't find yourself and your husband and your father 
 handled without gloves yes, literally without gloves, 
 for she never wears them you may call me a false 
 prophet." 
 
 Everybody was going away now ; Mrs. Castor and 
 Mrs. Pollux entered their own carriages, which had been 
 ordered to come to the college, and Moultrie and Theo- 
 dora drove home alone. It was beginning to drizzle a 
 little, and the footman raised the top, thus converting 
 the landau into a close carriage. 
 
 " Oh, Geoffrey !" exclaimed Theodora, as soon as she 
 was shut off from the looks of vulgar eyes, and throwing 
 herself into his arms as she spoke " oh, Geoffrey, I am 
 so happy !" 
 
 " Yes, dear," he said, caressing her, " and so am I. 
 We have both that right, I think, after what you've done 
 to-day." 
 
 " But it is not on account of the lecture," she contin- 
 
A BEGINNING AND AN END. 227 
 
 ued, hiding her face in his breast. " I I did not know 
 till a few minutes ago. But this is my first and last lect- 
 ure. God has spoken ! For oh, my husband, I am 
 going to be a mother !" 
 
 He folded her to his heart and kissed her lips, and then 
 her eyes, suffused as they were with tears of joy. The 
 instinct of maternity was already making itself felt 
 within her. A power stronger than that of either of 
 them had interposed. What were lectures and medical 
 schools to her now ! How insignificant they all seemed 
 to her, compared with the great treasure she bore in her 
 bosom, and which henceforth, for many months to come, 
 was to hold her in happy bondage ! 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 INFATUATION. 
 
 J 
 
 NEITHER the dowager Mrs. Moultrie nor Mrs. Sin- 
 cote was at Theodora's lecture. The former disap- 
 proved of the whole affair, thought that Moultrie ought 
 to have interfered to prevent his wife disgracing the 
 family by appearing in public on the rostrum, and, worst 
 of all, as a lecturer in a medical college. She had pre- 
 dicted a signal failure, both as regarded the discourse 
 and the character of the audience that might assemble 
 to hear it. 
 
 Mrs. Sincote had been confined to her bed ever since 
 the morning she had fainted, while Lai was telling the 
 story of the deception which, by means of a false letter, 
 had been practised upon an ancestor of the present 
 John Tyscovus, and of the horrible fate that had over- 
 taken the perpetrator. She had not been very ill, hut 
 the fainting attack had been followed by several hysteri- 
 cal paroxysms of grief, alternating with joy, during which 
 she had shed tears and laughed to such an extent as to 
 induce considerable bodily fatigue, and to make it neces- 
 sary, Dr. Cady said, that she should not be subjected to 
 any influence likely to cause the slightest mental excite- 
 ment 
 
 She had found it difficult to account for the fact that 
 twice that morning she had been overcome, once almost 
 fainting, and again completely losing consciousness. She 
 
INFATUATION. 229 
 
 had insisted that the history Lai had quoted from the lit- 
 tle vellum-bound book had had nothing whatever to do 
 with the latter occurrence, and that the former was due 
 to the circumstance that she had omitted taking her usual 
 cup of coffee at breakfast. But when Moultrie came home, 
 and Lai related both occurrences to him, he made very 
 little comment, although it was evident to her that they 
 had produced no light impression on his mind. Then 
 when she told him of the loss of the copy of the letter 
 she had made from the book, he became still more grave 
 and thoughtful. So much for Mrs. Sincote. 
 
 Miss Billy Bremen, after her failure to interest the 
 press in her account of the action of the vigilance com- 
 mittee against Messrs. Bosler and Kittle, and under the 
 influence of the disappointment she had experienced 
 consequent upon the election of Moultrie to Congress, 
 had subsided into a condition of comparative obscurity. 
 She had even abstained from attendance at the regular 
 afternoon meetings of the executive committee of " The 
 United "Women of America ;" for she knew that she 
 had at least two enemies in that body Miss Richardson 
 and Miss Meadows and they, probably, the most influ- 
 ential of all the members. She had, however, been un- 
 able to refrain from going to Theodora's lecture, actu- 
 ated as she was, not by a desire to learn anything, but 
 by an insatiable spirit of curiosity, that was one of the 
 most prominent traits of her character. Accordingly, 
 accompanied by one whom she knew to be her friend- 
 Mrs. Cross, the lady with three husbands -all alive she 
 had gone to the college, and had had her little soul 
 fllled with gall and wormwood on perceiving the magnifi- 
 cent success that had attended Mrs. Moultrie's effort. 
 On the lecturer's appearance both she and her friend 
 
230 A STKONG-MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 were forced to admit to themselves that she was a very 
 beautiful and distinguished-looking woman, dressed with 
 consummate taste, and holding herself with an ease and 
 dignity which both of them knew was as far from their 
 attainment as is the moon from the stretched-out hand 
 of an avaricious baby. Women in a large city like New 
 York, vulgar though they may be, have so many oppor- 
 tunities for educating the eye, that they acquire the 
 faculty of discriminating between the true and the false 
 in all matters of aesthetics to a much greater extent than 
 is generally supposed. At the same time, while possess- 
 ing this power, they never, unless they really become 
 refined, appear to have the ability to exercise good taste 
 in the matters of their own dress and surroundings. 
 They can recognize in others the fact that simplicity is 
 not incompatible with elegance, but seem to be utterly in- 
 capable of applying the knowledge to themselves. Thus, 
 if Theodora had appeared on the platform clothed, as was 
 Miss Billy, in a sky-blue velvet hat with purple feathers, 
 and a green silk frock slashed with yellow plush, no one 
 in the room would have noticed the incongruity more than 
 she. She would have complacently felt that what she 
 could wear with advantage to her good looks, a woman 
 like Theodora could not venture upon with impunity. 
 
 " I suppose her husband is too mean to give her dia- 
 monds, ' ' was the only remark she made, until Theodora, 
 moved by the impulse of the moment, had bowed to 
 Moultrie. Then her pent-up feelings could be restrained 
 no longer, and she burst out into a perfect tirade of in- 
 vectives, conveyed in loud whispers to the ear of her 
 companion. 
 
 " Such acting !' ' she exclaimed ; " did you ever see the 
 like of it ? Of course it's a put-up job. When they're 
 
INFATUATION. 231 
 
 at home I guess they fight like cat and dog. All these 
 people do who are so sweet on one another in public. I 
 guess he gave his consent on condition that she'd go 
 down on her knees before the whole audience." 
 
 " Before I'd do that to the best man that God ever 
 made I'd cut my throat," said Mrs. Cross, with an ac- 
 cent that was full of sanguinary emphasis. " But, of 
 course, Miss Bremen, it's all a sham." 
 
 " "What an awkward man he is," resumed Miss Billy. 
 " Why didn't he give her his arm like a gentleman, 
 instead of taking her by the hand, and holding it out as 
 if he was a king, and she a queen. Perhaps that's the 
 latest style from Colorado." And so she went on with 
 her comments during the whole lecture, asserting at the 
 end that it was full of infidel sentiments, and that she 
 wondered how Christian people clergymen, too could 
 listen to such horrible doctrines, and even applaud them. 
 
 Now, when Miss Richardson had announced so posi- 
 tively her conviction that Miss Billy was in love with 
 Mr. Moultrie, she had, as is very often the case with 
 people who make positive assertions on slight evidence, 
 made a great mistake. So far from entertaining the 
 slightest feelings of regard for this gentleman, she hated 
 him with a degree of intensity which had, as we have 
 seen, not stopped with him, but had extended to other 
 members of his family. And she would very willingly 
 have slaughtered each and every one of them in as cold 
 blood as was felt by the butchers in her own abattoir 
 toward the animals whose existences were there termi- 
 nated, could she have had them in her power. The reason 
 for this was by no means logical, but it was sufficient 
 for a narrow-minded, ignorant, and malignant little ani- 
 mal like Miss Billy, and it consisted in the fact that Mr. 
 
232 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Luke Kittle's mother and her mother were first cousins. 
 Now, as Mr. Moultrie had been instrumental in aiding 
 Mr. Jim Bosler to shuffle off this mortal coil with ease to 
 himself and advantage to the community, and had en- 
 couraged the Vigilance Committee in perform ing the like 
 kindly offices for her cousin, the facts were deemed by 
 the lady sufficient cause for hating his whole family. 
 
 But while Miss Billy was very far from being in love 
 with Moultrie, the tender passion had touched her from 
 another quarter. Miss Richardson had mistaken the 
 direction of the lady's glances, for they were not directed 
 toward the candidate, but at the gentleman who was ad- 
 vocating his claims, the Hon. Tom Burton. It was not 
 the first time she had seen him. In fact, she had a 
 slight very slight acquaintance with him, his law firm 
 in Lutetia being her legal advisers in a suit for damages 
 that she had instituted against some Texan cattle-dealers 
 for a failure to deliver a lot of beeves to her in New 
 York, according to contract. He had, representing the 
 firm, met her two or three times in a business capacity, 
 and Miss Billy had lost her heart. Thus far she had 
 made no progress in gaining his affection, the truth being 
 that she had never once occurred to his mind outside of 
 his business relations with her. He did not even know 
 that she had attended the meeting at which her anger 
 had been so greatly roused against Moultrie and Rachel 
 Meadows. 
 
 Now, Miss Billy had a sharp pair of eyes, and her mind 
 was as shrewd in a small way as that of any woman, or 
 man either, for that matter, that ever lived. She had 
 kept her little dull orbs fixed on Burton while Eachel 
 was speaking, and she had observed that he was all at- 
 tention and admiration. There was no mistaking this 
 
INFATUATION. 233 
 
 fact. Then, when she had concluded, she noticed that 
 his looks followed her till she had resumed her seat, and 
 it was impossible for him to keep his gaze away from 
 her, try as he might. From all of which she argued 
 that the man with whom she was in love had bestowed 
 his affection on another woman ; and with the sort of 
 feminine logic which women like Miss Billy exhibit, she 
 had at once made herself an enemy of that woman. 
 There might have been a slight modicum of reason 
 in the matter if she had turned her hatred on Burton ; 
 but that she should vent her spite on Rachel was not ex- 
 plainable upon any other hypothesis than that she her- 
 self being a woman was possessed of some of the char- 
 acteristics peculiar to the more ignoble specimens of the 
 sex. As to the taunt she had made to Rachel of being 
 in love with Moultrie, Miss Billy was well aware that she 
 had uttered a lie, pure and simple. 
 
 The Hon. Tom Burton, late Member of Congress 
 from the State of Texas, and applicant for the position 
 of consul to Barcelona, had dined with the Moultries, 
 and had had the pleasure of escorting Mrs. Moultrie to 
 dinner and of sitting next to Rachel Meadows. It was 
 a very enjoyable dinner to him, although his attentions 
 and his affections, it must be said, were for a time pretty 
 equally divided between Rachel and Lai and Theodora. 
 He reflected, however, that he had no possible chance 
 with either of the other ladies, and later in the evening 
 restricted his conversation almost entirely to the only 
 one upon whom he could hope to make an impression. 
 For versatility in knowledge and occupation few men 
 were the equals of this gentleman. Educated at Har- 
 vard, he had, on the breaking out of the war between the 
 States, hurried home just as he was about to graduate, 
 
234 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 and had enlisted in the service of the State of Texas, and 
 afterward, by absorption, in that of the Confederacy. 
 His promotion had been rapid, for in less than six months 
 he had risen from the rank of private to that of brig- 
 adier-general, obtaining his promotion on the ground of 
 his superior education, his dash and bravery, but mainly 
 on account of a couple of most audacious and successful 
 raids which he had made into the State of Kansas, with 
 a couple of squadrons of cavalry. For the last of these, 
 during which he had met and defeated a force twice as 
 
 O 
 
 numerous as his own, besides bringing back with him 
 large numbers of horses and cattle, he had been jumped 
 at one step from the grade of major to that of brigadier- 
 general. But it was not long thereafter that he encoun- 
 tered the fate of many less brave and daring command- 
 ers. He had a little too much contempt for his adver- 
 saries, and one day he was raided in turn by a Union 
 brigadier, with two regiments of infantry. And while 
 General Burton and his men were bivouacking and enjoy- 
 ing themselves as well as their limited facilities for ob- 
 taining a dip into the " flesh-pots of Egypt " permitted, 
 and while their horses were picketed out on the prairie, 
 he and his whole command were, in the expressive lan- 
 guage of the day, "gobbled up" and marched off on 
 foot to a railroad station, whence they were conveyed to 
 a Northern military prison. Here General Burton passed 
 the few months remaining till the close of the war, suf- 
 fering the most poignant anguish over the wreck of his 
 military aspirations, and chagrin at the method of his 
 capture. " To think," he said, " that two regiments of 
 cavalry should have been captured by an equal force of 
 infantry. The finest soldiers in the Confederacy fel- 
 lows accustomed to ride horseback almost from the day 
 
INFATUATION. 235 
 
 they were born to be wiped out in this way by a lot of 
 Yankee school-teachers, clerks, and farm hands on foot, 
 is hard. Yes, it's damned hard ! I don't think 1 can 
 ever lift up my head again. I am tired of the war, and 
 if any man dares to give me a military title after I get 
 out of this hole I'll kill him as sure as my name's Torn 
 Burton. " He got out in two or three months, but no one 
 ever ventured to call him " general." 
 
 Then he began the study of the law, and soon after 
 admission to the bar became the leading lawyer in 
 Lutetia, the town in which he resided. Employed in 
 several important railway cases, he had received large 
 fees, and soon for nothing, even in Texas, succeeds 
 like success his practice grew to such large proportions 
 that he was obliged to take a partner. Then, like a wise 
 man, he turned over all the drudgery to the junior, and, 
 unwisely perhaps, went into politics. He could have 
 had almost any State office and he did take two or three 
 but he pined for national distinction. No rebel was ever 
 more thoroughly reconstructed than was he ; but he was 
 on the wrong side to get anything from the party then 
 in power. District attorneyships, judgeships, collector- 
 ships, consulships, etc., etc., were not for men of his 
 way of thinking. But he could go to Congress. So he 
 went, and without any opposition worthy of the name. 
 
 He had served one term, and then he desired a renom- 
 ination. But his course had been too independent to 
 suit the party managers. So a more subservient individ- 
 ual, a German-Israelite, a good enough man in his way 
 perhaps, was substituted in his place. 
 
 Burton had always been noted for a certain kind of 
 dashing oratory, which took universally with the people. 
 
 If he had chosen to offer himself as an independent 
 
236 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 candidate, lie would easily have swept everything before 
 him ; but he was a strict party man in his own State, 
 and nothing would have induced him to set himself up 
 against the managers or " bosses" that looked after the 
 politics of his side. But he had while in Congress dis- 
 tinguished himself as an advocate of free -trade, and had 
 made a speech on the subject that had at once attracted 
 the attention of the Free-Trade League. This organiza- 
 tion, on the lookout for able speakers to expound their 
 principles to the people, especially the artisans of the 
 country, had opened negotiations with him. And so, as 
 his term in Congress had expired, he was engaged to 
 enter upon the crusade against protection that had been 
 instituted. He was to speak at least once a week for 
 one year, and was to receive one hundred dollars for each 
 address. This suited him exactly, for he had about ten 
 thousand dollars^/ 1 annum from his practice and invest- 
 ments he had made, and was thus enabled to travel ex- 
 tensively, to live " like a gentleman" in New York, and 
 to take occasional risks on horse races this latter being 
 the only form of gambling if it can be called such in 
 which he indulged. 
 
 His success at the North as a speaker had been very 
 great, and the mere announcement of his name was 
 sufficient to draw a large audience to hear him. He had 
 done effective work for Moultrie. 
 
 But his engagement with the free-traders was nearly 
 at an end, and the Hon. Tom began to sigh for the 
 cares and the honors of a public office. He had made 
 up his mind never again to live in Texas. He had 
 tasted the delights of a life, with its freedom and its 
 luxuries, in the metropolis, and he had in consequence 
 become unfit for a rural existence. " New York," he 
 
INFATUATION. 237 
 
 declared nearly every day of his life, " was the only 
 place in the whole country fit to live in." Here he had 
 his clubs, his good dinners, his theatres, operas, and, 
 above all, his horses. Life in Texas would have been 
 insupportable to him. 
 
 The getting of an office was, however, a matter of 
 difficulty, his political principles being such as not to 
 commend him to the party in power, unless some way 
 could be devised for making use of him. Up to the 
 present time no way had been discovered for bringing 
 his abilities into the service of his country ; but Moul- 
 trie's election, and the knowledge of the fact that he 
 would possess considerable influence as an independent 
 member, had given him fresh hope. In the mean time 
 he had busied himself in looking into certain schemes 
 that had been started for making money, or, perhaps, 
 for getting hold of other people's money, his own among 
 the rest, and some of them had seriously commended 
 themselves to his attention. Among those were the 
 " New York Automatic Ventilating and Heat Regulat- 
 ing Company," an organization that proposed to carry 
 out the objects mentioned in its name by first getting 
 contracts for putting their apparatus into all the public 
 buildings and schoolhouses of the city, at an expense to 
 the taxpayers of over a million of dollars, but to them- 
 selves of less than a hundred thousand. The system, 
 however, was good, entirely scientific, and practicable. 
 As yet, however, no contracts had been obtained ; and as 
 the company had neither the money nor the dishonesty 
 to excite them to the purchase of the proper officials, it 
 was not likely that the very beautiful arrangements de- 
 vised would ever reach a higher stage than that of the 
 scientific toy. Burton had invested three thousand dol- 
 
238 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 lars in this enterprise, with the probability that he would 
 never see the money again. 
 
 Then he had " gone into" mines, and had become in- 
 terested in patents of various kinds, and had bought up 
 waste lands in New Jersey, with the intention of convert- 
 ing them into cranberry-farms, and many other things, 
 good, bad, and indifferent. To be sure, he had always 
 been regardful of the truth of the statement that 
 
 . " Little ships keep close to shore, 
 
 While larger vessels venture more." 
 
 He had always recognized the fact that he was finan- 
 cially a " little ship," and that it was necessary for him 
 to " keep close to shore ;" so that while his gains from 
 his investments had not been great, his losses had been 
 small ; and, on the whole, he was a little ahead. 
 
 The conversation at the dinner-table had, of course, as 
 it was the principal event of the day, SD far as the party 
 was concerned, turned on the lecture. The knowledge 
 that had come to Theodora, and that she had communi- 
 cated to her husband, had put them both into more than 
 usual good-humor, for they had begun to have fears that 
 their union might not be blessed with offspring. 
 
 Now, however, all apprehensions were removed, and 
 the fact caused them more real joy than they had experi- 
 enced at any time since their marriage. 
 
 Of course Mr. Burton was enthusiastic in his praise 
 of Theodora's style of oratory, but he was careful to put 
 in a saving clause relative to Rachel Meadows, whom he 
 had heard speak so well at the meeting of Moultrie's 
 supporters, held just before the election. Both ad- 
 dresses were, however, he declared, astonishing instances 
 of what woman could do in the way of oratory. For 
 
INFATUATION. 239 
 
 clear statement of fact he had never known either to be 
 equalled. 
 
 Then he branched off into politics, and spoke of the 
 effort that would be made at the ensuing session of Con- 
 gress to obtain some modification of the existing tariff. 
 The South, he said, was always ready for free-trade, 
 and the West was getting ready to wheel into line. Even 
 the East was beginning to show signs of desiring a 
 change. The cotton manufacturers of New England 
 were already ripe for it. They had now no foreign 
 market, and as to those of wool, how could they compete 
 with outsiders, when they were taxed so heavily by the 
 duty on the raw material they employed ? Of all the 
 ways of protecting American manufactures, that of put- 
 ting almost prohibitory duties on the materials they used 
 was the most idiotic. Then turning to Rachel, who had 
 listened very attentively to all his remarks, and was 
 pleased with his versatility, he said : 
 
 " All women are natural-born free-traders, Miss 
 Meadows, and the enemies of custom-houses. They are 
 all in favor of buying in the cheapest market and selling 
 in the dearest, and they will all smuggle when they can. " 
 
 "How can you expect us," answered Rachel, smil- 
 ing, " to take an interest in the enforcement of laws 
 which you give us no share in making ? You govern us 
 by brute force, and then expect us to be loyal to the in- 
 stitutions of the country ! If we were strong enough 
 we would rebel." 
 
 " Were you ever a rebel, Miss Meadows ?" said Bur- 
 ton, with a laugh. " No, I am sure you have not been. 
 Now, I was once one of the most venomous rebels you 
 ever saw. You wouldn't think it to look at me, for now 
 I'm as gentle as a sucking pig. Rebellion doesn't pay. 
 
240 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Four months in a Northern prison and the cessation of 
 war knocked all rebellious tendencies out of me. My 
 powers of resistance are gone. If a man were to open 
 that door, and say, ' Burton, give me a thousand dollars, 
 or I'll sue you for it,' I would take out my check-book 
 and write him a check for the sum, and I'd save money 
 by the operation, too. There's another moral to that, 
 * Never go to law !' ' 
 
 " And yet you are a lawyer, Mr. Burton," said Theo- 
 dora. " If everybody took your ad vice, your occupation 
 would be gone." 
 
 " Yes, but I trust an honest one. However, advice 
 of that sort, like every other kind, is never heeded by 
 those whom it would most benefit. But I have decided 
 to abandon the law ; 1 have found another occupation 
 that will suit me better, and that will prove far more 
 profitable." 
 
 " What have you got hold of now, Burton ?" asked 
 Moultrie, laughing. " The affair you had taken up when 
 1 last heard anything on the subject of your numerous 
 short and easy methods to wealth was a machine for 
 making surgical bandages. ' ' 
 
 " Yes, that was the last ; but after due inquiry I gave 
 that up. You see, there are about sixty thousand physi- 
 cians in the United States ; and admitting that each one 
 would use ten bandages a year, that makes six hundred 
 thousand that would be required. Now, allow four hun- 
 dred thousand more for the hospitals, and we have a 
 total of one million. The machine has a capacity of one 
 million a week, so that, you see, we could supply the 
 whole United States with bandages for a year by work- 
 ing one week. The other fifty-one weeks we should be 
 doing nothing. Now, as probably it would be a long 
 
INFATUATION. 241 
 
 time before every surgeon and hospital in the country 
 would take our bandages for if each doctor chose to 
 roll his own, he could make them as cheaply as we could 
 I came to the conclusion that there was no money in 
 it." 
 
 " A very sensible conclusion, I think !" exclaimed 
 Moultrie. " But what is the scheme ?" 
 
 " I am going," said Burton, looking around the table, 
 and engaging each one's attention, " to establish a man- 
 ufactory of gondolas." 
 
 "A what!" 
 
 ".A manufactory of gondolas those black boats that 
 they use in Venice for going about the streets in." 
 
 Every one laughed but Rachel. She looked interested 
 and serious, while the others evidently regarded the state- 
 ment as a joke. 
 
 u Since you are the only one that thinks I am in 
 earnest, Miss Meadows," said Burton, looking as serious 
 as he could under the circumstances, " I will address 
 myself to you. The others may listen if they care to, 
 but I wish them to understand that my remarks are for 
 your private ear." 
 
 " Go on, Burton," laughed Moultrie. " We shall 
 listen, even if, like other listeners, we do not hear any 
 good of ourselves. But let me ask you how many cities 
 there are in this country that use gondolas for purposes 
 of locomotion ?" 
 
 " Not one, ' most potent, grave, and reverend seignior,' 
 so far as I know. But what has that to do with it ? 
 However, don't interrupt me by answering, please. 1 
 am speaking to Miss Meadows, whose intelligent mind is 
 the only one here that appreciates me. Isn't that so, Miss 
 
 Meadows ?" 
 11 
 
242 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " I don't know," answered Rachel, with a blush ; 
 " I'm sure I think you are very enterprising." 
 
 11 Thanks ! Now, give me your attention, please, 
 and 1 will convince you that your good opinion is not 
 misplaced. 
 
 " I have ascertained," he continued, after taking a sip 
 of Musigny, which was being served with the canvas- 
 backs, " from the Italian consul, who is a Venetian 
 and a friend of mine, that over a thousand new gondolas 
 are required in Venice every year. A good gondola 
 costs there over twelve hundred dollars, and fine ones a 
 great deal more than that. The one used by the Doge 
 is valued at more than ten thousand dollars, and there 
 are many others worth almost as much. However, put- 
 ting them at twelve hundred dollars each, and we have a 
 total of one million two hundred thousand dollars in- 
 vested every year in gondolas. 1 have had estimates 
 made here by some of our best boat-builders and uphol- 
 sterers, and I find that they can be made and delivered 
 in Venice, ready for use, for about two hundred dollars 
 each that is, the whole one thousand would cost but 
 two hundred thousand dollars, being a yearly profit of a 
 million for the manufacturer. Now, my friend," ad- 
 dressing Moultrie, who, with the others, excepting Rachel, 
 was laughing heartily, " you may laugh as much as you 
 please ; but if you know of good honest work that is as 
 likely to prove remunerative to the capitalist as this, I 
 should like to hear of it." 
 
 " I am sure it is an admirable scheme, Mr. Burton," 
 said Rachel, " and I think you deserve a great deal of 
 credit for thinking it out so thoroughly. Mamma and I 
 are going to Venice in February, and " 
 
 " You are going to Venice !" interrupted Burton, his 
 
INFATUATION. 243 
 
 face beaming with pleasure. " That is delightful ; I was 
 just going to request our friend here to permit me to 
 change my application for the Barcelona consulship to 
 one for Venice. Consuls are allowed to transact private 
 business, so that 1 could easily look after the interests of 
 the i Venetian Gondola Manufacturing Company,' and 
 at the same time attend to my public duties. The fact 
 that you are going to be there, Miss Meadows, is the 
 strongest reason I could have for wishing to be there 
 too." 
 
 Moultrie smiled, Lai looked a little surprised, while 
 Theodora was embarrassed at this open love-making of 
 the Hon. Tom. Certainly, she had never seen so much 
 frankness or such unstinted compliments in all her life. 
 At first she was in doubt whether the gentleman was 
 in earnest, or whether he was simply dealing out un- 
 mitigated flattery, with the object of making himself 
 agreeable. But a good look at Burton was sufficient to 
 remove all incertitude from her mind. If he was not in 
 earnest, then certainly she did not know how to read 
 language or facial expression. She verily believed that 
 but for the presence of the others Burton would have 
 thrown his arms around Rachel, and then and there have 
 asked her to be his wife. He appeared to feel himself 
 making a charge as he was accustomed to do on his raids 
 during the war, and to be overcoming all obstacles by 
 pure dash and momentum. 
 
 As to Rachel, she received his speeches and his 
 marked attention with apparent great satisfaction and 
 complacency. When he said that the fact of her going 
 to Venice was the determining factor in causing him to 
 desire that city for a residence, she blushed a little, and 
 a quiet smile, or rather the least possible expansion of her 
 
244 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 features, appeared on her countenance, but she made no 
 reply. Why should she ? Silence was more expressive 
 than words. 
 
 Evidently, the gallant Texan was contented with him- 
 self and with the manner that Rachel exhibited toward 
 him. The party was too small for much dual conversa- 
 tion, but occasionally there had been an opportunity for 
 him to put in a word or two in a low tone, expressing 
 his high appreciation of her independence of character, 
 of his admiration of a particular flower that she wore in 
 her corsage bouquet, of an antique ring that her father, 
 the Commodore, had brought from Greece, and that en- 
 circled the second finger on the hand next to him, and 
 he had heard that Rachel was an astronomer of his 
 great interest in the study of the heavenly bodies. He 
 was thinking all the time, however, of the incident at Gal- 
 veston, when he had been the only auditor of her lecture 
 on " woman's rights," and when, in pity for her lone- 
 liness, he had offered to escort her to her hotel. So far 
 as he could perceive she had not recognized him. i ' Poor 
 girl !" he thought, " she was too much cut up then to 
 look at me even." He resolved, however, that before 
 he left the house he would recall the circumstance to 
 her recollection. It was the starting-point of his love, 
 which, notwithstanding his prejudices against the cause 
 she was then advocating, had made a deeper impression 
 than he had thought. Besides, had he not the right to 
 say that he had known her a full year ? Surely, after a 
 man has known a woman for a year he has some right 
 to be a little demonstrative toward her if he experiences 
 a touch of the tender passion ! Lai was not disposed to 
 talk much. This was the day Tyscovus was expected 
 to reach St. Louis, and in two days more he ought to be 
 
INFATUATION. 245 
 
 in New York, if everything went well. Perhaps he was 
 even now reading the letter that she had sent, and that 
 had been waiting for him at the Planters' House. He 
 might telegraph his arrival and inform her when he would 
 reach New York ; but he was not a great patron of that 
 means of communication, except in mere business mat- 
 ters. He seemed to have a dread of exhibiting, even to 
 the two or three necessary individuals, his feelings, or 
 even his movements, so far as they concerned her. She 
 had never had a telegram from him except the one an- 
 nouncing his election and his intention of being in New 
 York in a few days. 
 
 Necessarily, too, she had thought much during the 
 last few days of her future movements. She knew that 
 Tyscovus would pass the winter in Washington, and she 
 experienced a very natural desire to do likewise ; but her 
 good sense had come to her aid, as it had often done be- 
 fore, and she had finally determined that she would re- 
 main in New York and go on with her work. As she 
 advanced in knowledge, the desire for more grew upon 
 her, and she looked forward with delight to the time 
 when Tyscovus would be her instructor. But she knew 
 that she would be far more capable of advancing under 
 his guidance after she had become better acquainted 
 with the elementary principles that were now being in- 
 stilled into her. And hence she had decided adversely 
 to the emotion that filled her heart, content to suffer 
 present pain for the ultimate good of her future husband, 
 as well as of herself ; for she well understood that in 
 making the sacrifice of her own feelings she was acting 
 as much with a view to his happiness as to her own. 
 
 Still, she had made her decision without regard to him, 
 and with a saving clause, which she felt might yet alter 
 
246 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 her determination, that if he was very anxious for her 
 to go to Washington, she might be obliged to yield to 
 his wish. Therefore, she felt a little unsettled, and that, 
 after all, the matter rested with Tyscovus. Perhaps, too, 
 some way might be found by which she could not only 
 accompany her father to Washington and pass the winter 
 in that city, but might continue her studies with as much 
 thoroughness as they were now receiving. If she had 
 had some experience of the efficacy of riches and social 
 position, she would have known that there are few things 
 that their combined power cannot accomplish. 
 
 To say that Moultrie was proud of his wife, would 
 scarcely express the full extent of the feeling he experi- 
 enced. When she had exhibited so markedly before a 
 thousand people the sense of her dependence on him and 
 her recognition of his supremacy, he was, as we have 
 said, entirely taken by surprise. Such magnanimity was 
 a revelation to him. He knew better than any one else 
 in the world all the good qualities of his wife ; he under- 
 stood just how generous she could be when occasion re- 
 quired. And if he had not given her credit for such 
 sublime self-abnegation and loftiness of soul as that one 
 act showed her to possess, it was because there had never 
 before been an occasion of sufficient importance to call 
 out her latent wealth of nobility. 
 
 When in the carriage on her way home she had an- 
 nounced her determination to resign her professorship, 
 he had said nothing on the subject, for his mind was 
 completely engrossed with the other weighty piece of 
 information she had given him, although he had seen no 
 reason why she should have arrived at such a conclusion. 
 On their arrival home, however, he had at once men- 
 tioned the subject. She was in her boudoir drinking a 
 
INFATUATION. 247 
 
 cup of tea when he brought the matter up for discus- 
 sion. 
 
 It was difficult to outdo Moultrie in magnanimity. 
 He felt that, although he had acted honestly, he had kept 
 back something when he had given his consent and ap- 
 proval to her acceptance. He had withheld his advice, 
 actuated by several motives, all of which were entirely 
 honorable, and based upon the most devoted affection. 
 Chief among these had been his desire that she should 
 be free to do as she pleased, untrammelled in the slightest 
 respect ; and another, scarcely second to it, was his con- 
 viction that she would erelong of her own accord re- 
 nounce her connection with the medical college. The 
 renunciation had, however, come sooner than he had ex- 
 pected, and just at the time when he had determined to 
 urge her to continue the course so auspiciously begun, 
 satisfied as he now was that she had found the vocation 
 the requirements of which she could not only adequately 
 supply, but one that was best calculated to insure her 
 happiness. His doubt on both these heads had helped 
 to influence him in withholding his advice. 
 
 But although he had been convinced on all points, and 
 was now strenuous in advising her to reconsider her last 
 formed determination, Theodora was firm in her con- 
 viction that she ought to give the matter up at once. 
 There were many mental and physical reasons why she 
 should do this, besides the overwhelming one that she 
 had now an object in life that would absorb all the in- 
 terest she had to give. Her heart was large, but it was 
 not big enough to hold a professorship in a medical col- 
 lege besides her husband and baby. To be sure, he had 
 filled it ; but then his duties required him to be absent 
 from her one third of his time, and she could very readily, 
 
248 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 she thought, have occupied this period as well with the 
 professorship as with anything else. She took nothing 
 from him. Perhaps after awhile she might have found 
 in accordance with Lai's fears occasion to change her 
 mind in this respect. But now her baby his baby, was 
 coming. No, there was no longer room for the profes- 
 sorship of physiology. The professorship " must go." 
 And it went. Fortunately, the trustees were all women ; 
 and though there were regrets, there were no heart-burn- 
 ings on either side. 
 
 But to return to the dinner. Like other dinners, it 
 came to an end, and then, after Moultrie and Burton had 
 each finished a small cigar, they joined the ladies in the 
 drawing-room, whither we will follow them. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A DECLARATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 WHEN the gentlemen entered the drawing-room Rachel 
 Meadows, who was a very brilliant performer on the 
 piano, was just finishing an exceedingly difficult yet 
 masterly composition of Rubenstein's. Burton walked 
 rapidly toward her as the last harmonious bangs were 
 being given. 
 
 " Don't stop, Miss Meadows !" he exclaimed, seeing 
 that she was about to rise from the instrument. " Please, 
 as a personal favor to me, play something more. If you 
 only knew how music moves and delights me, I'm sure 
 you would, out of very charity, grant my request." 
 
 " I'll play for you with great pleasure, Mr. Burton," 
 said Rachel, with sweetness, sitting down again. " What 
 shall I play?" 
 
 " Anything you like, Miss Meadows," said the Hon. 
 Tom, who was rapidly becoming infatuated. " Your 
 taste is good enough for me." 
 
 ' ' I'll play for you one of Liszt's Rhapsodies Hongroises. " 
 She struck off at once into a piece that called for all her 
 skill and sentiment, and she used both with such effect 
 that when she had finished and looked up at Burton, 
 who was leaning over her, she saw that his eyes were 
 full of tears, and that he was only able to articulate a few 
 indistinct words of thanks. 
 
 " I'm not ashamed," he said, after a moment or two, 
 
250 A STRONG MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 during which he had, by means of a little cough and a 
 drawing up of his figure, recovered his composure, ' ' to 
 let you see how easily I am touched by such music as 
 yours. I don't know that it's a bad point in a man. At 
 any rate, I can't help it." 
 
 " It is nothing to be ashamed of, Mr. Burton, espe- 
 cially in you, who have fought so gallantly and have 
 shown in every way that you possess so many fine manly 
 qualities." 
 
 " How did you know 1 had fought ? How did you 
 know anything about me ?" 
 
 " Mrs. Moultrie has been telling me all about you, and 
 sounding your praises. " 
 
 " God bless her !" exclaimed Burton, instinctively. 
 " I mean," he said, recovering himself , " that she's very 
 kind to speak of me at all. " 
 
 " Yes, she said you had fought splendidly. But you 
 were on the wrong side, Mr. Burton." 
 
 " Whichever side was the opposite to the one you 
 were on was the wrong one, of course. But I'm thor- 
 oughly reconstructed, Miss Meadows. There isn't a man 
 that lives who would lay down his life for the old flag 
 sooner than I would." 
 
 " That's very nice ; I like to hear a man talk like 
 that." Then, after a little pause : " I had a friend who 
 was killed at the battle of Mobile Bay." 
 
 " In the navy ?" 
 
 " Yes, he was a naval officer." 
 
 " A very dear friend ?" 
 
 " Yes," with a sigh, " he was a dear friend." 
 
 Burton did not fail to mark the sigh or the gravity of 
 manner with which Rachel had spoken of the incident. 
 She had probably been engaged to him. Still, she did 
 
A DECLARATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 251 
 
 not appear to have taken his death so seriously to heart 
 as to be morbid on the subject. Nearly ten years had 
 elasped since that battle was fought, and if she had been 
 engaged then she must have been a rather precocious 
 young woman, as she did not now look to be a day over 
 twenty-five. The Hon. Tom Burton was a man of 
 action. Doubt, suspense, were intolerable to him. So 
 soon as his mind was made up on any subject, he went 
 ahead ; but if the occasion required it, with such delicacy 
 and gentleness of manner that even those who felt that 
 liberties were being taken with them could not find it in 
 their hearts to be angry. 
 
 Besides, he felt that he had a right to know everything 
 concerning Rachel Meadows that might influence him 
 in his course toward her. He was already head and ears 
 in love with her, but he had always said that he would 
 never marry a woman who had ever been engaged to 
 another man. It was, therefore, a matter of immediate 
 and vital importance to him ; for if Rachel's heart had 
 never yet been touched, and if he could succeed in mak- 
 ing the first deep impression upon it, it was not at all 
 outside of the potentialities that he would declare him- 
 self within the following ten minutes. He must find 
 out, therefore, and at once, what had been the relations 
 between Rachel and the young naval officer, but he must 
 go about the business with delicacy and tact, so as to run 
 no risk of wounding her sensibilities or of appearing like 
 an impertinent busybody, meddling with other people's 
 affairs. 
 
 " Miss Meadows," he said, at last, " do you know that 
 you and I are old acquaintances ?" 
 
 " Old acquaintances ! How is that ?" 
 
 " Yes ; I have known you for almost a year." 
 
252 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Seeing that Kachel did not understand him, Burton 
 continued : 
 
 " It was nearly a year ago that I first met you. You 
 were giving a lecture in Galveston. I was one of your 
 audience, and when you had finished, seeing that you 
 were alone, I offered to escort you to your hotel an offer, 
 however, which you very politely but firmly declined." 
 
 " Are you the gentleman who, pitying my forlorn 
 condition and my palpable failure, stayed all through iny 
 lecture, and then kindly 
 
 " Yes," interrupted Burton, " I am the man." 
 
 " How strange that we should meet again and under 
 such different conditions ! You were my only audience 
 then. Everybody else had left the hall ; I felt as though 
 I should die of vexation and a sense of my failure to 
 interest the people in what was then so near my heart." 
 
 " It looks to me very much like destiny, Miss Mead- 
 ows. We can't control fate, you know." 
 
 " I have often thought of that incident. It was very 
 kind of you to stay and to listen to what you did not 
 care about, merely, too, to prevent my being left utterly 
 alone. And very good of you to offer me your assist- 
 ance afterward. I only declined, Mr. Burton, because 
 my maid was in the adjoining room, and the hotel was 
 just across the street." 
 
 " I took a great interest in you then, Miss Meadows," 
 said the Hon. Tom, with his most diplomatic manner - 
 " an interest, I may say, that has never diminished. I 
 heard you speak the other night at Moultrie's meeting, 
 and then I felt the emotion which had lain dormant in 
 my breast quicken into life, until now 
 
 u Oh, Mr. Burton !" exclaimed Eachel, who instinc- 
 tively felt that this plunging admirer was getting into 
 
A DECLARATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 253 
 
 water so deep that he might have difficulty in extricating 
 himself. u You were not at the battle of Mobile Bay ?" 
 
 " No," said Burton, recovering himself and recollect- 
 ing a point which had gone out of sight ; " I was in the 
 cavalry, and there was no place for us in a naval fight. 
 But you were speaking of a dear friend who was killed ; 
 I should think you must have been very young at that 
 time too young, in fact, to to " 
 
 u Too young," exclaimed Rachel, laughing, " to have 
 been in love ! No, I was not in love with him," she 
 continued, seriously, ''but I liked him very much. I 
 was only fifteen then, but we had been a good deal to- 
 gether, and if he had lived I might have liked him still 
 more. " 
 
 Burton felt thankful for the Confederate bullet that 
 had taken this dangerous friend out of the way, though 
 he was hypocritical enough to look very grave. His 
 resolution was formed in an instant. He would marry 
 Rachel Meadows if he could ; and he would, if he did 
 not propose that night, make sure, if possible, that his 
 case was not a hopeless one. 
 
 u You were speaking at dinner of going to Venice," 
 he said. u Do you sail soon ?" 
 
 " We go in February, to remain abroad at least a year 
 perhaps longer." 
 
 " If my plans succeed, I shall go at about the same 
 time ; I hope to see a good deal of you there, Miss Mead- 
 ows. Old friends, such as we are, with so many similar 
 tastes, ought to find pleasure in each other's society." 
 
 " You are fond of music. Do you play or sing ?" 
 
 " I used to play the guitar when 1 was a much younger 
 man than I am now, and strum a little in the way of ac- 
 companiment on the piano." 
 
254 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Burton, then you sing ! Sit down here 
 and sing something now." 
 
 " But since I have gone into war and politics and gon- 
 dola-making," continued Burton, " I've given up music 
 altogether, except my love for it. That I shall never 
 renounce. " 
 
 " But you must recollect something. Mrs. Moultrie," 
 continued Rachel, addressing Theodora, who was talking 
 with her husband and Lalage in a remote part of the 
 room, u Mr. Burton sings, and I am trying to induce 
 him to do so now. Won't you join your supplications 
 to mine?" 
 
 " He had better sing now while he is rejoicing over 
 his gondola scheme," laughed Moultrie, " for I see by 
 the evening papers that the Venetians are contemplating 
 filling up their canals and laying down a net-work of 
 street railways. Doesn't that take the romance out of 
 you, Burton, as well as demolish your financial visions ?" 
 
 " Oh, they'll talk about it for ten years before they 
 begin to do it," said Burton, " and by that time we shall 
 have manufactured a hundred thousand gondolas. But, ' ' 
 turning to Rachel, " I'll sing for you without any solici- 
 tations from them. And I'll sing a little serenade that 
 fits exactly to our relations as they will be in Venice. 
 You must imagine yourself at the window of an old 
 palazzo, now a hotel, and me in a gondola underneath. 
 Mind, now, this is a true story." 
 
 Then running his fingers over the keys in a way that 
 showed he was more of an adept at the instrument than 
 his words implied, he sang in a strong though melodious 
 tenor voice : 
 
 " My gondola's waiting below, love, 
 Oh, look from thy lattice to-night ! 
 
A DECLARATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 255 
 
 The waters invitingly flow, love, 
 The moon on their bosom shines bright. 
 
 Then come, and we'll glide 
 
 O'er the rippling tide, 
 And we'll watch the gay crowd on the shore ; 
 
 And the gondolier's song, 
 
 As our bark sweeps along, 
 Shall keep time to the dip of his oar. 
 
 " Oh, dread not the balcony's height, love, 
 
 It is but a step to my arms ; 
 Think not the silk ladder too light, love, 
 Nay, dear one, dismiss thine alarms. 
 Oh, don't let us miss 
 Such a twilight as this, 
 
 But we'll seize the bright hours as they flee ; 
 Kemember the sweetest 
 Are ever the fleetest ; 
 Then haste, love, and share them with me." 
 
 The plaudits from the other end of the room were loud 
 and long as Burton finished the song, and many encomi- 
 ums were passed on his voice and method and the applic- 
 ability of the subject to the one they had been discuss- 
 ing. They did not know a tithe of the truth they were 
 unwittingly speaking, for he had sung it, intending that 
 Rachel should, as he said, take the words as being ad- 
 dressed to her. 
 
 She had stood by his side while he was singing, and 
 she was still standing, her hands resting on the piano. 
 Every word of the song had reached her ears, for his 
 enunciation was faultless, and the simple melody to 
 which they had been sung had served to increase the 
 effect they were intended to produce. She was moved 
 by them in a way that she had never been moved before. 
 What did this man this frank, open-hearted, warm- 
 hearted, impetuous, masterful man, mean ? Was he court- 
 
256 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 ing her, or was he trying to make fun of her ? Her asso- 
 ciations had hitherto, with the Exception of the episode 
 of ten years ago, been confined almost exclusively to 
 members of her own sex, most of whom had united in 
 abusing man and holding him up before her eyes as in- 
 ferior to woman in everything but brute force. But here 
 was a man, strong, brave, intelligent, who had acquired a 
 national reputation as an orator, and of whom her friends 
 at the other end of the room had spoken as the soul of 
 honor, showing that he had all a woman's gentleness and 
 kindness of heart, and who, if he was not false to the 
 core, was strenuously making love to her. If this was 
 courting, she liked it. She remembered that, only a few 
 days ago, she had told her friend Miss Richardson that 
 she had often, in her loneliness, yearned for a refuge in 
 the arms of some strong man whom she could love, and 
 upon whom she might rely as a protector and guide. 
 Was this the man ? Had he come so soon after the ex- 
 pression of her wish so soon as almost to seem to her 
 as though it had been specially ordered by the interposi- 
 tion of a higher power ? 
 
 And yet she felt afraid of him. It was all so new to 
 her that she could scarcely understand it. What could 
 he see in her to excite such evident admiration an ad- 
 miration that was being expressed in every word and 
 look, and in every action that had any reference to her ? 
 If she spoke to him, his face at once lit up with a bright 
 expression, which showed his interest and his pleasure. 
 If she turned her eyes toward him, she found that his 
 were fixed on her, and that he had been regarding her as 
 though she were some kind of a magnet attracting his 
 gaze, whether he would or no. 
 
 And now this song ! How was she to take it ? He 
 
A DECLAKATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 257 
 
 had declared that he meant it seriously, and yet it con- 
 tained expressions that were surely only such as a lover 
 might apply to his mistress, and altogether inadmissible 
 from a gentleman to a lady with no other tie than that 
 of acquaintanceship between them. The situation was 
 an embarrassing one, and she could not make up her 
 mind how she should act. She therefore awaited with 
 anxiety the end of the song, for then she knew she 
 should have to say something. And yet it was pleasant 
 to have this strong man at her feet making love to her. 
 It was much pleasanter than the devotion of Miss Rich- 
 ardson, but it was at the same time much more perplex- 
 ing. What should she say when he had finished the 
 song ? The last lines were being sung ; she knew that a 
 few more words would be uttered, and then a crisis 
 would be reached. There was no middle course that she 
 could take. She must either approve or disapprove. 
 True, she might regard it all as a joke, but he had told 
 her he meant every word of it, and that it was " a true 
 story." And, besides, she did not wish to treat it as a 
 joke. To do so after what he had said, and especially 
 after the feeling manner with which he was singing, 
 would, she thought, be idiotic. It would certainly be 
 rude. But the end was 'approaching. The last line, 
 
 "Then haste, love, and share them with me," 
 
 had come, and he was playing the few notes of 
 Yes, he had stopped, and there she was, standing by his 
 side, with her hands resting on the piano, looking, she 
 had no doubt, like a goose certainly feeling like one. 
 The situation every moment became more awkward. If 
 he would only say something ! Or if the ground would 
 only open and swallow her up she would be thankful. But 
 
258 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 no ; there he sat looking at her. She felt he was look- 
 ing at her ; she knew he was looking at her ; and yet 
 she dared not turn her eyes toward him, for then he 
 would see that they were full of tears. Presently she 
 became aware how she could never determine that he 
 was doing something. She did not know what ; but she 
 was sure that, after his imperative manner, he was tak- 
 ing the initiative and doing something that would bring 
 the crisis to an end. Perhaps she felt the jarring if 
 there were any of the piano, or perhaps she heard the 
 gentle gliding of his hand over the polished surface. 
 She did not have long to cogitate, for in a moment she 
 felt his hand placed on top of hers. Now she must de- 
 termine, and that instantly. Longer 'delay would com- 
 promise her past redemption. She might draw her 
 hand away and assume an indignant air, and say, ' 4 Mr. 
 Burton !" or, in the phrase of the Sierras, u words to 
 that effect," and then he would retreat, and she would 
 be relieved from further attacks. Or she might do noth- 
 ing, and then why, then that would be the end of the 
 crisis, too, but in a way as different from the other end- 
 ing as day is from night. It would be her " day," the 
 other would be her " night." 
 
 " Rachel, will you ' share them with me ' ? " 
 For the life of her she could not have spoken a word. 
 She felt a strangling sensation in her throat, and her 
 eyes were still full of tears, that were falling like rain on 
 the Hon. Tom's hand, which hid her own little one 
 entirely from sight. 
 
 " My darling !" oh, how sweet to her were the 
 words ! " don't speak. "We can't go any farther just 
 now ; but if those people were out of the next room I'd 
 well, never mind. "We'll go to Venice together, and, 
 
A DECLARATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 259 
 
 by the immortal shade of Sam Houston ! you shall have 
 the finest gondola that ever floated on the Euxine Sea." 
 
 " But Venice is not on the Euxine," said poor Kachel, 
 taking refuge in Burton's bad geography to bring the 
 situation to an end. " It's on the Adriatic." 
 
 " Of course it is. But you've knocked everything 
 out of my head except the idea of your own sweet self. 
 What do I care now whether it's on the Euxine or the 
 Adriatic?" 
 
 " But you are so sudden ! You don't give one time 
 to think." 
 
 u That's true," said Burton, after a moment's reflec- 
 tion. " But you'll be going home soon, I suppose, and 
 I'll hand you into your carriage, and I'll bid you good- 
 night, and if you say to me then, ' Good-night, Tom,' 
 I'll know it's all right, and to-morrow, at three o'clock, 
 I'll come to see you, and then we'll settle all the pre- 
 liminaries. That's fair, isn't it ?" 
 
 " Yes," answered Rachel, with a smile that went 
 straight to Burton's heart, and left no doubt on his mind 
 as to what she would say. " And now I think we had 
 better join our friends." 
 
 " Of course, dear," said the perfidious Tom, as they 
 walked slowly into the other room, " 1 want to leave 
 your mind perfectly unbiassed ; but at the same time, if 
 you should say even by accident ' Good-night, Mr. 
 Burton,' I should turn right round and make my way to 
 the East Eiver by rapid stages." 
 
 " And what would you do when you got there ?" said 
 Kachel, who had now quite recovered her composure, 
 and who was in the vein for torturing her captive, and 
 who, moreover, enjoyed every fresh declaration of in- 
 fatuation that he might make. 
 
260 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Jump in," replied Burton, sententiously. 
 
 " But why the East Eiver ?" persisted Rachel, with a 
 smile which gave evidence of the delighted frame of 
 mind that she was in. 
 
 " Well, it's nearer, and, besides, it's deeper, and colder, 
 and nastier, and the tide's stronger, and my dead- body 
 would be swept away out to sea, and never more be 
 gazed upon by mortal eye." 
 
 " But it would be such a pretty thing for the mer- 
 maids to look at ! Don't you think, Mrs. Moultrie, that 
 Mr. Burton's dead body would be a refreshing sight to 
 the mermaids ?" she continued, addressing Theodora. 
 
 " Miss Meadows," said the mendacious Burton, " has 
 been proposing that I should drown myself in the East 
 River in order to afford a pleasing spectacle to the mer- 
 maids." 
 
 "Never having seen Mr. Burton's dead' body," said 
 Theodora, laughing, " and not being acquainted with 
 the aesthetic proclivities of mermaids, 1 am unable to 
 answer the question." 
 
 " Besides, there are no mermaids in the East River," 
 said Moultrie. " There may have been once, but sludge 
 acid and petroleum have long since killed them. You 
 will have to drown yourself in the Adriatic, Burton, 
 after you get to Venice." 
 
 " A telegram, sir !" said Franois, who had quietly 
 entered the room and was holding a salver before Moul- 
 trie. 
 
 " Is it for me, father ?" said Lai, anxiously. 
 
 "No, my dear ; it is directed to me. Sign the re- 
 ceipt, please, while I read it." 
 
 Moultrie opened the envelope, and as he read the dis- 
 patch a troubled expression passed over his features. 
 
A DECLARATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 261 
 
 He held it before his eyes for some little time, as though 
 reading it over and over again, in the effort to get at its 
 true meaning. Then he returned it to the envelope, 
 which he placed in the breast-pocket of his coat. 
 
 ' ' There is no answer, ' ' he said to Francois, who had 
 remained in the room. " How well you play, Miss 
 Meadows," he continued, addressing Rachel. "There 
 are few public performers who can equal you. It seems 
 a pity that one with such consummate art as you possess 
 should not have an opportunity to allow the world to 
 enjoy your playing. ' ' 
 
 " You are very kind ; but were I to set up for a pub- 
 lic performer I should be obliged, like Punches young 
 man and his necktie, to give my whole mind to it." 
 
 " You have mind enough for a dozen things as exact- 
 ing as that," interposed Burton, who had never taken 
 his eyes from Rachel since rejoining the main party. 
 
 " Do you think so ?" questioned Rachel, smiling 
 maliciously. " I thought you denied any mental pre- 
 dominance to woman, except in the mere matter of the 
 emotions. Do you think 1 could add up a column of 
 figures correctly, or work out a simple sum in the ( rule 
 of three'?" 
 
 " The i rule of one ' is what woman should seek to 
 understand," said Burton, laughing. "If she studies 
 that thoroughly she can govern the world. " 
 
 Then Rachel rose to go, a servant having just an- 
 nounced that her carriage was at the door. She went 
 up-stairs to put on her wraps, and in the mean time 
 Burton, thanking Mrs. Moultrie for the delightful even- 
 ing he had passed " the most delightful of his life"- 
 bid them all " Good-night." By this time Rachel had 
 come down-stairs arrayed in her cloak, and with some- 
 
262 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 thing light and flimsy over her head. Burton thought 
 he had never seen her look so pretty, and after she had 
 made her adieux he stopped Moultrie, who was about to 
 escort her to her carriage, saying that he would do him- 
 self that honor. He walked by her side as they descended 
 the steps to the sidewalk. Neither had as yet spoken a 
 word. He opened the carriage door and assisted her to 
 enter. " Good-night, Rachel," he said, in a low, but 
 measured and feeling voice. For a moment there was 
 no reply. Then from within came the words, clearly 
 and composedly spoken, " Good-night, Mr. Burton !" 
 
 It seemed to him as though a dagger had pierced his 
 heart. For an instant he stood as though petrified. 
 Had he heard aright ? Yes, there could be no doubt on 
 that point. Then he closed the door very gently and 
 turned away. The coachman drew up his reins, and the 
 carriage drove rapidly up the street, while Rachel, 
 covering her face with her hands, wept as though her 
 heart would break. But only for a few moments. 
 Opening the door, she called to the coachman : 
 
 " Drive back as quickly as possible to Mr. Moultrie's 1" 
 The man turned his horses, and in less than two minutes 
 from the time of starting was back at the house. Rachel 
 looked out of the window, but there was no one there. 
 She opened the door and gazed up and down the street, 
 but there was no one in sight save an old woman and a 
 boy carrying a basket between them, and a young man of 
 dilapidated appearance, who, seeing that she was looking 
 for some person, approached the carriage. 
 
 " Were you a-wantin' some one, lady ?" he said, 
 standing somewhat unsteadily on his feet and staring in 
 at the open door. 
 
 " Yes, a gentleman whom 1 left here a moment ago." 
 
A DECLAKATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 263 
 
 " I seen a gentleman go round the corner not two 
 minutes since. Was he a tall gentleman with a plug hat 
 and an overcoat ?" 
 
 " Yes ; which way did he go ?" 
 
 u Well, it's worth a dollar, 1 guess, to tell," said the 
 man, " 'specially as you 'pears to be so mighty anxious." 
 
 She took out her porte-monnaie, and was in the act of 
 opening it, when the fellow seized it and dashed down 
 the street as fast as his legs could carry him. Rachel 
 gave a little shriek, and the coachman, looking round, 
 saw the man running ; but there was no one to make 
 pursuit, and in a moment or two he was out of sight. 
 
 " Go home !" she said to the coachman, throwing her- 
 self back in the carriage. " O Tom ! Tom !" she con- 
 tinued, as the vehicle rattled over the street, " I think I 
 am the wickedest woman in the world, for I've broken 
 your heart. I saw it in that last look of your eyes ; and 
 I've broken my own, too. God help me for a wicked 
 woman !" 
 
 The drive home was not a long one, but it was suffi- 
 ciently lasting for Rachel in a measure to recover her 
 composure and to make some attempt to account to her- 
 self for her eccentric behavior. When she went up- 
 stairs before leaving Moultrie's she had fully resolved 
 what form of " good-night" to address to her lover. 
 The ardor he had shown, the evident infatuation that 
 possessed him, his rapid, fervid way of approaching her 
 heart, had united to produce an effect not unlike that 
 which usually followed his efforts in other directions. It- 
 was this power to influence others that made him so val- 
 uable as a public speaker, and that had caused Bishop 
 Crocker, as Theodora had told her, to remark, a night 
 or two ago at a dinner-party, that if Burton were only in 
 
264 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 orders he would make a better missionary to the heathen 
 than any man he had ever known. 
 
 And not only had his manner and his sentiments 
 toward her impressed her, as he had intended they 
 should, but his own personality had exercised even more 
 influence. It is not at all improbable that even if 
 Burton had not fallen in love with her she would have 
 fallen in love with him. Here was the strong man, 
 handsome in face and figure, brave, honorable, tender, 
 and every word and action showing that he was true. A 
 little time and opportunity would have caused her, as 
 she well knew, to yield her heart. Now, instead of 
 having been taken by siege and by slow approaches, it 
 had been captured by storm. The result was the same : 
 it had been taken, she had fallen in love witli him, and 
 had thus reached in a couple of hours what, but for his 
 momentum, would have been equally certain to have 
 been attained, though perhaps not for several months. 
 Yes, she would say " Good-night, Tom," and then he 
 would be her accepted lover. Indeed, was he not al- 
 ready that ? Had she not by her conduct at the piano, 
 when she had allowed him to hold her hand and address 
 terms of endearment to her, committed herself beyond 
 the point from which she could retreat with honor ? 
 That also was true. She owed her present opportunity 
 for reconsideration altogether to his generosity. She 
 had already virtually accepted him, but he, in his mag- 
 nanimity, and fearful that he had pushed her too hard, 
 had given her another chance. 
 
 All this she thought before she left the drawing-room 
 and on her way up the stairs until she reached the hall 
 above. There a sudden revulsion took place, not in her 
 feelings, but in her determination relative to the words 
 
A DECLARATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 265 
 
 she was to speak to Burton at the carriage-door. The 
 event was curious as showing how the most strongly -im- 
 planted intention can be changed with startling sudden- 
 ness by a very slight cause. At the head of the stairs 
 hung a painting by a celebrated artist representing a 
 young woman who is about to leave her home in com- 
 pany with a handsome soldier, who is apparently a new 
 acquaintance, belonging to a troop passing through the 
 village. Through the open door leading to the street 
 soldiers mounted and on foot are seen. The girl has a 
 bundle in her hand ; she has evidently only a moment 
 before hastily put on her bonnet and shawl, and she is 
 looking, with a mild expression of regret on her face, 
 into an adjoining room, where her father and mother are 
 sitting. 
 
 Rachel stood and looked at the picture, unable at first 
 to make out its meaning. The handsome young soldier 
 has his arm around the girl's waist, and is apparently 
 drawing her toward the open door, to the lintel of which 
 his horse is hitched. It was not very clear to her what 
 the artist had intended to depict. The scene might 
 refer to one of several quite different events. She 
 smiled as she studied it, being reminded of a portion of 
 the frieze in the drawing-room she had just left, which 
 was a copy of the Bayeux tapestry embroidered by 
 Queen Matilda. One of the sections represented two 
 men with things in their hands which might, by a power- 
 ful stretch of the imagination, be supposed to be meant 
 for lighted torches, which they were holding againet 
 something else which was not like anything in " the 
 heavens above, the earth beneath, or in the waters under 
 the earth." The legend, however, "Hie domus incen- 
 ditur," made the matter clear. She looked for a legend 
 12 
 
266 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 here, and at last, on a little gilt slip of wood, almost 
 hidden from sight in a depression of the frame, she dis- 
 covered it. Bending over she read, " Lightly Won. 5 ' 
 The whole story sought to be told by the artist flashed in 
 an instant across her mind. A passing trooper, one 
 whom the girl had never seen before, had, after a few 
 words of love-making, succeeded in gaining her love and 
 inducing her to fly with him. Had she not herself been 
 almost as willing as the girl in the picture ? Had she 
 not been just as lightly won ? Where had been the 
 maidenly reserve, the timidity, yes, even the indignation 
 that she ought to have shown when this man had dared 
 to speak to her of love after one evening's acquaintance ? 
 Had she not, in fact, acted in accordance with the prin- 
 ciples that various masculine slanderers had attributed to 
 those women that believed in the amplification of their 
 rights ? Yes, she had certainly behaved shamefully ! 
 She had allowed this man to take it for granted that all 
 he had to do was to ask and to receive. Only to open 
 his arms for her to fly into them and nestle in his bosom. 
 Fortunately the matter was still within her control. He 
 had himself, of his own free will, placed it there, and 
 she had only to bid him good-night after a certain for- 
 mula which he said would be a negative answer, and she 
 would be free. As to his drowning himself, that, of 
 course, was idle talk. Men did not, in these days, 
 drown themselves for the love of women. If he really 
 cared for her he would of course come back, and then 
 all would go well. That she loved him she felt well 
 assured. Her true heart had spoken when she had stood 
 by the piano, the tears falling from her eyes on Burton's 
 hand. That was the truth, and if so, what was this ? 
 Was it a lie that she was going to aQt ? She did not stop 
 to think, but the question she had last put to herself 
 
A DECLARATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 267 
 
 somewhat unsettled her in her determination ; not 
 enough, however, to cause her to change it. She was 
 not to be " lightly won." The man who wanted her 
 for his wife must woo her, and if he could win her she 
 would be tender and true to him. On her way to the 
 carriage she did not dare to speak a word to Burton lest 
 something to change her purpose might grow out of her 
 remark. She had heard his adieu, " Good-night, Ra- 
 chel," and for an instant she had wavered ; but she had 
 nerved herself for the effort, and with a voice without a 
 tremor had said, " Good-night, Mr. Burton," as though 
 she were addressing an acquaintance to whom she owed 
 nothing more than civility. 
 
 But the effect of her words had been far different 
 from what she had expected. The look of deep sorrow 
 that in an instant overspread Burton's face told her that 
 she had struck deep. If he had gotten angry and had 
 shut the door with a bang, she would have felt that she 
 had not done altogether wrong. But he had displayed 
 an emotion of quite a different kind. Then instantly 
 her repentance had come. 
 
 When she arrived at her home she spoke a few words 
 to her mother, and then, on the plea of feeling tired, 
 went to her own room. She was not long in concluding 
 what to do. She would write to him, and humbling 
 herself to the extent that might be necessary, confess her 
 love and ask forgiveness for her fault. He might not 
 come back to her. The insight into her character that 
 the incident had given him might have sufficed to de- 
 stroy forever the illusion she had created. Well, God 
 help her if it should be so ! But she, at any rate, now 
 that her senses had come back to her, must undo the 
 wrong she had committed, for she felt that she had 
 spoken a wicked lie. 
 
CHAPTER XIT. 
 
 A DISAPPEARANCE. 
 
 MOULTRIE had succeeded so well in concealing the 
 effect produced by the telegram he had received that 
 neither Theodora nor Lalage suspected that it was any 
 other than such as he was constantly getting from politi- 
 cal friends in all parts of the country. But after the 
 departure of their guests he took it from his pocket, and 
 proceeded to read it to his wife and daughter. 
 
 " You must prepare yourself for a disappointment, 
 Lai," he said, as he opened the envelope and spread the 
 telegram out on the table before him. " Tyscovus will 
 not be in New York for some time to come yet. This 
 is what he says, and I must confess that I don't quite 
 understand him : 
 
 " ' ST. Louis, November 20, 1874 
 
 " ( To GEOFFREY MOULTRIE, ESQ., NEW YORK : 
 
 " ' Letters received. Will go to Washington in a few 
 days without coming to New York. If there has been 
 any misunderstanding on either side, you can then help 
 me to correct it. 
 
 " 4 JOHN TYSCOVUS.' " 
 
 " What can he mean ?" said Lai, who, while her 
 father was speaking and the telegram was being read, 
 became as pale as a ghost. " Not coming to New York, 
 
A DISAPPEAKANCE. 269 
 
 and not one word for me ! There is something wrong 
 something of which we have no knowledge." 
 
 " Yes," resumed Moultrie, "that is very evident; 
 but what is it ? Did you write anything that could by 
 any possibility admit of a false interpretation ?" 
 
 "Nothing. I wrote just as I have always written, 
 and I said how glad we should all be to see him, and," 
 she added, a little color coming into her face as she 
 spoke, " that I should be gladdest of all." 
 
 " You wrote also, Geoffrey, did you not ?" said Theo- 
 dora. " Do you remember what you said ?" 
 
 " Perfectly," he answered. " I spoke of the political 
 change here, congratulated him on his election, and 
 referred him to Lai's letter for other information. I 
 think that I said jokingly that she had sat up half the 
 night writing it, and that her eyes that morning were, in 
 consequence, not so bright as usual." 
 
 " It is very strange," remarked Theodora, musingly. 
 " He is not a man to act from caprice or fancy. Some 
 strong reason has caused him to change his mind. He 
 spoke of misunderstandings. Evidently, whatever they 
 are, they have been induced by the letters. We have, 
 therefore, no very extensive field to investigate, and 
 doubtless a few words with him will set everything 
 right." 
 
 " But he is very wrong, mamma," said Lai, " to 
 let anything anything," she repeated, with emphasis, 
 " cause him to treat me in this way. It is me he means, 
 and it is because of something he thinks that I have done 
 that he is not corning to New York. It is very wrong ! 
 Oh, yes, very wrong, and it is he who must explain, 
 not father or I !" 
 
 " I think you are right, my dear child," said Moul- 
 
270 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 trie, feelingly. " We are conscious of no wrong-doing 
 on our part. If we should discover that either of us has 
 unwittingly said or done anything to wound our friend, 
 it would be our duty to set things right ; but in the ab- 
 sence of such knowledge it is for us to be silent. There 
 is a pride which all true men and women should possess, 
 and I think we all have it." 
 
 " I can wait patiently, father, for the right to be 
 brought out ; and in the mean time, while we think he 
 has been unjust, we must not be too hard on him, for 
 we do not know what has happened. If he is the man 
 we think he is, why, then, in a little while he will tell 
 us." 
 
 A series of furious rings at the front- door bell inter- 
 rupted the conversation. 
 
 " It must be either a fireman or a policeman," said 
 Moultrie, going into the hall. " Why, good Heavens, 
 mother, what has happened ?" he exclaimed, and in a 
 moment he re-entered the room, holding the dowager by 
 the hand. 
 
 In their surprise at this late and unexpected visit, 
 Theodora and Lalage had risen to their feet, but in her 
 agitation the elder lady did not appear to notice them, 
 though she looked inquiringly around the room. 
 
 " Has Julia been here to-day ?" she said, addressing 
 the question to no one in particular, though at last her 
 eyes settled on Moultrie. 
 
 " No," he answered, " I think not. I thought she 
 was too much indisposed to be out.' 5 
 
 " So 1 thought !" exclaimed the dowager. " But this 
 afternoon she got up and announced that she was coming 
 here to learn something about that lecture. She left the 
 house at about four o'clock, and has not been seen since. 
 
A DISAPPEARANCE. 271 
 
 I went to her room a few minutes ago, and found this 
 note addressed to me on the table. Read it. " 
 
 She handed a note to her son, and he read as follows : 
 
 " ' DEAR MOTHER : Do not be alarmed about me. I 
 have found it necessary to leave the city. I shall be 
 quite safe, and you will soon hear more of me. 
 
 " ' Your affectionate daughter, 
 
 "' JULIA.'" 
 
 " Where in the name of Heaven can she have gone ?" 
 said Moultrie, as the letter fell from his bands in his as- 
 tonishment at its contents. 
 
 " I do not know," answered his mother. u There is 
 only one thing that suggests itself, an idea that would 
 occur to any one, 1 think, but that cannot be true. She 
 has always been prudent and good. No, no, that cannot 
 be true." 
 
 " No, mother," said Moultrie, gravely, " that is im- 
 possible. She may be foolish, she may even be wicked, 
 but she would not disgrace herself. Is there no clew to 
 where she has gone ?' ' 
 
 " No, none. I have thought the matter over, but can 
 discover nothing. For the last two weeks she has not 
 left her room till this afternoon." 
 
 " What did she take with her ?" 
 
 66 A full supply of clothes and two large trunks. Her 
 jewelry and other valuables she has left behind. Appar- 
 ently she lias taken only those things that a woman 
 would require for use." 
 
 " Well, she must have had her trunks taken from the 
 house by an expressman. It will, I think, be no difficult 
 matter to find him, as well as the hackman who took her 
 to a railway station or ferry." 
 
272 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " She left the house on foot ; but Richard tells me 
 that an expressman whom he did not know came for her 
 trunks this morning, and that she gave him directions 
 where he was to take them. But she spoke in so low a 
 tone that he did not hear, and as she went up-stairs she 
 said something which he did hear about sending them to 
 be repaired." 
 
 16 It is now ten o'clock," said Moultrie, looking at his 
 watch. " I shall go at once and have a talk with Mal- 
 colm, the detective, and put the matter into his hands. 
 Depend upon it, we shall know in twenty -four hours 
 who took the trunks away, where she has gone, and 
 probably what has caused her to leave her home. Now, 
 shall I take you home first, mother ?" 
 
 " 1 ran over with Richard, but I shall be very glad to 
 have you see me home unless, indeed, you should lose 
 time. Oh, Geoffrey, what a horrid thing this is ! I am 
 afraid our family has received a blow from which it will 
 never recover, and then coming so soon after after that 
 other dreadful event." 
 
 " What do you mean, mother ?" interrupted Moultrie. 
 (They were out in the hall now, where he was putting 
 on his overcoat.) 
 
 " Oh, I don't wish to annoy you, Geoffrey, but of course 
 you know that I have been very much distressed over 
 that shall I call it escapade of Theodora's, which 
 
 " Stop, mother !" exclaimed Moultrie, in a tone of 
 such severity that the dowager involuntarily started ; 
 * ' you had better not say escapade, for if you did you 
 would be insulting my wife, and that I should not allow 
 you to do, even should you desire to attempt it. You 
 have a perfect right to your own opinions relative to my 
 wife's conduct ; but if they are offensive, and you ven- 
 
A DISAPPEARANCE. 273 
 
 ture to inflict them on me, you will commit an error that 
 I think you will regret." 
 
 " Forgive me, Geoffrey !" exclaimed his mother. " 1 
 don't know what I am saying. This last affair is so ut- 
 terly shocking that it has, I think, driven me wild. I 
 will never allude to the other matter again. Of course, 
 it is not so bad as this, and after a while perhaps I may 
 look at it quite differently. But to think that my daugh- 
 ter, my only daughter, should elope clandestinely from 
 her mother's house is a terrible thing to me." 
 
 " She could not have gone off with any one ?" said 
 Moultrie, interrogatively, as they passed out of the street 
 door. 
 
 " Gone off with any one ! gone off with a man ! Oh, 
 Geoffrey, how can you suggest such a thing ? Remem- 
 ber that she is your sister." 
 
 " True," he answered ; " but my suggestion, as you 
 are pleased to call it, is scarcely so bad as the one you 
 made a few minutes ago." 
 
 " But then I am not responsible. I am out of my 
 mind, while you are as cool as a cucumber almost cal- 
 lous, I should say." 
 
 Moultrie made no reply to this charge, knowing full 
 well that his mother if met at one point would bring 
 forward another, and that the better plan, when her 
 remarks related to him solely, was to treat them with 
 silence. Besides, in his present frame of mind, he did 
 not care to dispute or to argue over the trivial matters 
 his mother was disposed to introduce. He therefore 
 turned the conversation by inquiring whether or not 
 Julia had shown by her manner that anything was en- 
 grossing her mind. 
 
 " No," answered the dowager. " Stop a moment !" 
 
274 A STRONGT-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 she continued, after an instant's reflection. "During 
 the last two weeks she certainly has not been herself. 
 She came back from your house on the day she fainted 
 looking very much depressed, and at once took to 
 her bed. You know she fainted in your library while 
 Lalage was telling her some horrid story about her 
 Polish ancestors. And before that, after you went 
 out, she nearly lost consciousness over something else 
 that Lalage said to her, or at least while talking with 
 her." 
 
 " Yes, I know," said Moultrie, " and the two cir- 
 cumstances struck me as very peculiar. Julia is not so 
 squeamish as to faint over a story of events that took 
 place three hundred years ago, and that do not concern 
 her in the least. Now, I have inquired about those 
 fainting attacks, and I find that they both occurred while 
 a letter was being discussed. They were probably in- 
 duced by something that had a special application to her, 
 and they may have, or the letter may have, something 
 to do with her present disappearance. But here we are 
 at your door. I will see you inside, and then 1 must 
 hurry off to find Malcolm." 
 
 He left his mother in her own hall, and then, walking 
 across to Sixth Avenue, jumped into a street railway 
 car on his way down-town to Malcolm's office. He had 
 employed the famous detective several times in business 
 matters, and had every reason to be satisfied with his 
 efficiency and honesty. He found him in his office, sur- 
 rounded by papers, and intently engaged in scrutinizing 
 the- photograph of a woman and comparing it with a 
 portrait on ivory, evidently of the same person, but 
 taken when the subject was much younger. He laid 
 aside his occupation, however, as soon as Moultrie 
 
A DISAPPEARANCE. 275 
 
 entered, and then gave full attention to the matter the 
 latter had to disclose. 
 
 " When I come to you, Malcolm," said Moultrie, " I 
 come with the same predisposition I should have if I 
 went to my physician, my lawyer, or my father-confess- 
 or, if I had one, and that is with the intention of telling 
 him everything relating to the affair in regard to which 
 I want his advice or assistance. I shall accordingly tell 
 you all I know, and even my suspicions, and shall then 
 answer any questions you may choose to put." As 
 briefly, therefore, as possible, he communicated to the 
 detective all the facts that either directly or remotely 
 related to Julia's disappearance. 
 
 " Now," he added, as he concluded, " it is very evi- 
 dent to me that in some way or other my sister's flight 
 is connected with the letter that I mailed that morning 
 to a gentleman in St. Louis, and who is, or, as perhaps 
 I should now say, was, engaged to be married to my 
 daughter. My idea is, knowing her proclivity to play 
 practical jokes on everybody she can reach, that she has 
 tampered with that letter, and that, fearful of the ex- 
 posure that she knew would come, and at about this time, 
 and dreading my just anger, she has hidden herself some- 
 where till the storm she has created has blown over." 
 
 " That seems quite likely," said Malcolm, reflectively. 
 " The only objection 1 see to accepting your view is, 
 that if she went off solely on account of a practical joke 
 she had played, she would have said so in the letter she 
 left for her mother. It appears to me that we shall have 
 to look deeper. Besides, why should she have fainted 
 when Miss Moultrie read the letter to her out of the 
 book, and told the history of it ? By the way, sir, can I 
 see that book ?" 
 
276 A STKONG-MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Certainly ; you will have to call to-morrow morning 
 to get a few data from my daughter, and then you can 
 examine the volume." 
 
 " I shall at once make inquiries of all the expressmen. 
 I shall see the servant at your mother's, and get a de- 
 scription of the horse and wagon that took off the trunks, 
 as well as of the man, and I shall send to-night to 
 the railway stations to ascertain, if possible, something 
 about the baggage received to-day, and to what points 
 checked. These ( baggage-smashers,' as they are called, 
 are, according to my experience, a very observing set of 
 men. Are the trunks, of which I think you said there 
 were two, marked ?" 
 
 " I think so ; yes, I am quite sure they are. Each 
 has her name on it, ' Mrs. Julia Sincote, New York,' 
 and is covered with foreign baggage labels." 
 
 a Thanks," said Malcolm, making a note of the infor- 
 mation. " I think I may safely promise you that with 
 these data alone I shall be able to tell you to-morrow 
 morning in what direction your sister has gone, and per- 
 haps the exact place." He rang a bell that stood on his 
 desk, and instantly a man in plain clothes entered the 
 room. 
 
 " Who are in the reading-room ?" asked the chief. 
 
 " Elder, Scott, Byers, and Tilghman." 
 
 " Send Elder to me." 
 
 The man disappeared, and almost instantly another 
 man, presumably Elder, came into the apartment. He 
 was of about the middle height, rather thin, but at the 
 same time well put together, and holding himself as 
 straight as a pine-tree. His hair and whiskers were just 
 beginning to show the gray, but otherwise he exhibited 
 no indication of being over forty years of age. His rep- 
 
A DISAPPEAKANCE. 277 
 
 ntation as a detective was very great, and lie had, be- 
 sides, on several occasions exhibited great pluck and de- 
 termination. 
 
 " I am afraid, Mr. Moultrie," said Malcolm, as he 
 motioned Elder to a seat, " that we shall have to put my 
 lieutenant here in possession of the main facts of the 
 case ; but I can promise you that they shall go no far- 
 ther." 
 
 Moultrie nodded assent, and the chief rapidly ran over 
 the points of the matter to his subordinate. "Now," 
 he said, as he finished the recital, " take a cab and drive 
 at once to the New York Central Railway station. 
 There, as you know, you will find three railways cen- 
 tring. Before going, however, send Byers to the Des- 
 brosses and Cortlandt Street ferries, to inquire of the 
 baggage men of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and at the 
 same time he can look after the Albany and Fall River 
 boats. And Tilghman will do the same work for the 
 Long Island Railroad. I think we shall get what we 
 want by these means, unless she has taken some one of 
 the ocean steamers. In that case we shall require a 
 little more time. Stop, Elder !" he continued, as his 
 subordinate was moving off to execute his orders. " Tell 
 Scott to report in person to Mr. Moultrie at his residence 
 to-morrow morning, at eight o'clock. Now go, and 
 lose no time, please." 
 
 As nothing more could be done before morning, Moul- 
 trie took his leave of Mr. Malcolm, and calling a cab, 
 was driven to his own home. 
 
 It is not my intention to keep the reader in ignorance 
 of the movements of Mrs. Sincote till the end of this 
 history. On the contrary, I think it better that he or 
 she, as the case may be, should be furnished with all the 
 
278 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 information in my possession relative to her thoughts 
 and actions which has any bearing upon the subjects 
 with which she is connected. There are two reasons for 
 this course, which appear to me to be of imperative 
 force. In the first place, the reader, if a woman, already 
 knows intuitively just where Mrs. Sincote has gone. If 
 a man, though I should keep the fact till the end of the 
 book, he would turn over the leaves till he found out all 
 about it, and would thus interfere very materially with 
 his enjoyment. 
 
 In the next place, I find that I can make a better story 
 out of the point by telling it myself than by leaving it to 
 be discovered by the detectives, though I shall make use 
 of them in unravelling some of the details. Therefore, 
 the reader is requested to forget for the present all the 
 other characters, and to concentrate his or her attention 
 on Moultrie's sister Julia. 
 
 The impression made upon her by the story that Lai 
 had read was profound. There had been no shamming 
 about the matter. When she heard that, notwithstand- 
 ing all the machinations of the wicked aunt, the two 
 lovers came to a good understanding and were married, 
 she felt her brain whirl, a soft, ringing noise was in her 
 ears, and then she knew nothing more till she found Lai 
 and Theodora bending over her. The latter, through 
 her medical knowledge, at once perceived that nothing 
 serious was the matter. Julia had fainted, and in a 
 short time, by the aid of a few simple remedies, con- 
 sciousness was restored. After resting for an hour or so 
 the carriage was brought round, and, accompanied by 
 Theodora, she had been driven home. She had been at 
 once removed to her apartment, and had not left it, so 
 far as any one knew, till the morning of the day of her 
 
A DISAPPEARANCE. 279 
 
 flight, which, as the reader is aware, was that on which 
 Theodora had given her lecture. 
 
 Arrived in her own room, she had endeavored to con- 
 centrate her mind on the situation she had created, and 
 to determine something definite in regard to her future 
 course. In the first place, she very readily perceived 
 that if she allowed matters to go on in their own way, 
 without any further interference from her, her treachery 
 would inevitably be discovered sooner or later, and that 
 the consequences to herself would be such as she could 
 not bear to contemplate without a shudder. It would 
 be too late then for her to take refuge in the plea that it 
 was all a joke. She would receive the unmitigated 
 scorn and contempt and anger of all concerned her 
 mother, her brother, niece, and sister-in-law four per- 
 sons of whom she felt in awe at all times, and of whom 
 she might then feel in terror. She was weak, as we 
 have seen, easily influenced by those with whom she was 
 thrown into association, and utterly incapable of defend- 
 ing herself, even when, as, for instance, when her 
 mother attacked her, her individual rights were inter- 
 fered with. 
 
 But, like many other persons who are silent or submis- 
 sive from lack of courage to face an aggressor, or one 
 whom they have injured, she had her own ways of resist- 
 ance and of getting out of any difficulties into which her 
 conduct might have led her. Thus, although she ap- 
 peared to yield to any arguments that might be addressed 
 to her, or invectives to which she might be subjected, 
 she often quietly pursued her own course exactly as she 
 had predetermined. She therefore in this way exhibited 
 an amount of tempered firmness, or pig-headed obsti- 
 nacy, as the dowager called it, which was the source 
 
280 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 of much mental disquietude to her mother, the more 
 especially as she had no means at her command for over- 
 coming it. 
 
 Again, when Julia had perpetrated one of her prac- 
 tical jokes she was in the habit of telling on herself, and 
 thus disarming the resentment of which she had become 
 the subject. With some people she, by this method, 
 obtained a reputation for frankness and benevolence, 
 which was, perhaps, not altogether deserved, for there 
 were strong suspicions in the minds of others that she 
 never did this till she was certain that exposure was in- 
 evitable, and that, therefore, there was a deal of worldly 
 wisdom in her assumed repentance and expressed willing- 
 ness to take any punishment that might be awarded her. 
 It was scarcely in the human nature of the subjects of 
 her pranks, especially the men, to be hard on a pretty 
 woman who was ready to acknowledge her faults and so 
 solicitous to obtain forgiveness. But the dowager was 
 particularly severe on this trait of her daughter's, and 
 she did not hesitate to declare, both to Julia herself and 
 to other members of the family for she never exposed 
 the skeletons in her closets to outsiders that for deep 
 and cold-blooded duplicity and organized hypocrisy it 
 cut her to the heart to be obliged, in the interests of 
 truth, to admit that there was not a living person, man 
 or woman, who could exceed her daughter Julia. Ma- 
 chiavelli, she declared, were he on the earth at this day, 
 would find it to his interest to take lessons in double- 
 dealing from her daughter Julia. And the ancient Ro- 
 mans, had she lived in their day, would have set her up 
 as their two-faced god, instead of Janus. 
 
 But all this was certainly not merited, and was to be 
 ascribed to that habit of fault-finding and spirit of exag- 
 
A DISAPPEARANCE. 281 
 
 geration into which the dowager had fallen. Julia was 
 not, in the ordinary sense of the word, deceitful. She 
 was sincere for the time being, but she changed so rap- 
 idly in her feelings that she did injustice to herself, and 
 to some extent laid herself open to the charges that her 
 mother brought against her. She was not a liar. Few 
 persons told a less number of deliberate untruths than 
 Julia, and she never told any malicious falsehoods at all. 
 Indeed, up to the time of her tampering with Lai's let- 
 ter, she would have scorned to perpetrate a dishonorable 
 action, and the reader will doubtless call to mind the fact 
 that she had not read a line of the letter that Lai had 
 written to Tyscovus. 
 
 She had, now that she was shut off from the rest of 
 her mother's household for the greater part of each day, 
 ample opportunity to reflect upon the condition of affairs 
 that she had brought about, and she perceived at once 
 that quietism was out of the question. She must do 
 something, or all would be lost. Two courses were open 
 to her : to go at once to Lalage, confess her fault, undo the 
 wrong to the extent of her ability, and ask forgiveness ; 
 or, to persevere in the attempt to alienate the affections 
 of Tyscovus from her niece, and to endeavor to secure 
 them for herself. 
 
 For several days these alternatives were constantly 
 present before her mind, and not even the morning and 
 evening visits of her mother and daughter, which lasted 
 each for half an hour, were sufficient to remove them 
 from her contemplation. This mental condition was not 
 unnoticed by the dowager, and many and deep were her 
 cogitations relative to the depression and abstraction that 
 appeared to have taken possession of her daughter. She 
 knew very well that any direct attempt to discover the 
 
282 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 cause would meet with inevitable defeat, and how to 
 proceed indirectly and deviously she did not know. She 
 had had several interviews with Lai relative to Julia's 
 manner and behavior before and after the fainting, but 
 the girl had been too unsuspicious to acquire any infor- 
 mation of importance. 
 
 Meanwhile Julia reflected. According to the data she 
 had received from Lai and Geoffrey, Tyscovus would 
 arrive in St. Louis on the 20th, and after staying there 
 two or three days, would depart for New York, at which 
 city he would arrive on the 25th. It was now the 15th, 
 and it required about two days for a letter to reach St. 
 Louis. His address was the Planters' House. 
 
 Every day that she delayed the contemplated confes- 
 sion rendered the making of it not only more difficult, 
 but also less likely to be accepted as an act of contrition. 
 Already the 18th of the month had come, and she had 
 allowed her friends to remain under the impression that 
 all was right. In two more days Tyscovus would arrive 
 at St. Louis, and would then receive the false letter. It 
 was not at all improbable that he would at once perceive 
 the deception practised upon him, for he must be quite 
 familiar with the contents of the little book he had 
 given to Lai. It was possible, however, that, not having 
 seen it for over a year, he might have forgotten this 
 particular letter, and that he would be specially liable 
 not to recall it in its new form, mailed from New York, 
 and its date changed from 1574 to 1874. 
 
 But whether he recognized it or not, that he would 
 immediately take decided action of some kind she had 
 no doubt. What that action would be she could not 
 surmise ; but that the Moultries would at once receive 
 some intimation from him was quite certain. They 
 
A DISAPPEARANCE. 283 
 
 were, however, very close in regard to the affairs of their 
 own particular family circle, and events of importance 
 frequently occurred to them without the dowager or her- 
 self being taken into their confidence. It might happen, 
 therefore, that Tyscovus would telegraph demanding 
 an explanation, or would at once come to New -York to 
 seek it in person ; in either of which events a crisis in 
 her existence most unpleasant to contemplate would be 
 reached. 
 
 Then, again, she was infatuated with her love for 
 Tyscovus, and the more she contemplated the possibility 
 of gaining him, the less disposed was she to retreat from 
 the scheme upon which she had entered. During the 
 whole term of her widowhood up to the time of her 
 meeting with Tyscovus she had never shown that her 
 heart was susceptible of another attack of the tender pas- 
 sion. She had mourned the proper time and with due 
 sincerity, and on taking off her weeds had shown no dis- 
 position to plunge into unwonted gayeties or to contract 
 another matrimonial alliance. But her acquaintance 
 with Tyscovus, brief though it had been, had changed 
 all that. She saw in him the one man that she had ever 
 seen to whom she could unreservedly give her whole 
 heart, and she had given it without at the time enter- 
 taining the slightest hope of ever getting his in return. 
 Of her right to do this no one could deprive her, or, 
 even had it been known, question its propriety. So long 
 as she merely loved, she did no more than millions of 
 honest men and women, with no thought of the realiza- 
 tion of their hopes, had done with honor before her. 
 
 But now all was changed, and the feeling that ani- 
 mated her was altogether different from the calm and 
 almost cold emotion that she had experienced for two 
 
284 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 years and more past, and that was marked by so little 
 passional disturbance that she had been able to contem- 
 plate the marriage of the man she loved to another 
 woman with almost entire composure. She had rather 
 enjoyed the mild suffering that the little thorn in the 
 flesh produced. It was better than no feeling whatever, 
 for it tended to keep him before her, and there may 
 have been, as there so often is in these cases, a lingering, 
 scarcely recognized glimmering of hope, that, after all, 
 something might happen to bring him and herself to- 
 gether. 
 
 Everything appeared to force her to carry the matter 
 through, and to incur additional risk in order to reap the 
 possible reward of her unwonted boldness and deceit. 
 She thought a little of the fate of the false aunt of three 
 hundred years ago, and of the failures which had fol- 
 lowed her machinations ; but by continued reflection she 
 brought herself to the belief that the chances of a repeti- 
 tion of the calamities that had befallen that unhappy 
 woman were infinitesimal. Probably she reasoned after 
 the method of the midshipman, who came to the conclu- 
 sion that the safest place for him to put his head during 
 a battle was a hole made by a cannon-ball, as it was not 
 at all likely that another shot would strike that place. 
 
 She therefore resolved that she would go on and take 
 the consequences, whatever they might be. Having 
 arrived at this conclusion, she felt a sense of repose that 
 she had not experienced before for several days. Noth- 
 ing is so wearing as doubt. The certainty of disaster is 
 not so powerful a destroyer of mental peace as is the un- 
 certainty whether there is going to be disaster or not. 
 
 But there was still work for her to do, and work that 
 required all the skill she could muster. In two days 
 
A DISAPPEARANCE. 285 
 
 Tyscovus would be in St. Louis. She must communi- 
 cate with him at once, and open the way to further inter- 
 course. There was barely time for a letter to reach him 
 in season to influence any action he might be disposed to 
 take on receiving the fraudulent communication which 
 Lai had unwittingly sent. What to write required 
 thought, but at last she settled this point, and going to 
 her desk, indited the following letter : 
 
 " No. 22 WEST TH STREET, NEW YORK, } 
 November 18, 1874. ) 
 
 " DEAR MR. TYSCOVUS : 1 have just heard of the letter 
 that my niece Lalage wrote to you on the 5th. There 
 are many causes that have influenced her, and before 
 you take definite action you ought to know their nature. 
 Of course I am her friend and yours, and I would like 
 to be instrumental not only in preventing further trouble, 
 but in removing that which has already been produced. 
 I have business that will call me to St. Louis in a day or 
 two. If you would like to see me, telegraph me to that 
 effect, and then I shall be glad to meet you at the South- 
 ern Hotel, where 1 shall stop. Do nothing rash. The 
 letter was cruel, but Lalage is, I think, a good girl, and 
 all may yet be well. Regard this communication as 
 strictly confidential. 
 
 " Your friend, JULIA SINCOTE." 
 
 She read this letter over several times, but found noth- 
 ing to alter. In fact, she was disposed to regard it as a 
 model of discretion and astuteness. She appeared in it 
 as the friend of both parties, with a leaning toward him, 
 and as tendering just that amount of sympathy that 
 would be apt to whet his appetite for more. To mail it 
 
286 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 without risk of exposure was the next thing to do. It 
 would be dangerous to trust it to any of the household 
 servants, so she called a district telegraph messenger, and 
 then, creeping down-stairs, received him at the door be- 
 fore he had time to ring, and giving him her letter to 
 post, returned quickly to her own apartment. 
 
 During the next two days she waited anxiously for the 
 telegram that she had requested might be sent her. She 
 had told Richard that she expected one from a friend in 
 Boston, but was on the watch herself ; for one of her 
 windows commanded a view of the street between her 
 residence and the telegraph office, and it was therefore 
 possible, when she saw a blue-coated boy coming toward 
 the house, to steal down to the door and receive the 
 message without any one being the wiser. 
 
 At last, at about one o'clock in the afternoon of the 
 20th, she saw the anxiously-expected boy hurrying up 
 the street in the direction of the house. Her mother 
 had gone out to a lunch party, and all the servants were 
 in other parts of the building. She was safe, therefore, 
 in going to the door and taking the telegram from the 
 boy's hands. Now, indeed, a crisis had come. She ran 
 up-stairs to her room, and breathless with the exertion 
 and the excitement, sank into a chair, grasping the tele- 
 gram tightly in her hand, half afraid to open it lest she 
 should receive a death-blow to her newly-awakened 
 hopes. At last her trembling fingers were nerved for 
 their work, and while her heart beat like a sledge-ham- 
 mer, she ran her eyes over the lines. In an instant an 
 expression of intense joy passed over her face, for she 
 read : 
 
 " I am overwhelmed. I wish to see you. 
 
 "J. T." 
 
A DISAPPEARANCE. 287 
 
 Her resolution to go to St. Louis was taken at once. 
 She packed her trunks with such things as she thought 
 would be absolutely necessary, and then again availing 
 herself of the messenger service, had them sent to the 
 Pennsylvania Railroad station at Desbrosses Street, in- 
 tending to take the five-o'clock train for St. Louis. She 
 then wrote the note to her mother, of the contents of 
 which the reader is informed, and announcing to Rich- 
 ard that she was going to her brother's, and would not be 
 home till after dinner, left the house. Within an hour 
 afterward she was on her way to St. Louis. 
 
 The detective whom Mr. Malcolm had detailed to re- 
 port to Moultrie on the morning following Julia's flight 
 was prompt in his attendance. From him it was ascer- 
 tained that the trunks had been checked to St. Louis, 
 and that a lady answering to Julia's description had pur- 
 chased a ticket for that city. The expressman had been 
 found, and from him the statement was received that he 
 had taken the trunks to the Desbrosses Street ferry, and 
 had had them checked to St. Louis. All doubt, therefore, 
 in regard to the direction she had taken was removed. 
 
 Of course the idea at once occurred to Moultrie that 
 she had gone there for the purpose of meeting Tyscovus. 
 Her motives, however, were not so easy to determine. 
 He could not, indeed, consider the subject with that 
 coolness that he usually gave to matters brought before 
 his mind, for he had no data to bring to its solution be- 
 yond the mere fact of her flight. Still, he could not 
 conceive that she would have taken a step of such im- 
 portance, and, so far as he could perceive, one likely to 
 lead to disgraceful consequences, without the approval 
 and concurrence of Tyscovus. And yet he could not 
 conceive why such a co-operation as this theory required 
 
288 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 should have been effected. Julia had never, either by 
 word or deed, exhibited any inclination toward her 
 niece's fiance not warranted by the fact of her relation- 
 ship, and certainly no attachment could have existed on 
 the part of Tyscovus ; for there had been no opportu- 
 nity for the formation and growth of such a feeling. 
 Altogether the affair was wrapped in mystery. 
 

 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 MR. SCOTT. 
 
 SCOTT, the detective sent by Malcolm to report to 
 Moultrie, was the man generally selected for " inside 
 work." In many respects he was a very superior per- 
 son. He had received a " college education," had 
 studied medicine for a while, and then law, all for the 
 purpose, as he declared, of fitting himself to be a first- 
 class detective ; and it must be acknowledged that he 
 had succeeded to such a degree that no one in this coun- 
 try could equal him. And Malcolm, who was an Eng- 
 lishman, and had been high in office in Scotland Yard, 
 in London, before coming to this country, had fre- 
 quently asserted that, familiar as he was with English 
 and Continental detectives, he had never known one, 
 either personally or by reputation, that possessed the 
 ability, the tact, and the astuteness of Scott. 
 
 When Mr. Scott made his appearance at the Moultrie 
 residence, the master of the house received him in the 
 library. The information relative to the baggage was 
 first given, and the conclusion was adopted by both that 
 Mrs. Sincote had undoubtedly gone to St. Louis. At 
 Scott's request Moultrie then went over minutely all the 
 circumstances that seemed to connect her with Tyscovus, 
 anjj the detective admitted that there did not appear to 
 be any grounds for supposing that an attachment existed 
 between them. 
 13 
 
290 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Of course, sir," said lie, " we can't speak so posi- 
 tively in regard to the lady as we can of the gentleman. 
 As I understand the matter, he might have paid atten- 
 tions to her from the very beginning, had he been so dis- 
 posed ; and since then he has neither seen her nor had 
 any correspondence with her. Now, it stands to reason 
 that there is no love on his side. And then, too, we 
 must recollect that if there were, all he would have to 
 do would be to say so. Men, especially such a one as 
 he is from your account of him, would act above board, 
 even when they were wrong, and certainly they would 
 not enter upon a gratuitously systematic course of fraud 
 when plain dealing would serve them as well, if -not 
 better." 
 
 " Then you think there is an attachment on my sister's 
 part ?" 
 
 " Oh, I don't say that ! I only say that there is more 
 reason to suspect such an attachment on her side than on 
 that of the gentleman. Naturally, if such a state of 
 affairs existed, she would be compelled to keep it a 
 secret ; and if she at any time should take a notion to 
 attempt to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion, she 
 would be obliged to use underhand means. Women in 
 such a supposititious situation are forced by the laws of 
 society to work by strategy. They can't speak out 
 without incurring disgrace. Now, sir," he continued, 
 rising from his chair and pacing the floor in his interest 
 in the task before him, " put yourself in the place of 
 your sister, who, we'll suppose for the moment, is in 
 love with Mr. Tyscovus, having formed the attachment 
 from the first moment of their acquaintance. She 
 knows that he is going to marry her niece, with whom 
 he is madly in love. Now, sir," he repeated, " what is 
 
ME. SCOTT. 291 
 
 the first thing she would endeavor to do ? Kernember 
 that, as things stand, she has no chance." 
 
 " Obviously," answered Moultrie, after a moment's 
 reflection, " the first thing to be done by an unscrupu- 
 lous woman would be to break up the existing arrange- 
 ments. But I do not think my sister is unscrupulous." 
 
 " Oh, sir," exclaimed the detective, with perhaps 
 more feeling than the occasion required, " no one can 
 answer for what a woman in love will do ! Whether 
 they live in palaces or in hovels, it is safe to act upon the 
 presumption that many women when in love will do 
 almost anything the occasion requires them to do in 
 order to obtain love in return. And you can form no 
 positive opinion from their ordinary behavior. I could 
 tell you some stories of demure, well-behaved women, 
 that, unless you were as well acquainted with human 
 nature as I am sure you are, would make your hair stand 
 on end." 
 
 " Yes, I know all that," said Moultrie ; " but when 
 such things come home to one, through a member of 
 one's own family, it is difficult to accept them. How- 
 ever, I will try to disabuse my mind of all my precon- 
 ceptions of my sister's character, and will admit, for the 
 sake of getting a starting-point, that I may not have 
 thoroughly comprehended her. Now, we have got so 
 far as to concede that, under the supposititious circum- 
 stances you have mentioned, the first thing she would do 
 would be to attempt to destroy the relations existing be- 
 tween Mr. Tyscovus and her niece." 
 
 " Yes, sir, that's so. And, next, may I ask how she 
 would be likely to do this ?" 
 
 (: There is but one way, and that would be to cause a 
 misunderstanding between the two." 
 
292 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " True, sir. Now," said the detective, very slowly, 
 while he leaned against the mantelpiece and looked up at 
 the ceiling, as though busily engaged in unravelling the 
 complicated Byzantine pattern of the decoration " now, 
 if there were such a misunderstanding, I should say that 
 we had the whole matter settled, with the exception of 
 finding out the means employed, and that would be a 
 comparatively easy matter." 
 
 " There is a misunderstanding," said Moultrie, going 
 on to give the detective an account of the letter Lai had 
 written and of the telegram sent by Tyscovus in answer. 
 " And twice when the letter has been under discussion 
 my sister has become greatly agitated ; the second time 
 to such an extent that she fainted." 
 
 " Then, sir, depend upon it, the misunderstanding has 
 been caused by your sister, and she has gone to St. Louis 
 to take advantage of the trouble she has produced. I 
 would not speak so positively," he added, seeing the 
 pained expression on Moultrie's face, " but for the reason 
 that I feel entirely convinced of the correctness of my 
 opinion. Now, will you allow me the privilege of a few 
 minutes' conversation with Miss Moultrie ?" 
 
 " Certainly !" said Moultrie. Then to the servant 
 who answered the bell : " Tell Miss Lalage to be kind 
 enough to come here. This is my daughter, Mr. Scott," 
 he continued, as Lai entered the room and took a seat 
 near her father. ' i You can ask her any questions you 
 please. Don't be afraid, my dear," he added, address- 
 ing her, and taking her hand in his. " We are, I think, 
 getting at the bottom of an affair that must be unrav- 
 elled, no matter how much pain it may cause us all." 
 
 " Did anything happen the morning your letter was 
 sent to Mr. Tyscovus that was worthy of attention ?" 
 
MR. SCOTT. 293 
 
 said Scott, addressing her. " Any incident of any kind 
 that was out of the usual order ?" 
 
 " Yes," answered Lai, promptly. " A letter that I 
 had copied out of a book and that I left on my table 
 when I came down to breakfast was not there when I 
 returned." 
 
 " You took the letter that you intended to send to 
 Mr. Tyscovus down-stairs with you ?" 
 
 " No ; I left that on the table also. 1 came up to get 
 it, and met Aunt Julia in the upper hall." 
 
 4 i Oh, you met your aunt in the upper hall ! Had she 
 been in your room ?" 
 
 ' ' No ; she had been to look at a portrait of my father 
 in my mother's room." 
 
 " But she might have been in your room." 
 
 " It is possible. But she said nothing about it." 
 
 " Will you b.e kind enough to let me see the letter of 
 which you made a copy, and which copy was lost ?" 
 ' " I will get it." 
 
 "While Lai was out of the room Moultrie and the de- 
 tective exchanged glances. But the expressions of the 
 two men were very different ; for while that on Moul- 
 trie's face was grave, almost sad, that on Scott's was one 
 of exultation and triumph. 
 
 In a moment or two Lai returned with her vellum- 
 bound book. " This is the letter,"' she said, indicating 
 the place to the detective. 
 
 Scott took the book, and as he read an expression of 
 the most complete astonishment spread over his counte- 
 nance. Then he read it over again, studying every 
 word. " Have you read this letter, Mr. Moultrie ?" he 
 said at last. " No ?" as Moultrie shook his head. 
 " Then read it. I think when you have done so you 
 
294 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 will agree with me that if Miss Moultrie had desired to 
 end the relation existing between her and Mr. Tyscovus 
 she could not have written a letter that would more 
 effectually have accomplished the object." 
 
 Moultrie read the letter with every evidence of amaze- 
 ment. " I think it is entirely clear," he said, " that she 
 has taken the copy that was on the table, and has sent it 
 to St. Louis probably in the envelope that contained 
 the right letter, substituting the false for the true. Do 
 you recollect, my dear," addressing Lai, " whether or 
 not you examined the contents of the envelope before 
 you closed it ? But, of course," he continued, " you did 
 not ; otherwise you would have detected the fraud." 
 
 " No," said Lai, " 1 am quite sure that I merely put 
 your note to to " hesitatingly, " Mr. Tyscovus in the 
 envelope, and that then I closed it and gave it to you to 
 mail. But, oh, father, do you think there is not some 
 other way to explain it all without thinking such horrible 
 things of Aunt Julia ?" 
 
 " No, my dear child, I am sorry to say that I see no 
 escape from the conclusion we have reached. But, ' ? he 
 added, turning to Scott, " I see the date of this is 1574, 
 although the day of the month is the same as that of the 
 day on which the letter was sent." 
 
 " Nothing easier than to change the 5 into an 8, and 
 then she would have the exact date. Certainly it is a 
 most extraordinary coincidence !" 
 
 " I recollect," said Lai, " that when I took my letter 
 from the table there was an ink-spot on it which I did 
 not put there." 
 
 " No, but which she did," remarked Scott, quietly. 
 " She dropped it from the pen while changing the 5 into 
 an 8. There's only one thing more, Mr. Moultrie, and 
 
ME. SCOTT. 295 
 
 then I shall be prepared to advise you. Have you a 
 photograph of Mrs. Sincote handy ?' ' 
 
 " I don't know, but 1 think there must be one some- 
 where in the house. Lai, dear " 
 
 " Oh, I have one, father ! I'll get it." 
 
 She left the room, but was back almost immediately 
 afterward with her photograph-album. 
 
 " Aunt Julia's photograph is here," she said ; but as 
 she opened the book a folded sheet of paper fell on the 
 floor. She picked it up and unfolded it. " Oh, fa- 
 ther," she exclaimed, bursting into tears, " it is my let- 
 ter to John ! He never got it ! See, here it is !" 
 
 " This removes the last lingering uncertainty, Scott," 
 said Moultrie, merely running his eyes over the letter, 
 and then handing it back to Lai. " She is guilty be- 
 yond a doubt. Of course the fairest thing to do is the 
 best. Mr. Tyscovus must be informed at once of the 
 fraud that has been practised upon him. That is your 
 advice, is it not ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir ; 1 think it is quite unnecessary to pursue 
 the investigation further. The lady has been completely 
 exposed, and there will be no difficulty in thwarting her 
 schemes. I was about to advise you to telegraph all the 
 particulars to the gentleman your telegram will arrive 
 several hours before she can get there and to start at 
 once for St. Louis, so as to meet your sister. She may 
 get into trouble of some kind when she finds that all her 
 plans have been defeated, and there is no telling she 
 might even attempt to " 
 
 " Yes, yes, 1 understand. It were perhaps better that 
 she should die, but not by her own hand," said Moultrie, 
 bitterly. " I am much obliged to you," he continued, 
 placing a check for a large amount in the detective's 
 
296 A STKONG-MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 hand. Yon have acted in this matter with great tact 
 and kindness." 
 
 Mr. Scott took his departure, greatly elated with the 
 success of his efforts and with the substantial recompense 
 he had received. " If all affairs were as simple as that," 
 he said to himself, as he entered his cab, " the detective 
 business wouldn't require much head on a man. And if 
 all the employers were as liberal as this one, we'd get 
 rich sooner than we're likely to as things now are." 
 
 " Now, my dear child, let us go to breakfast," said 
 Moultrie to Lai, " and then we will see, with your 
 mother's advice, what can be done to untangle this sad 
 affair." 
 
 " Not for me, father dear," exclaimed Lai, hiding her 
 face in his breast, and fairly breaking down from the 
 strained placidity she had hitherto maintained. " I do 
 not think it can ever be again as it was before. No, no, 
 never again !" 
 
 " Don't say that, dear," said Moultrie, soothingly. 
 " We don't know what influences may have been brought 
 to bear upon him, what misrepresentations may have 
 been made to him. We should not, I think, be harsh 
 with him till we have found out exactly how he has been 
 acted upon, and what are his present feelings. If he 
 has apparently had reason for his course we should be 
 ready to make excuses for him." 
 
 " Oh, but that he should doubt me from any cause ! 
 That I cannot bear !" exclaimed Lai. 
 
 " It seems hard to you, but then you know what your 
 heart is, whereas he can only judge of it by the evi- 
 dence he has. You must try to put yourself in his 
 place, and, moreover, to think how you would act in like 
 circumstances. Here was a letter written in your hand- 
 
MR. SCOTT. 297 
 
 writing, signed with your initial, dated with the very 
 date that it ought to have had, and perhaps re-enforced 
 by letters from that that false woman," he added, 
 with bitterness. " The case against you w r as strong so 
 strong, in fact, that I really do not see how he could 
 have acted differently ; and yet he has done nothing vio- 
 lent. He has only held back till he could get further 
 evidence. No, no, my darling ! If he has been honest, 
 no one more than he will rejoice when the fraud is ex- 
 posed. If he has been dishonest, then we will drop him 
 out of our hearts forever, and even be glad that we have 
 gotten rid of a weak and untrue man. Come ! We 
 must not keep your mother waiting breakfast for us. 
 You have behaved as I could have washed my daughter 
 to behave calmly, modestly, and with dignity. Now 
 leave all the rest with me. When I tell you he is unwor- 
 thy of your love, cast him out of your heart forever ; 
 but till then be tolerant, remembering that, after all, he 
 is but human, with all humanity's weaknesses, and with 
 perhaps fewer of them than most of us." 
 
 He led her into the breakfast-room, where Theodora 
 was anxiously expecting them, and to whom the facts, as 
 elicited, were fully communicated. He did not spare his 
 sister in his recital, but he had seen so much of human 
 nature, and knew it so well, that he could make certain 
 allowances even for her. And it scarcely needed his 
 wife's and daughter's intercessions to cause him to re- 
 solve not to treat her with undue severity. 
 
 Theodora agreed with him that the proper course to 
 pursue was the one upon which he had already resolved 
 that is, o2 informing Tyscovus by telegram of all that 
 had been discovered, and proceeding to St. Louis at the 
 earliest possible moment. He at once, therefore, sent a 
 
298 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 long message to Tyscovus embodying all the facts of the 
 case, and stating that he would be in St. Louis on the 
 morning of the 23d. At ten o'clock he was on his way 
 to that city. 
 
 The morning papers lay on the table in the library, but 
 neither Theodora nor Lai felt much in the humor for 
 reading them. The sense of Julia's treachery bore 
 heavily upon them. The circumstances that had come 
 to light were of such a character as to give them a new 
 revelation of her personal traits and tendencies, and one 
 altogether different from the idea of her that they had 
 previously entertained. That she was weak they had 
 known, but that she was capable of developing such a 
 degree of strength in a wicked cause was what they 
 found it difficult to believe. Moultrie had left with his 
 wife the duty of putting his mother in possession of all 
 that was known, and soon after breakfast Theodora 
 walked over to the dowager's on her painful errand. 
 
 For some time Lai remained in the library, meditating 
 over the remarkable events that had just been brought to 
 light. Mrs. Bowdoin had sent word to say that, as her 
 little daughter was very ill, she begged to be relieved of 
 her duties for that day, so that Lai could indulge in her 
 reflections undisturbed by thoughts of her studies. And, 
 indeed, although she had managed to preserve for the 
 greater part of the time an appearance of composure, her 
 mind was so greatly disturbed by the knowled^i that had 
 come to her during the last twelve hours, that attention 
 to lessons and studies would have been out of the ques- 
 tion. 
 
 But although she had succeeded in preserving the ap- 
 pearance of calmness, she was suffering very acutely, and 
 probably, but for the existence of a contradictory emo- 
 
ME. SCOTT. 299 
 
 tion that kept the other in check, would have broken 
 down completely. She found the strength that comes 
 from contending feelings each struggling for the mastery, 
 and in the few words she had addressed to her father on 
 the subject she had given expression to the state of her 
 mind in this respect. The grief that she experienced at 
 the thought that the happiness she had looked forward 
 to as the wife of Tyscovus was, in all probability, to be 
 relegated to the limbo of unfulfilled expectations, was 
 more than kept in subjection by the indignation that 
 filled her mind when she thought that, without waiting 
 for a word of explanation from her, he had assumed that 
 she had done something disloyal to the bond that united 
 them. This was conduct on his part so entirely at vari- 
 ance with all the conceptions she had formed of his char- 
 acter, that she began to feel the first glimmerings of a 
 consciousness that she had made a mistake, than which 
 nothing is more fatal to a continuation of love. She had 
 formed these ideas altogether from the conviction that 
 Tyscovus had had nothing as a basis for his action but 
 the letter she had last sent him. In this she had been as 
 tender as was her wont ; she had told him of the joy she 
 was experiencing at his success in the election, and at 
 the knowledge that she was to see him again in a few 
 days after the letter would come into his hands ; and 
 then had gone on to recall to his mind some of the inci- 
 dents tff flfeir relations with each other, and notably that 
 of parting on the butte, when, as she said, in her fervid 
 language, she had felt as though her heart was being 
 torn out of her bosom. That he should, on the recep- 
 tion of such a letter, have given up his expected visit to 
 New York, and looked for mutual explanations with her 
 father, were to her acts that could only be explained on 
 
300 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 the hypothesis that his love was diminishing, even if it 
 had not already entirely disappeared. She had always, 
 even when in the degradation and darkness inseparable 
 from a life with the Boslers, possessed a degree of pride 
 and of ability to take care of herself that had sustained 
 her in many trying situations. She had then possessed 
 an impetuosity and violence of temper that had often 
 caused her to break out into paroxysms of anger when 
 indignities had been put upon her. A change in her 
 circumstances and associations had, however, been pro- 
 ductive of a great alteration in her emotional nature, as 
 well as in other points of her mental organization. It 
 cannot be said that she felt less, but the disturbance was 
 extended over a longer period. It was with her very 
 much as it is with a rainfall. The precipitation of an 
 inch in half an hour causes a flood, while if the same 
 quantity be distributed over a day it has all the appear- 
 ance of a moderate fall ; and yet in both instances there 
 is a like amount of water. She had acquired the power 
 of self-control, without losing anything of her ability to 
 feel. 
 
 But now, when she was told that her aunt had made a 
 systematic attempt to alienate her lover's affections, and 
 when she came to read over, as she did with great care, 
 weighing each word, the letter of which a copy had been 
 sent to Tyscovus as emanating from her, and as express- 
 ing her sentiments, she began to find excuse* for him. 
 The advice, too, which her father had given her came to 
 her aid. She knew that he would advise nothing that 
 was not intrinsically right, and that in telling her that 
 under the apparent circumstances Tyscovus had done no 
 more than was on the face of it reasonable, he was actu- 
 ated not only by a regard for her happiness, but also for 
 
MB. SCOTT. 301 
 
 that family pride that would not permit of a quiet sub- 
 mission to insult or neglect. She began the wholesome 
 exercise of putting herself in his place, and endeavoring 
 to determine how she would act under circumstances 
 similar to those to which she was subjected. She read 
 the letter over again, substituting in her mind herself for 
 him, and vice versa, and when she had completed this 
 operation the conclusion was inevitable that, had such a 
 letter come from him to her, with all the marks of au- 
 thenticity which hers to him possessed, she would have 
 closed her heart against him, and never have opened it 
 again for his entrance till he had satisfied her that she 
 was the victim of a fraud. 
 
 And then she began to pity him. If he had really 
 loved her, as she knew he had, how distressed beyond 
 measure he must have been when a cold, cruel letter, 
 such as was the one he received, came to him from the 
 woman he was about to make his wife ! What a sudden 
 reversal of his emotions there must have been when, ex- 
 pecting a letter full of love and tenderness, he had opened 
 this false one, and read words there that could only have 
 been penned by a heartless woman ! 
 
 What was her duty ? Had she discharged it in full 
 when she had resolved in her own mind to forgive him 
 for the doubts of her fidelity that he had entertained ? 
 True, her father had telegraphed him a frank and cir- 
 cumstantial account of the affair, but she had sent no 
 message. Now that she had determined that Tyscovus 
 was not to blame, she could scarcely be patient under the 
 delay that must necessarily ensue before her father could 
 arrive in St. Louis and communicate to her the result of 
 his interview. She felt as though she ought to send him 
 word that, now that the imposition that had been prac- 
 
302 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 tised upon him and her had been discovered, she hoped 
 that nothing existed to prevent his visit to New York ; 
 but she reflected that this would scarcely be seemly. 
 Two years ago she would not have hesitated, but now 
 she perceived that the first advance should come from 
 him to her. He knew already that she had done noth- 
 ing wrong. 
 
 But perhaps nothing could have better shown the 
 change that had come over Lai through her altered cir- 
 cumstances and associations than the feelings she enter- 
 tained toward Julia. In the old days, under like treat- 
 ment, she would have become greatly excited and angry, 
 and in consequence would have indulged in violent lan- 
 guage and actions ; but now she could regard the matter 
 with a degree of equanimity that was astonishing even to 
 herself. In fact, she could even find it in her heart to 
 make excuses for her aunt's conduct, which showed, 
 perhaps, that she was more actuated by feelings of char- 
 ity and compassion than by those of retributive justice. 
 In attempting to analyze the causes for this change in 
 her mental characteristics, she came to the conclusion 
 that it was mainly due to the fact that the offender was 
 her father's sister, and that her love for him stood as a 
 barrier against the exhibition of intemperate resentment. 
 There had never been any great degree of intimacy be- 
 tween her and her aunt. The two were so dissimilar 
 that there was very little in either one to attract the 
 other ; and, in fact, Julia had her own reasons for having 
 no great degree of love for her niece. She had never, 
 therefore, held out any inducements toward an intimacy, 
 and Lai, on her part, had never made any advances in 
 that direction. 
 
 As Lai sat in the library revolving all these things in 
 
MR. SCOTT. 303 
 
 her mind, the thought occurred to her that her aunt, if 
 she had really loved Tyscovus from the first moment 
 that she had seen him, must have suffered untold agony 
 during all the time that she had been forced to conceal 
 her passion. This served in a measure as one of the in- 
 fluences that caused her to moderate the just anger that 
 she felt toward her treacherous relative. And then, 
 when she came to reflect upon the pangs of remorse that 
 the woman had experienced while the story of her proto- 
 type was being read from the little vellum-bound book, 
 and that had culminated in the paroxysm of fainting ; 
 when she imagined the fears of detection with which 
 Julia's heart must have been filled during the last three 
 weeks ; and when she thought of the shame that was yet 
 in store for her, she was forced to acknowledge that the 
 retribution would be ample, and that the cup of sorrow 
 would be filled to repletion. 
 
 She was in the midst of her thoughts when Theodora 
 returned from her visit to the dowager. The old lady 
 had received the intelligence of her daughter's deception 
 with her ordinary self-complacency, asserting that she 
 had always known that Julia was utterly devoid of prin- 
 ciple, and that she had suspected that some such course 
 of systematic treachery was being carried out. Then she 
 talked of " vipers in bosoms," and of " wolves in sheep's 
 clothing," and of " whited sepulchres," and of many 
 other similar unpleasant things, ending with the declara- 
 tion that never, under any circumstances, should such 
 " a snake in the grass" as her daughter Julia had shown 
 herself to be again set foot in her house. 
 
 " 1 don't care so much for myself," she exclaimed, as 
 Theodora was taking her leave, "for I have always 
 known Julia to be just what she has shown herself to be ; 
 
304 A STRONG-MIKDED WOMAJV. 
 
 but there is her poor child, whom I have brought up to 
 believe in her mother's truth and nobility of character. 
 What am 1 to say to her now ? How can I break to her 
 the story of her mother's shame ?" 
 
 " Oh," said Theodora, " I trust you will not find it 
 necessary to say a word to Florence on the subject ! She 
 is too young to understand the matter, and surely no 
 good could come from exposing a mother's weakness to 
 her child !" 
 
 " There shall be no more temporizing with sin and 
 crime if I can help it," said the dowager, with as much 
 empliasis as she could put into the words. " There lias 
 been enough of that." 
 
 " But think of poor Florence's anguish in after years, 
 when she gets old enough to form some conception of 
 what has been done. If not for Julia's sake, mother, 
 surely you will hesitate before you make the child un- 
 happy. Promise me, I beg, that at any rate you will do 
 nothing till Geoffrey returns. We have not yet heard 
 Julia's side ; and it is certainly unjust, even if circum- 
 stances are so strongly against her, to condemn her to her 
 own child before she has had an opportunity to say a 
 word in her defence." 
 
 " What can she say ?" exclaimed the dowager. " In 
 the name of Heaven, what can she say that will not make 
 matters worse if she speaks the truth ? Has she not 
 gone to St. Louis to meet him ? Lured on, probably, 
 by his encouragement. Still, I am willing to wait till 
 Geoffrey returns." 
 
 " And with that concession I was obliged to be satis- 
 fied," added Theodora, as she finished relating the inci- 
 dent to Lai, " and then I left her." 
 
 " She is very unjust," said Lai, " especially to hint 
 
MR. SCOTT. 305 
 
 that John induced her to go to St. Louis. I am sure he 
 did nothing of the kind." 
 
 " So am I, dear. She is a very singular woman. If 
 any one were to abuse Julia she would at once fly to her 
 defence. At any rate, she will refrain from any action 
 till your father returns." 
 
 Theodora, observing the newspapers on the table still 
 unfolded, began to experience a pardonable curiosity to 
 learn what they said of her lecture. There were four : 
 the Avenger, the Controller, the Morning Sentinel, and 
 one with more of a bias toward literature than the others 
 the Tattler. 
 
 She opened them in the order in which they are here 
 named. 
 
 The Avenger had a column devoted to the event, of 
 which three fourths related to the history of the medical 
 college and an attempt at a life of Theodora, another at 
 that of her husband, a description of her personal appear- 
 ance, and a list of the prominent persons present. The 
 remaining fourth consisted of the first and last two or 
 three paragraphs of the lecture, and of a criticism of 
 about five lines, to the effect that the address " was a 
 very creditable production, and was listened to with 
 great attention by the large audience in attendance." 
 
 The Controller also gave a column to its consideration, 
 but quoted much more copiously from the lecture than 
 had the Avenger ; and then, after praising the manner 
 and style of the lecturer, and extolling her for the evi- 
 dent study she had given to the subject, went on to say, 
 in a short editorial : 
 
 " The success of Mrs. Moultrie marks, we think, an 
 era in the cause of woman's rights worth all the noisy 
 tirades against the male part of creation in which certain 
 
306 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 so-called advanced reformers are wont to indulge. The 
 true way for woman to advance is to show, by her own 
 efforts, that she is capable of advancing. No one doubts 
 that in many respects the brain of woman may be supe- 
 rior to that of man. Let her show that it is. Hitherto 
 she has not done this save in a fesv exceptional instances, 
 which prove nothing. Mrs. Moultrie is another in- 
 stance. Whether it is going to be exceptional or not, of 
 course we cannot say. There is no reason, so far as we 
 can determine, why it should be so. The arts and the 
 sciences are open to her sex, and under her competent 
 guidance, if women are really fit for such a study as that 
 of physiology, other physiologists ought to be developed. 
 At all events, we are free to say that we do not believe 
 that there is a man in the country who could have deliv- 
 ered a more finished, graceful, and learned address upon 
 a confessedly difficult subject than did Mrs. Moultrie at 
 the " Martha Washington Medical College for Women" 
 yesterday afternoon, and we may add that her generous 
 recognition of the fact that, in entering upon the career 
 of a professor in a medical college, she had not cut her- 
 self loose from her home and its head, gave her at once a 
 place in the hearts of the people from which it would be 
 difficult to displace her." 
 
 The Morning Sentinel was more elaborate in its report 
 than either of the two other papers, giving nearly the 
 whole lecture as it was delivered, and detailing several in- 
 cidents of the occasion, notably the one of her salutation of 
 her husband, which it spoke of as an act that took the au- 
 dience by storm. It also called attention to the high intel- 
 lectual character of the majority of the persons present, 
 and dwelt at great length on the finished manner of 
 speaking which Mrs. Moultrie exhibited. It also had an 
 
MR. SCOTT. 307 
 
 editorial of nearly a column in length, headed " Woman 
 in Science," in which it spoke of the field that was now 
 open to the sex in nearly every part of the civilized 
 world, and especially the science of medicine, for 
 which there was reason for thinking that woman pos- 
 sessed peculiar qualifications in many of its depart- 
 ments. 
 
 " These views," it went on to say, " received ample 
 confirmation, if any were needed, from an event fully 
 reported in another part of to-day's Sentinel that oc- 
 curred in this city yesterday. Of course there have been 
 woman-lecturers before Mrs. Moultrie appeared upon the 
 rostrum, but we doubt whether any before her, in this 
 country at least and it is here that probably the best 
 examples are to be found ever made so favorable an 
 impression upon a specially intelligent audience as was 
 made by her. She showed by every word that she 
 uttered that she had studied her subject with the view of 
 mastering it, and that she had succeeded in her object. 
 And she also showed that she knew how to express her 
 thoughts in language that not only conveyed the ideas 
 that she had formed, but that did so in good English 
 phrase which every one could understand. 
 
 u It has been charged against woman that she is not 
 thorough, and that she is not competent for abstract 
 thought. However true these assertions may be of the 
 sex as a whole, they are certainly not fairly applicable to 
 Mrs. Moultrie. When such men as Bishop Crocker, 
 Mr. Carp, Professors Mattock, Wolverton, and Parsons, 
 and Presidents Larmand and Black, who have devoted 
 their whole lives to learning in some form or other, and 
 who are necessarily trained students, applaud a discourse, 
 it may fairly be assumed that they do so intelligently, 
 
308 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 and that they are not actuated by an unhealthy senti- 
 mentality. 
 
 " And, in conclusion, we beg to remark further, that 
 when a woman of Mrs. Moultrie's social position, wealth, 
 and youth accepts the chair of a professor in a medical 
 college, knowing, as she must, that the act is one that 
 the prejudices of her class will not be likely to approve, 
 she gives an example of courage and of devotion to prin- 
 ciple that we trust will not continue to be an isolated 
 one. She has nothing to gain but the approval of her 
 own sense of what is right and proper, and the gratitude 
 of those who are striving for the recognition of a great 
 principle." 
 
 " How nice it is to be spoken of in that way," said 
 Lai. " But it's no more than you deserve, I am sure." 
 
 " Yes, it's very pleasant." 
 
 1 ' And even those papers that were so unkind to father 
 have praised your lecture." 
 
 " They did not mean to be unkind to him. They op- 
 posed his politics, and they did not know exactly where 
 their opposition should cease, or, knowing, did not care. 
 But we have yet the Tattler. Praise from that source is 
 scarcely to be expected. " 
 
 " And yet the editor is a woman." 
 
 " Yes, I believe so ; but I had the misfortune to 
 offend her once unintentionally, or, rather, ignorantly, 
 and she has never forgiven me." 
 
 " How, mamma?" 
 
 " I was at a philharmonic concert, and right in front 
 of me was, as I thought, a man, with a man's overcoat, 
 short hair, and a man's hat. The individual was so 
 seated that the hat prevented me seeing the stage, and I 
 especially, of course, wished to observe the movements 
 
MR. SCOTT. 309 
 
 of the leader. I therefore bent forward and said, in my 
 blandest tones, ' "Will you be kind enough, sir, to take 
 off your hat ? ' To my astonishment, when the person 
 turned round and faced me, I saw that I had made a mis- 
 take, and that I had spoken to a woman. The next day 
 the Tattler contained a long article abusing my paper on 
 * Evolution,' which she had raked up from the Journal 
 of Physiological Science, published over a year ago, and 
 in which not only the paper was ridiculed, but 1 was 
 personally attacked. I do not, therefore, look for any 
 mercy from Miss Gildersleeve." 
 
 "No," said Lai, with indignation, " and you have 
 not got it, cither. Shall I read you what she says ? She 
 does not even mention your name, but every one will 
 know that she means you." 
 
 " Yes, read it, dear ; I am prepared for annihilation." 
 " While we are in favor of every legitimate means 
 of opening the many avenues to wealth or distinction to 
 women, we are opposed, in the interest of the sex, to all 
 movements which tend to throw ridicule on the cause, 
 no matter how seriously they may be undertaken. There 
 has been heard much within the last few days of a 
 " physiologist" who, at one great bound, has sprung 
 from obscurity to eminence. We are not aware that this 
 " physiologist" has pursued the study of the science in 
 the laboratory of a Virchow, a Claude Bernard, a Schiff, 
 or a Longet. On the contrary, inquiry shows that she 
 has done nothing of the kind. She has probably taken 
 in its grand principles by reading some school-book 
 on the subject in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains, 
 and has thus obtained, by a short and easy process, 
 knowledge which the masters had taken years to ac- 
 quire. 
 
310 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " ' Yesterday afternoon this phenomenon culminated 
 in a lecture. It is trite to say that a lecture may be so 
 bad as to be delicious ; but unfortunately there are many 
 such lectures. Seldom, however, do we have the oppor- 
 tunity of listening to one so delightfully, so inimitably 
 bad as the one it was our misfortune to hear yesterday. 
 One is bewildered to know where to begin in handling 
 it, and therefore we must be excused from quoting any 
 part of the learned " physiologist's" lecture. It touched 
 mainly upon the metamorphosis of tissues, and the 
 " physiologist" kindly informed us that the world at 
 large had very incorrect ideas on the subject. We are 
 glad of this, for, of course, it is a satisfaction to be with 
 the majority, and to know that it is not a disgrace to be 
 ignorant of this abstruse subject. Of course the u phys- 
 iologist" knows all about it, and hence it would never do 
 for us to dispute about a subject well known to " phys- 
 iologists." ' " 
 
 Lai stopped. She was too indignant to go farther, for 
 the rest was merely a mass of vituperation and attempts 
 at wit, which, while they made Theodora laugh, excited 
 quite different emotions in the woman less accustomed 
 to the attrition of the world. 
 
 "Now," said Theodora, laughing heartily, "I sup- 
 pose I ought to consider myself well punished for mis- 
 taking the editor for a man." 
 
 " But how unfair," exclaimed Lai, " to abuse you in 
 this manner, and, even as I see she does, make malicious 
 allusions to your father and husband. She uses your 
 lecture for the purpose of showing her spite. But what 
 does she mean by putting physiologist in quotation marks 
 every time she uses the word ?" 
 
 " Oh, that is for the purpose of conveying the idea 
 
MR. SCOTT. 311 
 
 that I am a sham .; that, while 1 call myself a physiolo- 
 gist, I in reality am not one." 
 
 " Well, here goes for the Tattler" said Lai, picking 
 the newspaper up from the table with the tongs and put- 
 ting it into the fire, where it was quickly consumed ; 
 " and if I had Miss Gildersleeve here I would box her 
 ears." 
 
 " You'd get the worst of it, if you did," said Theo- 
 dora, with a laugh, in which Lai joined. " She looks as 
 if she could eat you up." 
 
 " Oh, you forget how I can fight ! It is a long time 
 since 1 have had a good fight, and 1 feel as if 1 would 
 like one now." 
 
 " You savage monster !" exclaimed Theodora, putting 
 her arms around the girl's waist. " Do you know how 
 much I love you? Yes," she continued, " I do love 
 you, Lai, very dearly, both for what you are and because 
 you are my Geoffrey's child." 
 
CHAPTEE XYI. 
 
 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 To say that Burton was astonished at the rebuff he had 
 received from Rachel would convey a very inadequate 
 idea of the impression that had been produced upon him. 
 He was overwhelmed with confusion, and for a moment 
 stood, as it were, dazed under its influence. He had once 
 been struck on the head by a sabre, in the hands of a 
 strong cavalryman who was not very expert in the use 
 of the weapon, that had only cut through his felt hat, and 
 had had its impetus materially checked by a sponge 
 moistened with water that rested on the top of his skull, 
 put there as a preventive of sunstroke. The effects in 
 both cases, so far as his sensations went, were very 
 similar. For an instant he had seen thousands of bright 
 flashes of light, then a tingling sensation had swept 
 through his body, and his mind, at first confused, was in 
 a moment apparently annihilated. Immediately after- 
 ward it seemed as though a mighty flood was seething 
 and hissing and roaring in his ears, and then he had 
 felt a dull, heavy pain. But there was a difference, for 
 the blow of the sabre had caused a pain in his head, 
 whereas the one Rachel had given him had produced a 
 pang in his heart,' so sharp that he had instinctively 
 placed his hand over that organ, as though a strong 
 pressure would give relief. All these sensations were 
 over in a few seconds, and then life began to have a full 
 
EEFLECTIONS. 313 
 
 realization of what had happened, and to understand that 
 his dream of happiness had suddenly come to an end. 
 He had been tricked, deceived, jilted in the most cruel 
 and heartless manner. Of that he had no doubt. She had 
 led him on, had played a part for the purpose of making 
 him ridiculous, and she had succeeded to an extent not 
 flattering to his sense of self-esteem. Of that he had no 
 doubt. It was as clear to him now as the noonday sun 
 in a cloudless sky. 
 
 He thought of the East River, and of his speech about 
 throwing himself into it, but only to make him see still 
 more plainly what a fool he had made of himself. As 
 to his threat, doubtless she would be rejoiced to read in 
 the morning papers that he had carried it out. He had, 
 however, not the slightest intention of doing anything of 
 the kind. On the contrary, he buttoned his overcoat, 
 rammed his hands down into its capacious pockets, and 
 then turning away, walked rapidly down Fifth Avenue 
 till he came to the Menhaden Club House, where he had 
 two comfortable rooms on the fourth floor. Arriving at 
 the building, he passed across the wide hall, not stopping 
 to chat with several friends who greeted him, and enter- 
 ing the elevator, was soon lifted up to his apartments. 
 Here he took off his evening coat and donned a more 
 comfortable one of velvet ; his patent-leather shoes were 
 replaced by slippers, which a young lady in Lutetia, 
 whom he had defended in a lawsuit, and who had had 
 no money with which to pay his fee, had worked for 
 him, and turning up his lamp, he lit a cigar, and throw- 
 ing himself into an arm-chair almost big enough for 
 Daniel Lambert, settled himself down to the task of 
 considering the situation and of extracting as much com- 
 fort from it as the circumstances would allow. 
 14 
 
314 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 He found both parts of the problem rather difficult of 
 solution. In the first place, he could not get a clear idea 
 of the position of affairs, mainly because he had no 
 knowledge of the motives by which Rachel had been 
 actuated. That she had encouraged him to make ad- 
 vances was very certain ; that she had been pleased with 
 them was not a matter of the least doubt in his mind. 
 He was well up in the natural history of woman. He had 
 studied the sex with much thoroughness, from many 
 standpoints, and had flattered himself that he under- 
 stood all the manifold phases of the female character as 
 well as any other person who made any pretence to a 
 knowledge of the subject. He was in the habit of say- 
 ing that although the mind of woman was the most 
 mysterious and altogether most wonderful creation of 
 Providence, yet that he had given seventeen of the best 
 years of his life to its investigation, and that at last he 
 had mastered it in all its ramifications and devious turn- 
 ings and complicated twistings so thoroughly that there 
 were no possible types that he could not understand after 
 an hour's study. He had often been smitten before, and 
 he had often had women in love with him ; but things 
 had never yet gone so far with any other as they had 
 now between him and Rachel Meadows. He had flirted 
 and been flirted with, and this to such an extent in so 
 many places throughout the country, that he had gotten 
 a reputation for inconstancy, to which, in reality, he was 
 not entitled. It was his manner to pay great attention 
 to nice women with whom he might become acquainted, 
 and to express his admiration for them to his friends in 
 those exaggerated terms which he so generally employed 
 in his conversation. But he meant nothing serious, and 
 no one could say that he had ever wilfully deceived any 
 
REFLECTIONS. 315 
 
 woman by trying to make her believe he was in love 
 with her, when in reality he had entertained no feeling 
 of greater depth than admiration. He may have flirted 
 in a mild way, but he was not a jilt. He had begun by 
 admiring Rachel, and he had ended by becoming desper- 
 ately in love with her. It was a sincere, deep, and all- 
 absorbing passion that he felt, and it was the first time 
 that his heart had been seriously touched. He was a 
 man of uncommonly sharp perceptive faculties ; he had 
 observed her closely, and he would have sworn by all the 
 gods and goddesses in all the systems of mythology that 
 the world had ever known that she had reciprocated his 
 love. He knew the difference between tears that came 
 from an overcharged heart and those that flow at the will 
 of the individual who uses them for the effect they may 
 possibly produce on others ; and he knew that those that 
 fell from Rachel's eyes upon his hand that covered hers 
 were the genuine article, and not the crocodile variety. 
 Tears, he knew, were tears all the world over, and if he 
 had judged merely by their appearance to the eye, he 
 might have been deceived ; but these were hot tears, 
 which showed that they were produced by a real emotion, 
 and he had seen the eyes whence they had come, and 
 there was no mistaking their look. If she were not in 
 earnest as she stood by the piano, tearful and speechless, 
 and with it all, kind, then he would pack up and go back 
 to Lutetia, and spend the rest of his days as a country 
 lawyer, amid the unsophisticated maidens of his native 
 State ! 
 
 This point settled to his satisfaction, the Hon. Tom 
 threw the stump of his burnt-out cigar into one of a pair 
 of Japanese vases that stood on either side of the fire- 
 place, and forthwith proceeded to help himself to an- 
 
316 A STBONG -MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 other from a curious-looking receptacle that stood on the 
 table, and which appeared to be an attempt at combin- 
 ing in miniature the chief architectural characteristics of 
 an Indian pagoda and those of the Capitol at Washing- 
 ton. Then he picked up the evening paper, and tried 
 to master a portion of its contents ; but after making the 
 attempt for about two minutes and a half, and getting 
 no further than an examination of the column containing 
 the stock quotations, he threw it down in disgust. 
 
 " I'll swear she loved me for five minutes at least !" 
 he thought to himself. " For that time she loved me 
 hard just as hard as she could, and that's a good deal. 
 Now, what in the devil changed her ? Or if she hasn't 
 changed, what in the name of Beelzebub and all his 
 hierarchy made her play me such a damned scurvy 
 trick as that ? There's something wrong about a girl 
 that can act in that way yes, something wrong in the 
 upper story. She's on a par with the ' most noble 
 Festus,' " he added, after a pause, during which he ap- 
 peared to be cogitating over the simile to be employed, 
 and, as usual, when he quoted Scripture, getting it some- 
 what mixed. u By George !" he continued, " I believe 
 I've got it at last. It's all done to give me a lesson in 
 ( woman's rights ; ' to teach me that I can't always have 
 things my own way ; to bring me on my knees as a 
 beggar for her hand. Well, all 1 have to say is, that 
 she has tried that game on the wrong man, and that she's 
 a different sort of a woman from what I took her to be 
 not worth the powder and shot to blow her to Well, 
 I won't abuse her. She's given me a pretty hard blow, 
 I reckon, but it won't kill me. I did love her, and 
 would have loved her more if she had shown herself to 
 be a true woman. Evidently she prefers her old associ- 
 
REFLECTIONS. 317 
 
 ations with the woman' s-rights people to becoming the 
 wife of a man with a will of his own. Perhaps I was a 
 little too fast with her ; but Heaven knows I'd have given 
 her all the time she wanted if she had asked for it ! But, 
 without a word, to shut the door in my face in that 
 way, and with a devilish coolness that showed me she was 
 acting a part if I knuckle to such a woman, then I shall 
 deserve to be called a milksop. I'll never go back to 
 her. I'll never ask for a word of explanation, and if we 
 ever meet again which God forbid ! I'll be as much of 
 a stranger to her as though she was the Queen of Sheba, 
 or any other of Solomon's wives." 
 
 He rose from his chair after this emphatic declaration 
 of his intentions, and walked up and down the floor for 
 a few minutes. " Yes," he continued, and he repeated 
 the assertion several times, " she's not the right sort of 
 a woman." Then he stood in front of the mirror over 
 the mantelpiece, and surveyed himself apparently with 
 much satisfaction. " A true, tender, sympathizing 
 woman," he said, still in front of the mirror " and 
 that's the only kind I want about me, good or bad look- 
 ing is not a matter of much consequence, after all would 
 have been kinder about it if she had found out that she 
 had mistaken her own feelings. And if she had wanted 
 more time, how easy it would have been for her to say, 
 ' Mr. Burton, I am not sure of my own heart. Give 
 me a little more time. Let me see more of you. So 
 far, I like you very much, but I want to love you with 
 all my heart, and then some of these days when you are 
 bidding me good-night, I'll say, " Good-night, Tom," 
 and then you'll know that my heart is all yours ! ' If she 
 had talked to me like that, I would have been ready to 
 kiss the ground she walks on. But to call to me out of 
 
318 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 the darkness of her carriage, in a light, ringing voice, as 
 though there was a smile on her face, ' Good-night, 
 Mr. Burton ! ' was savagely cruel. A Cheyenne squaw 
 couldn't have behaved worse. It was unmannerly after 
 what had passed between us ; after she had listened ap- 
 provingly to my song, allowing me to call her ' my love ' 
 and c my dear,' and inviting her into my arms, and drop- 
 ping tears like rain on my hand, and choking with feel- 
 ing. Yes, it was just about the most atrocious piece of 
 cruelty that has ever come to my knowledge, and I've 
 seen some strong things from women in that way in my 
 time. It was dishonorable, too. She got me into a 
 trap, and then sprung it on me with a degree of in- 
 humanity of which I could not have believed her capa- 
 ble ; but worse than that, with such treachery as does not 
 go well with her pretty face, and that excites my con- 
 tempt. "Well, she did not kiss me she would have 
 done so, though, if we had been alone but if she had I 
 should feel as if a female Judas I should say a Delilah 
 had pressed her lips to mine ! I'm done with her 
 done with her forever ! Hello !" he continued, as, on 
 turning toward the table, he saw a letter lying there 
 which had not been opened ; " what's this ' The Hon. 
 Thomas Burton.' I wish people would not call me 
 Thomas. My name's Tom. It never was Thomas, and 
 it never shall be." He opened the letter, and then 
 having read it through, laid it down, while a prolonged 
 whistle escaped from his lips. 
 
 "Well, that beats the Jews!" he exclaimed, after 
 reading it again. " Why, I hardly know the little 
 wretch, and yet she invites me to dinner for to-morrow, 
 and sends an invitation, or an ' invite,' as I suppose she 
 would call it !" Again he read it, and this time aloud. 
 
REFLECTIONS. 319 
 
 " 'Miss Billy Bremen presents her best compliments 
 to the Hon. Thomas Burton, late Member of Con- 
 gress from the State of Texas, arid requests the honor 
 of his company to dinner on Friday, November 21st, at 
 six o'clock P.M., to meet several distinguished friends. 
 
 " ' And I do hope you will be able to come, for I want 
 to thank you for your kindness in that difficult case you 
 managed so well for me, and to perfect an acquaintance 
 begun under such happy auspices. 
 
 " ' I am afraid I have been very naughty in taking up 
 certain views about the woman question, and associating 
 with a number of heartless women. I want you to set 
 me right. 1 look upon you as the greatest man in the 
 United States yes, the very greatest, and your opinion 
 will be final, so far as I am concerned. 
 
 u * Yours sincerely, 
 
 " l BILLY BREMEN.' 
 
 " Well, of all the extraordinary epistles I ever received 
 in my life that excels !" exclaimed Burton. " The vul- 
 gar little huzzy, to dare to invite me to one of her feeds ! 
 That comes from being a lawyer, and having to associate 
 with such people. They think because you have taken 
 their retainers, that you've become their servant. "Well, 
 I'll teach her a lesson. The ugly, little, dumpy, flat- 
 faced butcher ! Oh, Rachel, my beauty, if you had 
 only stuck to me, how happy we should have been !" 
 
 He went to his desk, and wrote a note as follows : 
 
 " MENHADEN CLUB, Thursday Evening. 
 " Mr. Burton regrets that he will not be able to accept 
 Miss Bremen's polite invitation for Friday, November 
 
 21st." 
 
320 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " There ! there are at least two lies in that ; but I must 
 not forget that I am a gentleman, and know how to lie 
 like one." 
 
 Then he rang the bell, and folding and closing his 
 note, took up his pen to direct it. "1 suppose," he 
 said, " her name is William about as much as mine is 
 Thomas. I'd direct it to Miss William Bremen, only 
 that my old father once gave me a lesson to the effect 
 that a person was always to be addressed in like manner 
 as he signed his name. t If a fellow sign himself Mitha- 
 gaunnah Napoleon Bonaparte Smith,' said the old gen- 
 tleman, ' it would be bad manners to address him as 
 M. N. B. Smith; remember that, Tom.' And I have 
 remembered it to this day. So c Miss Billy Bremen ' it 
 must be. 
 
 " By George !" he continued, after waiting several 
 minutes for the bell to be answered, " the service here 
 is getting to be so devilish bad that I shall have to com- 
 plain to the house committee." lie got up and gave the 
 little knob a strong and long-continued push. Then he 
 seemed to be in deep thought for a moment, and finally 
 tore his note in two, and sitting down again at his desk, 
 began another. Before he had half done there was a 
 knock at his door. " Come in I" he called. " Well," 
 he continued, as a servant in the livery of the club made 
 his appearance, "I'm much obliged to you for deciding 
 to come after you had reflected on the subject long 
 enough to get all the pros and cons under consideration. 
 I rang that bell twice." 
 
 " It only rang once, sir," said the man, respectfully. 
 
 " Then one of three things probably exists : I am labor- 
 ing under a delusion, you are deaf or inattentive, or the 
 electric apparatus is out of order. Now, please to wait 
 
REFLECTIONS. 321 
 
 till I finish this note." It was almost as short as the 
 other, but very different : 
 
 " MENHADEN CLUB, Thursday Evening. 
 " Mr. Burton accepts with pleasure Miss Billy 
 Bremen's kind invitation to dinner on Friday the 21st 
 inst., and will be delighted to be of service to her in any 
 way in his power." 
 
 " In the matter of lies," he thought, as he closed and 
 directed this epistle, " it beats the other. Give this to 
 a messenger-boy, and tell him to take it at once," he 
 continued to the man. " It's only eleven o'clock." 
 
 The man took the note, bowed, and disappeared. 
 
 " Yes, I'll go and see the fun. I want all the diversion 
 I can get now, for this blow has struck me hard. Oh, 
 Rachel, that one so fair should be so false ! How I did 
 love her ! Yes, I love her still ! But I'd rather take 
 a rattlesnake into my bosom than take her ; for the snake 
 gives warning when it is about to strike, while she gives 
 none." 
 
 The next morning Burton when he awoke had an in- 
 distinct idea that something disastrous had happened to 
 him, and in a moment the full conception of his misery 
 flashed upon him. He went down to breakfast feeling 
 more cast down in spirits than he could remember ever 
 having felt before in his life. On the previous evening 
 he had made extraordinary efforts to combat the effects 
 of Rachel's treatment, and had succeeded in obtaining a 
 temporary supremacy over the depressing emotions that 
 were beginning to make themselves felt. But now the 
 reaction had come, and he was forced to admit that his 
 triumph of the night before was short-lived. He really 
 
322 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 loved }ier yet, in spite of the lack of consideration she 
 had shown for his feelings ; but he was proud to a fault, 
 and he would rather live in single wretchedness all his 
 days than take back into his heart a woman who had 
 shown so little regard for the sanctity of his affection. 
 
 He thought, as he swallowed the bits of bread and 
 bacon and cup of coffee, for which he had no appetite, 
 that he would order his horse and take a ride through the 
 Park, and as far up the river as Hastings, where he had 
 a friend, Jack Wildlove, and his pretty wife, living in 
 baronial splendor. He was about to give the necessary 
 directions, when his mail was brought to him. There 
 were several business letters, and among them one from 
 a lecture association in Boston, inviting him to address 
 it on the subject of " Texas before the Annexation," 
 and offering him two hundred dollars and his expenses 
 as a quid pro quo. Then there was another from the 
 Secretary of State at Washington to the effect that it had 
 become necessary to send a special envoy to Mexico to 
 look after a matter of great importance, the nature of 
 which would be told him in person, offering him the ap- 
 pointment, and requesting his presence at the capital at 
 his earliest possible convenience. 
 
 " Well," he said, " the world has apparently awak- 
 ened to the knowledge that I am something more than 
 an ex-Member of Congress and a political stump- 
 speaker. Just in time, too, to divert my mind from my 
 troubles. Oh, Rachel, if you had only been true to me, 
 you'd have been proud of your Tom ! I don't suppose 
 her sweet face will ever fade out of iny memory ; such 
 a frank, honest face, and then to be so false." 
 
 " Hello ! here's another," he continued, as he picked 
 up a letter that had been hidden under one of the others. 
 
REFLECTIONS. 323 
 
 He cut it open with a- table-knife. It took but a moment 
 to read it, and then, looking very grave, he folded it up 
 again without a word to himself, and with scarcely a 
 thought, and put it into his pocket. This is what he 
 read : 
 
 " I was very wicked, and I am very wretched. 
 
 " RACHEL." 
 
 Burton gathered together his other letters, and rose 
 from the table. " I must get out into the open air and 
 cool my head," he said, as he put on his overcoat, gloves, 
 and hat. " She's a sweet girl, after all. 1 suppose 
 some sudden caprice seized her, and now she's sorry. 
 Poor Rachel, how you must have suffered ! There's a 
 pair of us, my dear. I have never been so miserable in 
 all my life as during the last twelve hours." 
 
 By this time he was out on the Avenue, and walking 
 rapidly up-town. His idea was to go to the Park, seek 
 some quiet place under the shadow of a rock or in the 
 depths of the woods, and there consider the situation. 
 On he went, with the gait of a free-born citizen of the 
 great South-west, until he reached the street in which 
 Rachel lived. He stopped at the corner. He could see 
 the imposing facade of the " Joan of Arc," in which 
 Rachel and her mother had their home. " It is but a 
 step to my arms,' ' he muttered beneath his breath, as he 
 looked at the building. " I've a great mind to go there 
 at once, and settle the whole business on the spot. No," 
 he continued, as he resumed his walk, " I was too quick 
 last night. Now I '11 act after reflection. She fooled me 
 once. How do I know that this isn't another attempt to 
 make me ridiculous ? t A burned child dreads the 
 fire.'" 
 
324 A STRONG -MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 He continued his reflections till he reached a deep 
 ravine at the north end of the Park, where it was not at 
 all likely that any one would interrupt him. He found 
 a vacant bench, upon which he seated himself, and then 
 taking out his cigar-case and selecting a " weed " with 
 great deliberation, as though the fate of nations hung on 
 the decision, he lighted it, and drawing Rachel's note 
 from his pocket, he read it over again and again. 
 
 " 'I was very wicked,' " he said, quoting the note. 
 " Well, an honest confession is good for the soul. I'm 
 glad she looks on the matter from that standpoint. She 
 wouldn't think it wicked if she had deliberately intended 
 to cast me off, and now she's very wretched. Remorse 
 has got hold of her remorse, that corrodes the very 
 vitals, breaks the heart, prompts to suicide, and causes 
 insanity. Poor little woman ! I'm sorry for her, just 
 as sorry as I am for myself. Yes, and I love her as 
 madly as I did last night, when I sang that song. I've 
 sung that same song to pretty girls before, but never 
 have I felt it as I did last night." He pressed the note 
 to his lips. " Dear little woman ! I'll make it all up 
 soon, but I won't do so just yet. She behaved very 
 badly, and remorse, no matter how deep, is not sufficient 
 punishment. What a dainty little note it is !" He ex- 
 amined the paper very closely. " That looks as if it 
 might be a tear," looking at the note sideways, and 
 holding it up to the light, so as to see through it. " By 
 George ! I believe it is. She sheds them easily. There's 
 only one here. There were a dozen on my hand last 
 night. If she proved false after a dozen tears, what is 
 she likely to prove after one tear ? That's the way to 
 put it. She's got to shed more than one before she gets 
 hold of me again. Poor, dear Rachel ! Cry on, my 
 
KEFLECTIONS. 325 
 
 love ! I could cry now myself. By the immortal shade 
 of Sam Houston, I am crying ! v He took out his spot- 
 less cambric handkerchief and wiped his eyes. " I'll 
 make a martyr of myself, and hold back a while yet. It 
 will be the better for both of us in the long run, and 
 when we do make up, we'll be as happy as Damon and 
 Pythias, or Abelard and Heloise, or Jacob and the 
 Rachel of old. He served seven years for her, I be- 
 lieve. Seven years ! Well, I won't make it seven 
 years, or seven months, either, but I'll fight shy for seven 
 days, and then I'll go back and say, ' Rachel, I forgive 
 you ! Come to my arms.' Now, I'll go home and 
 answer her note. I'll cut the office for to-day. I'm not 
 in a frame of mind for legal matters." 
 
 All the way home Burton was arranging in his mind 
 what style of answer he should send to Rachel, which, 
 while exhibiting the state of his feelings, would not go so 
 far as to destroy any hope she might have of a favorable 
 termination. He could not do this satisfactorily, he 
 found, for no matter what form of reply he concocted, 
 there were certain to arise objections to it, which were 
 too weighty to be overcome. All his diplomatic tact 
 would be required to indite a note that would accomplish 
 the object he had in view, and do nothing more. He 
 was in the midst of his cogitations, when, from around 
 the corner he was approaching, came a lady that he 
 thought he recognized, but that he could not at once 
 identify. On she came toward him, walking with more 
 of a duck-like gait than most women, and smiling and 
 bobbing her head as she saw him. " By Heavens, it's 
 the Billy girl !" exclaimed Burton. " What a vulgar 
 little beast it is !" 
 
 " Good-morning, Mr. Burton," said Miss Billy, as 
 
326 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Burton, taking off his hat, was passing by. " One 
 moment, if you please. I was on my way to your office, 
 for I wish to consult you on a legal matter of great im- 
 portance. I'm so glad you're coming this evening. It's 
 very kind of you, but I think you will not regret it. 
 Now, about this matter." 
 
 "It is a legal maxim, Miss Bremen," said Burton, 
 smiling grimly in the effort to look pleased, but wishing 
 Miss Billy was at the devil, or some other equally remote 
 place, " with the legal profession, that sidewalk opinions 
 are worthless." 
 
 " You haven't given up law, have you ?" exclaimed 
 Miss Billy. 
 
 " No ; but I shall be obliged to ask you to come to my 
 office. It is my business to advise you to the best of my 
 ability, but I can't do it here." 
 
 " Will you make an appointment with me now, 
 Mr. Burton ? The matter is one that can't wait, 
 arid I'll have to ask you, I guess, to make it for right 
 away." 
 
 " At three o'clock, then> Miss Bremen," said Burton, 
 taking a memorandum -book from his pocket and enter- 
 ing the engagement, " I shall hope to have the pleasure 
 of seeing you, and in the mean time good-morning!" 
 He took off his hat, and bowed, smiling at the same time 
 as pleasantly as he could, and then trudged on down the 
 Avenue to write his answer to Rachel. 
 
 Arrived at his room, he seated himself at his desk, and 
 taking a sheet of his finest note-paper, stamped with his 
 coat-of-arms in full emblazonry, began his reply. 
 
 " Mr. Burton has the honor to acknowledge the receipt 
 of Miss Meadows's note, and regrets Pshaw," he ex- 
 claimed, tearing the sheet in two, and throwing the pieces 
 
REFLECTIONS. 327 
 
 into the waste-basket, " that won't do !" Then taking 
 another sheet, he began again : 
 
 " I am as miserable as you, dear Rachel. 1 feel now 
 as though I could never smile again. Your blow went 
 to my heart ; but I should be a monster if I did not take 
 your honest note for all you intended to reveal. 
 God" 
 
 He stopped suddenly, and read over what he had 
 written. " That's a good piece of writing," he said at 
 last, " but it goes too far ; makes me jump at the bait as 
 though I were a hungry trout that hadn't seen a fly in a 
 month. No, no, that won't do !" And the second 
 note followed the fate of the first. 
 
 " What a disgusting voice that Bremen has !" he ex- 
 claimed, throwing down his pen, " so different from my 
 Rachel's, for she is mine potentially, if not actually. 
 One is like that of a poll-parrot with a cold in its head, 
 and the other's like like the soughing of the zephyr 
 through a hedge of rose-bushes. Yes, that's it. I 
 ne^er heard a zephyr sough through a hedge of rose- 
 bushes, but I can imagine what it's like, and my Rachel's 
 voice is just as soft, and low, and sweet, and as ladened 
 with perfume. ' ' 
 
 Another sheet of paper was brought into requisition, 
 and a third attempt made to answer Rachel's note. 
 
 " Poor girl !" he said, reading over for, perhaps, the 
 twentieth time what she had written him. " She wants 
 me to come and see her. Doubtless she is sitting at 
 home now wondering why I don't come, and telling her 
 I forgive her, clasp her to my heart. My darling," 
 kissing the note as he spoke, " there's nothing I'd like 
 to do more than that very thing, but unfortunately I 
 can't ! You've put it out of my power just as much as 
 
328 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 though you stood on one side of the Rocky Mountains 
 and I on the other. Psychological reasons are stronger 
 even than physical ones. My pride, Rachel, my devilish 
 pride, stands between us. And then I'm afraid. I don't 
 know you well enough yet. Woman's-rights women are 
 different from the others. They're always on the look- 
 out to bring a man down on his marrow-bones. So for 
 the present, my dear, you'll have to sit. Not, I hope, so 
 long as the ' Maid of Meurs,' nor with such continued 
 fasting, nor with such unpleasant consequences. 
 
 " ' This " Maid of Meurs" thirty and six years spent, 
 Fourteen of which she took no nourishment ; 
 Thus, pale and wan, she sits sad and alone, 
 A garden's all she loves to look upon.' 
 
 " You won't lose your beauty, and you'll love to look 
 at me when you see me again. Now for the note. 
 
 " ' I am wickeder than you, and twice as wretched. 
 You have dealt me a blow from which I suffer. Time 
 may, perhaps, heal the wound, but it bleeds yet. 
 
 6( t rr\ ) jj 
 
 He read this over aloud. " Yes," he said, S( Macchia- 
 velli couldn't do it better. It shows how humble I am 
 wickeder ; how much more miserable than she ; rec- 
 ognizes the severity of the injury ; holds out hope or 
 no hope in the future ; but it bleeds yet ; and there- 
 fore just at this present moment the wound is too fresh 
 to admit of reconciliation." 
 
 He folded the note, and directing it to " Miss Rachel 
 Meadows," dropped it into the letter-box as he went out 
 on his way to his office to keep his appointment with 
 Miss Billy Bremen. It was now half -past two, and he 
 
REFLECTIONS. 329 
 
 had barely time to get there in season. So he entered 
 one of the hacks standing in front of the club house, and 
 drove down-town, feeling that he had got over a difficult 
 matter in a very satisfactory way, and that Rachel would 
 still more reproach herself, and be still more anxious to 
 see him when she read his note. 
 
 Then he thought a little of the coming interview with 
 Miss Bremen, and would have been glad could he have 
 found some way of escaping it. Law was, however, his 
 profession, and it was a duty he owed himself to take all 
 cases that were not tainted with dishonor. What the 
 nature of Miss Bremen's business was he could not 
 divine. Fortunately he would not have long to wait, for 
 here he was at his office in the lower part of Broad- 
 way, at the door of which stood a private carriage, 
 doubtless Miss Billy's. He looked at his watch. " Five 
 minutes to three," he said. " She's in a hurry." 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MACHINATIONS. 
 
 " You see I'm punctual, Mr. Burton," exclaimed Miss 
 Billy ; " I'm always punctual. Pa used to tell me that 
 a lady shouldn't never keep a gentleman waiting." 
 
 " Your father was an excellent man of business I have 
 no doubt, Miss Bremen," said Burton, as he took off his 
 overcoat. " Has Mr. Jenkins called about those lands 
 near San Antonio ?" he continued, addressing his clerk, 
 who sat at a desk under the window. 
 
 " Yes, sir ; he was here half an hour ago. He will 
 call again at half -past three." 
 
 " Then, you see, Miss Bremen, that I have but half an 
 hour at your service. Will you walk into the next room, 
 please ? We shall be less apt to be disturbed." 
 
 Into his private office the two went, and Burton hand- 
 ing her a chair, and seating himself at the table, awaited 
 the opening of the consultation. 
 
 " First, Mr. Burton," said Billy, producing what was 
 apparently a letter, " allow me to hand you this. It 
 contains a retaining fee,' ' saying which, she placed the 
 envelope on the table. 
 
 " Retaining fees have always a powerful influence 
 over a lawyer, Miss Bremen," said Burton, "but I 
 have made it a rule never to accept one till I have been 
 informed of the nature of the case in which my services 
 are required." 
 
MACHINATION'S. 331 
 
 " Quite right, Mr. Burton. You are the soul of 
 honor, and so am I, too. We'll let it lie there, if you 
 please, till I have stated my business, and you have deter- 
 mined whether or not you will help me." 
 
 To this Burton bowed assent, and Miss Billy con- 
 tinued : 
 
 " I have received what may be considered a very ad- 
 vantageous offer for my abattoir and all its appurtenances. 
 I'm anxious to give up the business, and take my proper 
 position in New York society, to which my wealth and, 
 1 may add, my education entitle me. The offer comes 
 from a German gentleman in Texas named Morgenstern, 
 who represents himself as a wealthy cattle-raiser and 
 land-owner. I have his proposition here," producing a 
 paper from somewhere in the folds of her gown. " Do 
 you know such a man ?" 
 
 Burton took the paper and glanced over it. " I know 
 Mr. Henry Morgenstern very well," he said. " He is 
 perfectly reliable. I see," he continued, " that he 
 offers four hundred thousand dollars for the whole 
 ' plant ' and good-will. Of course, I cannot advise you 
 whether or not to take that sum, because I do not know 
 what the property and good- will are worth." 
 
 ' ' It has never paid me less than twenty thousand a 
 year, and last year it paid thirty thousand." 
 
 Burton took a pencil and paper, and made some figures. 
 
 " I should think that was a fair price, then," he said. 
 " I perceive that he proposes to pay two hundred thou- 
 sand dollars down, and the balance in two notes of equal 
 amount, bearing interest at six per cent, and running, 
 one six months, and the other twelve, and secured by a 
 first mortgage on two hundred thousand acres of land in 
 Texas. I know the land. The security is good." 
 
832 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Then you advise me to accept ?" 
 
 " Yes, if you wish to sell. If you have quite made 
 up your mind to go out of business, you cannot do better 
 than to accept Mr. Morgenstern's proposition." 
 
 " What do you think ?" said Miss Billy, putting on a 
 look that was meant to be confiding, but which in reality 
 was almost anything anybody might have chosen to call 
 it. "I am all alone, with no one to advise me, and I 
 am so unsophisticated and trustful, and I have so 
 much confidence in your judgment as my counsel and 
 in your kindness as a friend, that I look to you for 
 guidance. Do you think it proper for a young lady, 
 with over a million dollars, to be carrying on business as 
 a butcher?" 
 
 " It is an honest and a useful calling, Miss Bremen. If 
 you like it, 1 see no reason why you should not stick to 
 it as long as you live." 
 
 " But I hate it. I liked it once, before I knew as 
 much as I do now ; but during the last couple of weeks 
 I've begun to go into society. By nature and education 
 I am very refined, Mr. Burton, and I see how much 
 better a position 1 could take one more in accordance 
 with my tastes if I were to go out of the business. 
 Now," she continued, rising and approaching him, till 
 she stood by his side, with her fat, chubby hands, clothed 
 in purple gloves, resting on the table, " won't you ad vise 
 me as a friend what to do ?" 
 
 u As I understand the matter, Miss Bremen," said 
 Burton, " you came to consult me as a lawyer. In that 
 capacity I am ready to advise you ; but I have no right 
 to do so as a friend. ' ' 
 
 ""Well, as a lawyer, then," she said, going back to 
 her chair. 
 
MACHINATIONS. 333 
 
 " I see no objection to your giving up the business, 
 especially as you do not like it. " 
 
 " Thanks ! Then, that is settled. Now in regard to 
 Mr. Morgenstern's offer. You advise me to accept 
 it?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Then I will leave the papers with you, and you will 
 prepare all the others that may be required ?" 
 
 " Certainly, and will send them to you in a few days. 
 I shall have, however, to send to Texas to see that the 
 property is unencumbered. " 
 
 " I leave it all in your hands. Do what you think 
 right ; only get me out of it as soon as possible." 
 
 " That is all, Miss Bremen ?" 
 
 " No, there is another thing ; but as you decline to 
 consider yourself my friend, I am afraid to mention it ; 
 for it is a friend's advice that 1 need now." 
 
 Miss Billy's voice was so imploring that Burton was 
 inclined to relent. The idea of a woman, no matter 
 who, being in distress was one that always moved him ; 
 and even one so unpleasant as she, speaking and looking 
 pleadingly, appealed to his sympathies. Clearly it was 
 his duty to help her if she needed his aid. 
 
 " I did not say I was not your friend, Miss Bremen," 
 he said, at last, " I only said I had no right to consider 
 myself such. Pray, tell me what further I can do for 
 you." 
 
 " Now you are kind again," she said, with a little 
 giggle. " If you haven't the right to be my friend, then 
 no one has ; for you have done so much for me." 
 
 "And been well paid for it," exclaimed Burton, laugh- 
 ing. 
 
 " The horrid money !" said Miss Billy, hypocritically. 
 
334 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Is it always to stand between me and those whose 
 friendship I desire ?" 
 
 " I trust not. Now, I'll drop the lawyer, and you will 
 tell me how I can help you." 
 
 " Oh, you are so kind, Mr. Burton, I can never, never 
 forget your goodness to me ! If I am rich, I'm only an 
 orphan girl, and riches can't take the place of friends. 
 Well, to begin," she continued, drawing her chair toward 
 him, till she was near enough to admit of closer intimacy 
 than that shown by words, should the occasion require, 
 " When I was much younger than I am now, although 
 I'm not twenty-two yet, I fell in with a lot of women 
 who flattered me and gave me wrong notions of the 
 position of woman in the world and of the crimes of 
 man toward her. I became very enthusiastic in support 
 of what I supposed were the rights of my sex, and very 
 severe on man, who I thought was a monster of iniquity 
 and tyranny. I done (Miss Billy occasionally fell into a 
 grammatical error, though usually she spoke quite cor- 
 rectly) some very foolish things, 1 guess, and among 
 them, and the very worst, was joining the c United 
 Women of America.' I gave them a good deal of 
 money, and they made me an officer and a member of 
 the executive committee ; but for all that, I never quite 
 liked them. They were so hard in their dispositions ! 
 Oh, so hard, whereas I am all tenderness and gentleness !" 
 
 Miss Billy put on one of her most languishing airs, 
 and looked at Burton who was twisting a piece of paper 
 into all sorts of queer shapes as though she would like 
 to finish her autobiography with her head on his shoul- 
 der ; but as he made no remark relative to her " change 
 of heart, ' ' she resumed : 
 
 " Yes, there were some pretty coarse-grained women 
 
MACHINATIONS. 335 
 
 in that crowd, such as Miss Richardson and Miss Mead- 
 ows. (At this name Burton started, and looked for 
 the first time as though he took an interest in the dis- 
 course.) They both hate men, as if the whole male 
 sex was made up of horrid demons in human shape, 
 whose only object in life is to injure women. I've heard 
 them both say that if they ever got the chance they 
 would make men as ridiculous as they could, and break 
 their hearts, as so many men have broken women's 
 hearts. ' ' 
 
 While Miss Billy was speaking these latter words, 
 Burton had kept his eyes full on her face ; but she had 
 stood his gaze without flinching ; and though he did not 
 believe all that she said, he thought there might be some 
 foundation for it in the general fact that Rachel hated 
 the male sex. 
 
 " It seems too horrible for you to believe, Mr. Bur- 
 ton, I know,'' continued Miss Billy, observing the in- 
 terest excited in her listener ; " but just let me read you 
 a paragraph or two from one of Miss Meadows's lectures. 
 I've got it here in the Tattler, just as it was delivered 
 less than a year ago. " 
 
 She took a paper from her pocket, and proceeded to 
 read as follows, Burton listening with all the attention of 
 which he was capable : 
 
 " ' Ah ! why do women condescend to receive a degree 
 of attention and respect from strangers different from 
 that reciprocation of civility which the dictates of hu- 
 manity and politeness of civilization authorize between 
 man and man ? And why do they not discover, when in 
 the noon of beauty's power, that they are treated like 
 queens, only to be deluded by hollow respect, till they are 
 led to resign, or not to assume their natural prerogatives ? 
 
336 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 I laiiient that women are systematically degraded by re- 
 ceiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly 
 to pay to the sex, when, in fact, they are insultingly sup- 
 porting their own superiority. It is not condescension 
 to bow to an inferior. So ludicrous, in fact, do their 
 ceremonies appear to me, that I scarcely am able to 
 govern my muscles when I see a man start with eager 
 and serious solicitude to lift a handkerchief, or shut a 
 door, when the lady could have done it herself, had she 
 only moved a step or two. 
 
 " ' And love ! what diverting scenes would it produce ! 
 Pantaloon's tricks must yield to egregious folly. To see 
 a mortal adorn an object with imaginary charms, and 
 then fall down and worship the idol which he had him- 
 self set up, how ridiculous ! ' " 
 
 " It strikes me," said Burton, " that while those are not 
 exactly the sentiments I would like to have women of 
 refinement possess, they do not precisely bear out what 
 you affirm were Miss Meadows' s opinions." 
 
 "I'm not done yet!" exclaimed Miss Billy, casting 
 her eyes down the column for another suitable quota- 
 tion. " Of course you couldn't expect her to say in a 
 public lecture that she was waiting for a chance to re- 
 pay man's insults to the sex ; for to do so would, by 
 putting men on their guard, defeat her object. But 
 here," she continued, as she apparently found what she 
 wanted ; " what do you think of this ? 
 
 " ' If a celebrated author had not already told us that 
 there is nothing in nature so much to be wondered at as 
 that we can wonder at all, it must appear to every one 
 who has but a degree of understanding above that of the 
 idiot, a matter of the greatest surprise to observe the 
 universal prevalence of prejudice and custom in the 
 
MACHINATIONS. 337 
 
 minds of the men. One might naturally expect to see 
 those lordly creatures, as they modestly term themselves, 
 everywhere jealous of the superiority, and watchful to 
 maintain it. Instead of which, if we accept the tyran- 
 nical usurpation of authority they exert over us women, 
 we shall find them industrious in nothing but courting 
 the meanest servitude. Were their ambition laudable and 
 just, it would be consistent in itself, and this consistency 
 would render them alike imperious in every circumstance 
 where authority is requisite and justifiable. And if 
 their brutal strength of body entitled them to lord it 
 over our nicer frame, the superiority of reason to passion 
 might suffice to make them ashamed of submitting that 
 reason to passion, prejudice, and groundless custom. If 
 this haughty sex would have us believe they have a 
 natural right of superiority over us, why don't they 
 prove their charter from nature by making use of reason 
 to subdue themselves ? ' 
 
 Burton listened in astonishment. Such coarse sen- 
 timents to come from a delicate and refined woman, such 
 as he had supposed Eachel to be, grieved him beyond 
 measure. They were the ordinary stock-in-trade of the 
 lower grades of the professional agitators for woman's 
 rights. He had placed Eachel far above this class. Now 
 he discovered that she was no better than the rest of 
 them. He took the paper from Miss Billy's hands, and 
 looked over the report of the lecture. Yes, there were 
 the words, sure enough, and under the heading " Lecture 
 by Miss Rachel Meadows, on the subject, ' Woman not 
 Inferior to Man.' Stenographic report." 
 
 He handed it back without a word. His ideal had 
 been desecrated. She had desecrated herself. Happily, 
 it was all over between them. 
 15 
 
338 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Burton," said liis visitor, elated over the 
 impression that she perceived she had made, " are you 
 surprised that I, a girl not out of my teens, should have 
 been influenced by association with such a woman ? 1 
 became, in fact, as bad perhaps worse for I have a 
 heart, and when 1 feel 1 feel strongly ; but now, thank 
 God ! the scales have fallen from my eyes. " 
 
 " You are fortunate, Miss Bremen," said Burton, with 
 some bitterness, " that they have fallen before any seri- 
 ous mischief has been done." 
 
 " Yes ; my heart is still sound to the core. Now, tell 
 me, you who are so wise and generous, had I better 
 leave them ?" 
 
 " I can only say, Miss Bremen, that if I had a daugh- 
 ter I should not like her to have any associations with 
 women promulgating such false sentiments as those you 
 have just read." 
 
 " Thanks ! Oh, you are so good ! That is quite 
 enough for rne. Good-by, Mr. Burton, till this even- 
 ing. You have taken a load off of my mind, and my 
 resignation goes in this very day." 
 
 She was gone, leaving Burton in a state of mind in 
 which it would have been difficult to say whether disgust 
 or elation, predominated. The idea that a woman as 
 pretty, graceful, well-born and well-educated as Rachel 
 Meadows, whose modesty of deportment was probably as- 
 sumed for the purpose of aiding in entrapping him, should 
 have gone about the country parading such brazen-faced 
 opinions as those he had just heard, before mixed audi- 
 ences of men and women, was to his mind a shocking pie.ce 
 of indelicacy. The ideas themselves were immodest. 
 They would have been bad enough coming from a woman 
 doctor ; but from a girl pretending to refinement, one 
 
MACHINATIONS. 339 
 
 setting herself up as she apparently had to him as n't 
 to be the wife of a gentleman, they were simply horrible. 
 Well, he was free, at any rate. His letter had left the 
 door open to him if he should ever choose to go back, 
 while it had closed it against her if he chose to keep it 
 shut. It would do very well as it stood ; so good-by 
 to Rachel Meadows ! 
 
 Then he wrote accepting the invitation to lecture in 
 Boston, and wrote to the Secretary of State, informing 
 him that he would be in Washington in a day or two for 
 conference on the Mexican matter. 
 
 66 That's business enough for to-day," he said to him- 
 self, as he went into the outer room. li Mr. Roman, if 
 Mr. Jenkins calls Hello, there you are !" he con- 
 tinued, as the gentleman in question came forward. " I 
 was going for a ride ; but come in, and I'll attend to your 
 affair at once." It was late when he left his office, and 
 he had barely time to dress for Miss Billy Bremen's 
 dinner. 
 
 It was a long drive from the Menhaden Club to East 
 Seventy-fifth Street, where Miss Billy Bremen lived, 
 the sole monarch of all she surveyed, and it was not to 
 Burton, under existing circumstances, a very agreeable 
 one. He admitted the general truth of the allegations 
 she had brought against Rachel, while he could not fail 
 to perceive that the narrator was prejudiced and in the 
 highest degree inimical to the woman he had loved. 
 Besides, as is usual in similar cases, while he was glad he 
 had been made acquainted with Rachel's real character, 
 he experienced a feeling of dislike for the woman who 
 had placed her mental deformities before him. We like 
 the treason, but we despise the traitor. 
 
 He had been very observant of Miss Billy's language 
 
340 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 and manner during her visit to his office. He saw that 
 she was extremely anxious to ingratiate herself with 
 him, both by praising herself and calling attention to her 
 wealth, and by putting the flattery thick on him when- 
 ever an opportunity had offered. After her departure 
 he had opened the envelope that she had left on the 
 table, and that she had said contained his retaining fee, 
 and had found a check for five thousand dollars. For a 
 few minutes he had entertained grave doubts in regard 
 to the propriety of accepting so large a sum, simply as a 
 retainer ; but upon consideration he decided to pocket 
 it, as probably every lawyer in the world would have 
 done, for, as he reflected, it was, after all, only about one 
 per cent of the sum involved in the transaction he was 
 about to consummate, and there would be no small 
 amount of trouble and responsibility connected with the 
 business of effecting the transfer. 
 
 When he arrived at Miss Bremen's residence, and 
 entered the gorgeous drawing-room in which his hostess 
 was receiving her guests, it was exactly six o'clock, and 
 several of the company had already arrived. She greeted 
 him with a degree of effusiveness that was at once in- 
 tended as flattery for him, and as a means of exaltation 
 in the regard of the ladies and gentlemen present, who 
 could not, she thought, fail to esteem her more highly 
 when they found she was on such familiar terms with so 
 great a man as the Hon. Tom Burton. 
 
 " It is so good of you, Mr. Burton," she said, holding 
 out a hand which Burton touched very lightly, " to lay 
 aside all your important business, and give us the ines- 
 timable privilege of your society. I see by this morn- 
 ing's papers that you are going soon to Mexico on a 
 diplomatic mission of great importance. In honoring 
 
MACHINATIONS. 341 
 
 such men as you, the country honors itself. Mr. Bur- 
 ton," she continued, with a wave of her hand toward a 
 fat old lady, nearly as broad as she was long, and who 
 wore a dress of blue velvet ornamented with artificial 
 wheat, rye, oats, and Indian corn in bouquets stuck all 
 over the front, l ' allow me to make you acquainted with 
 Mrs. Willoughby Bull, of Cincinnati. She's a widow 
 worth three millions," she continued, in a whisper; 
 u owns thousands of acres of the richest land in the 
 West, and kills half a million of hogs every year. " 
 
 " I knowed a Burton onst," said Mrs. Bull, holding 
 out a dropsical-looking hand, the fingers of which were 
 covered with diamond rings, " but he wern't as hand- 
 some as you. He had a humped back, and one leg war 
 shorter than t'other, and his hair war so all-fired red 
 that the boys called him Rory Bory Allus. He was a 
 deck-hand on the Prairie Belle, as run atween Peory 
 and St. Louis. P Vaps he wern't no kin o' yourn ?" 
 
 " No, madam, 1 regret to say that in all probability I 
 cannot claim relationship with the Aurora Borealis." 
 
 He passed on, still escorted by his hostess. " Allow 
 me, Mr. Burton," repeated Miss Billy, " to make you 
 acquainted with Miss Julia Augusta Fitzgerald, one of the 
 aristocracy of Ireland," she whispered, " a descendant of 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who, as you know, was a 
 younger son of the Duke of Leinster." 
 
 Burton bowed, and the lady bowed. He thought she 
 was pretty, and he wondered where Miss Billy had got- 
 ten hold of the only woman in the room that looked like 
 a lady. 
 
 " This, Mr. Burton," continued Miss Bremen, as they 
 went round the room on the voyage of discovery, ' ( is 
 Mr. John Clodd, the eminent poet." 
 
342 A STEONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " How do you do, Mr. Burton !" exclaimed Mr. 
 Clodd, grasping Burton's hand, and shaking it as though 
 it were a pump-handle. " I've often heard you speak. 
 Never heard your equal, sir. You can move the masses 
 in a way that no other speaker can move them. A nat- 
 ural born orator Orator nascitur non fit. Ha ! ha ! 
 You see I haven't forgotten my Latin." 
 
 " 1 have read some of your verses, Mr. Clodd," said 
 Burton, " and am glad to meet you." 
 
 " I'm engaged on an epic now. They say the day for 
 epics has passed. I'll show them whether it is or not. 
 I've taken as my subject ' The Building of the Niagara 
 Suspension Bridge,' and I begin with the conception of 
 the idea in Roebling's brain * His seething, bubbling, 
 whirling brain,' as I call it, and then on through the 
 digging of the iron ore, the making of the wire ' Long 
 drawn out to strands of ductile strength,' to the comple- 
 tion of the great structure. Twelve cantos." 
 
 Burton was about to say something when two ladies 
 entered the room, and Miss Billy rushed forward, drag- 
 ging him with her, to greet them. 
 
 " Oh, I'm so glad you're come ; I was in hopes you'd 
 come early, so as I could have had a little chat with you," 
 she gushed out, kissing the two new-comers, and then 
 shaking both hands of each. " Mr. Burton," she went 
 on, scarcely stopping to take breath, " allow me to pre- 
 sent you to my friend, Miss Sorby, and to my other 
 friend, Miss Boggs." 
 
 Burton bowed to each of the ladies. He had met 
 them in society, and had exchanged words with them, 
 without having more than a speaking acquaintance. 
 
 " I don't know whether to speak to Mr. Burton or 
 not,' ' said Miss Sorby, with a smile of delight on her 
 
MACHINATIONS. 343 
 
 face which belied her expressed intention. " He's prom- 
 ised ever so many times to call, and he's never done so 
 yet. However, I'll forgive you, if you'll promise to be 
 a good boy, and never do so any more." 
 
 " I go so little into society, Miss Sorby, and I am so 
 much out of the city" 
 
 " Oh, yes ; a poor excuse is better than none. But 
 didn't 1 see you at Mrs. Moultrie's lecture yesterday? 
 Of course I did." 
 
 " Ah ! but they are very old friends, and very dear 
 ones." 
 
 u And I am neither. Very well, sir ! However, per- 
 haps I may find greater favor in your isight on further 
 acquaintance." 
 
 And with a wave of her hand, as though she were 
 drinking a toast, Miss Sorby turned away to speak to Mr. 
 Clodd, who had just approached her. 
 
 " There are only two more to come," said Miss Billy, 
 who held on to him as though under the apprehension 
 that if she once let him go she would never be able to 
 recover him again, " and then we shall be of the number 
 of the muses. Those are two very nice young ladies. 
 Don't you think so ? I haven't known them long, but 
 I'm very fond of them. They're going to introduce me 
 into society. You'll take me into dinner that is, if 
 you've no objection." 
 
 Burton expressed his pleasure at the arrangement, as 
 politeness required. 
 
 " I've invited the other two we're waiting for not be- 
 cause they're anybodies, but because one can sing, and 
 the other's a great wit. 1 thought they'd add to the en- 
 joyment of the evening. Oh, here they are ; they're 
 brothers twins, I believe." 
 
344 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Miss Billy stepped forward to greet the two gentle- 
 men, and then, immediately turning to Burton, intro- 
 duced them as the Messrs. Schmidtlapp, of Hoboken. 
 
 " And now excuse me one moment till I arrange my 
 guests, and then we'll go into dinner." 
 
 Miss Billy having assorted her friends to her satisfac- 
 tion, and started them on their way to the dining-room, 
 followed leaning heavily on Burton's arm, as though it 
 were the only support she had in her journey over the 
 carpet. " I've been taking a few lessons in giving din- 
 ners from Miss Sorby," she said. " She told me how to 
 do things, and what to get ; but if I make any mistakes, 
 don't laugh at me, please ; I'm so sensitive ! It's all 
 cooked at Delmonico's. If you want anything, ask the 
 waiters for it. They only speak French. Of course 
 you speak French?" interrogatively. "I speak it as 
 well as I do English" (which she did), " for, you see, pa 
 was very careful about my education." 
 
 Burton was glad to find that Miss Fitzgerald was on 
 his right. 
 
 " By the by, Mr. Burton," said Schmidtlapp the wit, 
 the moment the party was seated, u I suppose you've 
 been in Hoboken ?" 
 
 "No," answered Burton, U I have never had the 
 pleasure." 
 
 " You haven't missed much. I and my brother were 
 born there. We're twins. We're generally regarded as 
 the only two people ever born in the place and staying 
 there after they grew up. Every one else has come 
 there. Our father and mother came there. So, you 
 see, we are within one of it, anyhow ; and every other 
 person, as soon as they reach manhood or womanhood, 
 goes away. There's something so melancholy in the 
 
MACHINATIONS. 345 
 
 idea of being born in Hoboken, that as soon as the brain 
 gets sufficiently developed to comprehend it they move 
 off. Ha ! ha !" he continued, laughing boisterously. 
 " I see what you are going to say. Yery good ! Yery 
 good ! You were going to observe that the only reason 
 we had stayed was that our brains were not sufficiently 
 developed yet to grasp that idea." 
 
 " Oh, no," replied Burton, seriously; " on so short 
 an acquaintance I should not presume so far as to take 
 such a liberty." 
 
 " Don't mind Fred, Mr. Burton," said Schmidtlapp 
 the singer. " He's in the habit of saying funny things, 
 and pretending to think that others were about to say 
 them. It gives him a chance, don't you see, to laugh at 
 his own jokes." 
 
 "Now, Jake, if you don't mind what you're about, 
 I'll tell that story on you that Prince Bismarck told the 
 American minister the last time you dined with him. 
 I understand, Miss Fitzgerald," continued this awful 
 man, while Burton looked at him with astonishment 
 mingled with anger, ' ' that you' re a descendant of Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald, who fought so gallantly, and who 
 renounced his title because he considered himself no 
 better than other people, and who died in prison ?' ' 
 
 " I see you know all about him, sir," said Miss Fitz- 
 gerald, with a little hauteur. " It is scarcely necessary 
 for me to enlighten you further." 
 
 " Oh," exclaimed Jake, " he found out you were 
 coming, so he hunted you up in the ' Biographical Dic- 
 tionary ! ' He's a keen one, is Jakey." 
 
 " Well, Miss Fitzgerald," resumed Fred the wit, 
 " as I was saying, Jakey was invited to dine with Prince 
 Bismarck the last time he was in Berlin. It was a swell 
 
346 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 dinner, I tell you, and Jake felt scared at the sight of so 
 many great people. But the Prince put him on his 
 right, and soon made him feel at home. Now, you see, 
 Jakey 's one of those fellows that if you give them an 
 inch they want an ell, so he launched out into a sort of 
 a criticism on the German government, comparing it 
 with that of this country. All the princes and counts 
 and generals at the table looked horrified ; but Prince 
 Bismarck smiled, and Jakey went on till he got through. 
 Then the Prince began by laying his hand on Jakey's 
 arm in the most friendly manner possible, and with a 
 sweet, heavenly smile on his face, said : 
 
 " ' There was once a Russian wit, Mr. Schmidtlapp, 
 who compared the reign of the Emperor Paul with that 
 of his mother. The Czar appreciated a good joke as 
 much as any one in his dominions. He read over the 
 witty verses that the funny gentleman wrote, and then 
 had him seized, ordered his tongue to be cut out, and 
 sent him to Alaska to exercise his jocose powers on the 
 savages.' Then the Prince, while poor Jakey felt as 
 though he could go right down to the centre of the 
 earth, and all the other guests were silent, beckoned a 
 footman to him. The man left the room, and in a few 
 minutes returned with six soldiers. ' Take that man 
 out,' said the Prince, { and set him down in the middle 
 of the street. ' Well, would you believe it, they seized 
 Jake and carried him down-stairs and dumped him in the 
 mud, and left him there, and a policeman coming along 
 at that moment thought he was drunk, and took him to 
 the guard-house, where he was kept twenty four hours, 
 and fined fifty dollars for disorderly conduct. Bismarck 
 never tells that story without laughing, and he always asks 
 Americans if they know Jake Schmidtlapp of Hoboken." 
 
MACHINATIONS. 347 
 
 Every one laughed, but it was very evident there was 
 going to be no general conversation except that excited 
 and kept going by the brothers Schmidtlapp. Miss Fitz- 
 gerald laughed with the rest, but she turned to Burton. 
 
 " Don't you think," she said, " that you could take 
 Prince Bismarck's place for this evening, and serve that 
 man as his brother was served ?" 
 
 " Nothing would give me greater pleasure," answered 
 Burton. " If you will kindly get our hostess to give 
 her consent, I think I'll try." 
 
 " Oh, Miss Bremen !" said the other irrepressible, 
 u did you ever hear the story of Fred and the President ? 
 No, I'm sure you have not. Fred was in Washington 
 last week, and as soon as the President heard of his 
 arrival, he sent an officer of the army to call on him and 
 to invite him to a State dinner at the White House on 
 the following evening. Fred accepted, and when the 
 time came he went, dressed out fit to kill, with a dia- 
 mond stud worth two thousand dollars in his shirt front. 
 Fred thinks he's a wit. At any rate, he began to crack 
 his jokes right and left, not even sparing the President. 
 At last, in an unlucky moment, Fred said that he could 
 guess in five minutes any conundrum that could be 
 given. The President said he could give one that Fred 
 couldn't guess in that time, and Fred said that if he 
 didn't he wanted to be considered a first-class idiot. So 
 all the company cabinet ministers, supreme court 
 judges, senators, and diplomatists took out their 
 watches. There were just twenty-eight watches lying on 
 the table. Then the President started : < What's the dif- 
 ference,' said he, ' between a piece of roast beef and a 
 fortification ? ' 
 
 " Fred threw back his head, and began to think, but 
 
348 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 for the life of him he couldn't give the first guess. He 
 thought and he thought, and the perspiration stood out 
 on his forehead in big drops ; but the more he tried 
 the more he couldn't. Three minutes went ; four 
 minutes. All were silently looking at their watches. 
 1 Time's up,' said the President. ' Isow, gentlemen,' 
 he went on, * Mr. Schmidtlapp is, by his own admission, 
 a first-class idiot, and I think you will agree, after 1 have 
 explained, that he is correct in his estimation of himself. 
 So,' he continued, turning to the chapfallen Fred, ' you 
 don't know the difference between a piece of roast beef 
 and a fortification. Well, I'll tell you. A piece of roast 
 beef is a portion of the flesh of the ox that has been sub- 
 jected to the action of heat for the purpose of coagulat- 
 ing the albumen, and rendering it more palatable and 
 digestible. A fortification is a structure built of stone 
 or earth, or both combined, placed at the entrance of 
 a harbor, or near some other place, to be defended with 
 men, guns, and ammunition. I'm sorry you are so 
 ignorant, Mr. Schmidtlapp.' 
 
 " A roar of laughter followed, and poor Fred never 
 opened his mouth again that evening. The next day he 
 called at the White House, but the President returned 
 his card, with an indorsement to the effect that he rec- 
 ommended Mr. Schmidtlapp to go to the lunatic asylum 
 over the river." Again every one laughed, but the two 
 irrepressibles had evidently made up their minds to play 
 into each other's hands by a series of reciprocal jokes. 
 The poet Clodd looked the picture of despair. Old 
 Mrs. Willoughby Bull had not had an opportunity to 
 open her mouth except to put something into it, and 
 neither Miss Sorby nor Miss Boggs had received any 
 special attention. Burton was well enough satisfied. It 
 
MACHINATIONS. 349 
 
 saved him the necessity of exerting himself to entertain 
 any one, for he was not in the humor for the effort. It 
 was very apparent, however, that such an entire absorp- 
 tion of the attention as was being effected by the witty 
 and musical Schmidtlapps could not go on all the even- 
 ing without causing Miss Billy's dinner party to result in 
 a miserable failure. For however much people wish to 
 be amused, there is no such amusement as that which 
 the two irrepressibles were enjoying that of hearing 
 one's self talk and of amusing others. The oysters, the 
 soup, the fish, had come and gone, and still the brothers 
 held their sway. But their downfall was approaching. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 A TERRIBLE WOMAN. 
 
 THE fates had decreed that Mrs. Willoughby Bull 
 should cause it, and she was equal to the duty that had 
 been imposed upon her. Between the two monopolists 
 every one at the table had had a story told to him or her 
 except Mrs. Bull. It was her turn next, and the telling 
 of it fell to " Jakey," the singer. 
 
 The last half dozen anecdotes had fallen rather flat. 
 The brothers had made the sad mistake, which many 
 raconteurs have made before them, of telling their best 
 stories first ; and it was therefore anticipated that 
 '* Jakey" would not even produce a ripple of laughter 
 as the result of his next venture. As a matter of fact, 
 he did not. After calling Mrs. Bull's attention to the 
 circumstance that Fred had very black hair, he related 
 a long anecdote of so stupid a character and so utterly 
 without point that not a face expanded. But all at once 
 a series of cachinnations broke upon their ears. Mrs. 
 Willoughby Bull was laughing in the most astonishing 
 manner. The sounds she emitted were not unlike those 
 produced by an old rooster whose larynx, from long 
 usage, has become roughened, and is then no longer com- 
 petent to emit clear notes ; and yet, between each crow, 
 if it may so be called, and though her face was as red as 
 a beet, and she was holding her sides as though to keep 
 herself from falling to pieces, she was making strenuous 
 
A TERRIBLE WOMAN. 351 
 
 efforts to speak, which were so far successful that, by 
 paying close attention, a connected story could be made 
 out. To depict by words the sounds that represented 
 her mirth would be impossible. I shall be obliged to 
 leave spaces for them, which the reader can fill with any 
 exclamations, such as " cock-a-doodle-doo !" " Ha ! ha ! 
 ha !" " Ho ! ho ! ho !" " Hu ! hu ! hu !" that he or 
 she may imagine would best convey an idea of their 
 extraordinary character. The task passes my ability. 
 
 " I guess I'll die right now " said and laughed the 
 lady. u It's a' most killed me So funny ! Jist the 
 funniest thing I ever heered in my life. Oh, Lord ! 
 Will somebody slap slap me on the back ?' ' 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Bull," exclaimed Miss Billy, rushing 
 toward the convulsed lady, while the peals continued, 
 " will you have the hartshorn ? Here," she continued, 
 taking a decanter of brandy from a liqueur- stand on a 
 table near by, and emptying half the contents on a nap- 
 kin, which she held to her guest's nose " here, smell 
 this!" 
 
 " It's no use When 1 gits one o' these 'ere 
 spells it's bound to last five hours If you'd slap 
 me on the back it mought do some good. You see, 
 you folks has bin laughing all the evenin', and 
 mine's come all to oust " 
 
 By this time all the guests had risen, and were either 
 crowding around the sufferer for such she seemed to be 
 or standing in different parts of the room, anxious 
 though helpless spectators. Burton proposed to go for a 
 doctor, but this the old lady would not hear of. 
 
 u No doctors for me, thank you Medicine don't 
 do me no good Oh, the very sight of 'em makes 
 me worse I jist think they're the funniest fellows 
 
352 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 as ever I see in my life. I'm like the old nigger as 
 was kickin' his shins agin a stump till they was bleed- 
 in' and a gentleman as seen him says says he, 
 i What air you a-kick in' your shins for you darned 
 old fool ?' ' Well, you see, mars ' says the old nig ger, 
 ' it feels so good when I leaves off ' Oh, Lord" 
 and all the rest of the company, except the two brothers, 
 laughed loud and long over this story " I guess you'll 
 all get it too but it feels so good now as they've left 
 off that I guess I'll run through my five hours 
 especially as every time I lays eyes on 'em, I gits a 
 fresh turn Oh, Lord ' ' 
 
 What was to be done ? Five hours ! She was too fat 
 and heavy to be carried up-stairs and laid on a bed, and 
 she declared that any attempt to move her always made 
 her worse. Miss Billy was in despair ; Miss Fitzgerald, 
 Miss Sorby, and Miss Boggs were trying to comfort her ; 
 the poet sat helpless on a distant chair, running his hands 
 through his long hair ; Burton had tried to induce the 
 laughing lady to drink a glass of wine, but she declared 
 it always made her worse. What was to be done ? 
 Finally, Miss Billy, leaving Miss Boggs to keep up the 
 back-slapping operation, came to Burton who was begin- 
 ning, from certain signs that he noticed, to fear that the 
 other ladies would become similarly affected and look- 
 ing imploringly at him, clasped her hands together. 
 "Oh, Mr. Burton, what shall I do?" she said, while 
 tears started to her eyes. "Was ever anything so un- 
 fortunate ? Those horrid men have done it all ; and there 
 they stand, looking like like " Here Miss Billy's sobs 
 overcame her, and she was unable to find a simile for the 
 two factors of the disturbance. 
 
 Burton really pitied her. She had done her best to 
 
A TERRIBLE WOMAN. 353 
 
 entertain her guests, and now disaster had overtaken her. 
 It was hard, he thought, that such bad luck should be- 
 fall her, and he racked his brain for an idea of how to 
 extricate her from the trouble. At last a thought struck 
 him. 
 
 " Perhaps if the two gentlemen were to leave Mrs. 
 Bull would become quiet, "jhe said. " She seems to be 
 much worse every time she sees them." 
 
 " Oh, yes !" she exclaimed. " That'll do good, I'm 
 sure. But how am I to get them to go ?" 
 
 " If you will authorize me to act for you, 1 think I 
 can manage the affair." 
 
 " Do what you please, Mr. Burton. I knew you 
 could help me. You are so good and true !" 
 
 Burton approached the now disconsolate Schmidtlapps, 
 and in a few words gave them his ideas of the situa- 
 tion. Then all three went out into the hall together, 
 and in a few moments the front door was heard to close, 
 and Burton returned alone. 
 
 " They are gone," he said to Miss Billy, as she took 
 his hand and pressed it warmly. 
 
 " Did you say they was gone ?" exclaimed Mrs. Bull, 
 suddenly stopping her laughter, and sitting up in her 
 chair, as composed as though she had just taken her seat 
 to begin dinner. " Now, my friends, we'll all set down 
 and go on with the meal. I never knowed it to fail in 
 gittin' rid of a bore, nor any number of 'em." 
 
 " You don't mean to say that you did it on purpose ?" 
 said Miss Billy, while every one else looked the picture 
 of astonishment. 
 
 " In course I do. Every bit on it. What sort of a 
 time would we 'a' had ef them two fellows had 'a' bin 
 allowed to go on all night in that way ! I jist made up 
 
354 A STBONO-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 my mind to stop 'em right off. I've tried it afore, and 
 it always does it." 
 
 " Well," said Burton to the hostess, who was not yet 
 able to speak, so completely was she overcome by the 
 remarkable procedure of the old lady, " she is the most 
 accomplished malingerer 1 ever saw in my life ! But," 
 he continued, " we owe her our thanks. Have 1 your 
 permission, Miss Bremen, to say a word to the ladies and 
 gentlemen ?" 
 
 " Anything you please, Mr. Burton. Perhaps things 
 will go on all right now. After all my trouble and all 
 my care that the thing should go on nicely, to have it 
 spoilt in this way ! Oh, I'll never get over it ! Never !" 
 
 " Yes, you will. The remedy was a severe one, I 
 admit, but it was not so bad as the disease. Ladies and 
 gentlemen, by the kind permission of our gracious host- 
 ess, I beg that you will fill your glasses and drink to the 
 health and long life of our friend, Mrs. Willoughby 
 Bull, who has given us a happy issue out of our afflic- 
 tions." 
 
 " I'm much obleeged, ladies and gentlemen," said 
 Mrs. Bull, rising and bowing as the toast was drunk ; " I 
 never knowed it to fail. They tried to take the Bull by 
 the horns, but they got gored. Now, we'll go on with 
 the meal, and we'll have a good time yet." 
 
 And they did have a good time in the estimation of 
 most of those present. The elimination of the two 
 Schmidtlapps allowed the conversation not only to be- 
 come general, but general in so subdued a way that dual 
 conversation was not impossible. Miss Billy soon recov- 
 ered her good spirits, and began to believe that her din- 
 ner would not be such a failure, after all. She continued 
 her special attentions to Burton, asked his opinion of 
 
A TERRIBLE WOMAN. 355 
 
 each course as it made its appearance, and of each guest 
 present at the table, and thanked him over and over 
 again for his services in ridding her of the troublesome 
 wit and singer. 
 
 " I never met them but once before," she said, " and 
 then only for a few minutes. I thought they'd add to 
 our pleasure, and so I invited them. Mr. Clodd told 
 me just now that they are notorious. It's a part of their 
 plan to do all the talking in the early part of the dinner 
 and to begin singing after the dessert comes, and to keep 
 that up till the last person leaves the house." 
 
 " Fortunately we were spared the infliction of the 
 greater part of the programme,'' said Burton. " But 
 what an extraordinary old lady Mrs. Bull is ! I thought 
 every moment she would have a fit. Where did you 
 find her ?" 
 
 " She's a widow, and was an old friend of pa's. She 
 helped to make him rich, and so I feel under great obli- 
 gations to her. But didn't she go for them ?" 
 
 " She's one of the best actresses I ever saw. Any 
 physician would have been deceived by her." 
 
 " Yes," answered Miss Billy, with an absent air, as 
 though she was thinking of something very different, or 
 was contemplating with a sad heart the depravity of the 
 average man or woman. " Yes, but it was a deception, 
 Mr. Burton, and falsehood, whether told or acted, al- 
 ways makes me feel uncomfortable. I'm so truthful 
 myself that even the slightest equivocation or semblance 
 of an untruth makes me feel badly, though it may be 
 spoken or acted in a good cause." 
 
 " You are indeed sensitive, Miss Bremen," said Bur- 
 ton, not quite sure whether she was sincere or laughing 
 at him. 
 
356 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Yes, for a long time 1 couldn't bear to go to the 
 theatre, for I knew it was all a deception. And as to a 
 magician's tricks, as soon as I found out that they were 
 juggling, and therefore misrepresentations, they were 
 hateful to me. But ah, Mr. Burton," with a sigh as 
 though her heart were coming out of her breast through 
 her mouth, " how sad it is to think that as we rub 
 against the world so many of the sweet sentiments of 
 our nature are worn off, and we become hardened to 
 tilings which once shocked us beyond measure !" 
 
 " It is very horrible, Miss Bremen,' ' said Burton, " to 
 think that the freshness and ingenuousness of youth must 
 disappear as we grow older. It is the fate of us all, but 
 you, I think, have suffered less in that respect than many 
 of the rest of us." 
 
 " Do you think so ? Oh, I'm so anxious to gain and 
 keep your good opinion !" 
 
 " I was just telling Mr. Clodd, Miss Bremen," called 
 out Miss Boggs, from the other side of the table, " that 
 it is the fashion to have all the lights on the dinner-table 
 covered with red shades, and that red should be the pre- 
 vailing tint of the drawing-room also. He asked me 
 whether the arrangements to-night were according to 
 my suggestion or your own idea." 
 
 u Oh, of course you told him it was your notion. 
 I've been so little in society, Mr. Clodd, that I must 
 leave all the ceremonies and the aesthetics to my friends, 
 Miss Boggs and Miss Sorby, who are very kind to me." 
 
 " 1 told him, Billy," rejoined Miss Boggs, " that next 
 month you are going to give a ball, and that Selina and 1 
 are going to enclose our cards with the invitations. That 
 will at once introduce you to the ttite, and then by that 
 time you'll be out of the odious abattoir" 
 
A TERRIBLE WOMAN. 357 
 
 " What's that you said, miss, about the odorous abat- 
 toir ?" called out Mrs. Bull. " Ef thar's any bad smells 
 about Billy's place, it's her own fault, I guess. Mine's 
 as sweet as a dairy. I spent more'n fifteen hundred 
 dollars last year for carbolic acid." 
 
 " I didn't say ' odorous ; ' I said ' odious,' " rejoined 
 Miss Boggs, tossing her head, and looking viciously at 
 the old lady. 
 
 " Oh, you said odious ! And what, 1 should like to 
 know, young lady, makes a abattoir any more odious 
 than than Well, I don't know what your father does 
 for a livin', but I guess it ain't such a blamed sweet thing 
 that you kin afford to run over other people's businesses. " 
 
 Everybody looked aghast at this onslaught of the ex- 
 tinguisher of the Schmidtlapps. Was she trying another 
 way of getting rid of people she did not fancy ? Miss 
 Fitzgerald turned to Burton. 
 
 u I am so sorry I came. I arrived here only a few 
 days ago from Dublin, with letters of introduction from 
 a very distinguished lady to the l United Women of 
 America,-' and when I went to exhibit my credentials I 
 was introduced to Miss Bremen, and she invited me to 
 dinner. But surely these are not among the first people 
 of the city !" 
 
 " If by first people you mean fashionable people, who 
 have plenty of money, give expensive entertainments, 
 and are seen in the Park in elegant equipages, I am 
 afraid some of them would be entitled to be so consid- 
 ered. But they are not even average specimens. Miss 
 Boggs and Miss Sorby are certainly admitted into what 
 is called ' good society,' but it would not be fair to con- 
 sider them as representing the mass of those with whom 
 they associate. The truth is, that there is no standard, 
 
358 A STRONG-MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 and, in fact, it is well that there should not be. It is 
 better, after all, that people of congenial tastes should 
 mingle together to the exclusion of those who are not of 
 congenial tastes. For an aristocracy of wealth, and of 
 wealth alone, such as exists here, it is perfectly right 
 that the aristocracy of brains should be excluded. They 
 don't want to get in. If they did, it is fair to suppose 
 that, with their superior intelligence, they could accom- 
 plish their object." 
 
 " That is certainly a new way of regarding the subject. 
 But what has surprised me most since my arrival in your 
 country is the servile imitation you make of European, 
 especially English, customs. I went to a so-called fox- 
 hunt the other day, and I nearly died laughing. In 
 fact, I was almost as bad as our friend there at the other 
 end of the table." 
 
 " Five hundred and two thousand, two hundred and 
 fifty- five !" exclaimed Mrs. Bull, who was engaged in 
 earnest conversation with Mr. Clodd, but who spoke 
 these words in a voice that resounded around the room, 
 while she looked about the table with an air of -conscious 
 superiority. " The biggest kill of hogs in the world, I 
 guess. It may be an ' odious ' business to some people," 
 she continued, casting a withering look at Miss Boggs, 
 u but then some Eastern people gives themselves airs. 
 Did you ever see a hog, young lady ?" 
 
 " Yes," answered Miss Boggs, to whom this question 
 was addressed, and making a profound bow as she spoke, 
 " I have." 
 
 " Oh, you mean you've seen me ! Well, I like 
 spunk ! As a rule, you Easterners ain't got it. I owe 
 you one," saying which she went on, in a loud tone, with 
 her conversation with the poet. 
 
r 
 
 A TERRIBLE WOMAN. 359 
 
 " You was tellin' me jist now that you'd written a 
 pome to yourself." 
 
 " Yes, madam, I apostrophized myself." 
 
 " What did you call it ?" 
 
 "<I am but a Man.'" 
 
 " You ought to 'a' called it ' Only a Clodd. ' Ha ! ha ! 
 ha ! That's only a joke. No offence was meant, I as- 
 sure you. That's a real swell down at the other end, 
 ain't it ?" she whispered to the poet. " He said he 
 wa'n't no relation to a man 1 knowed. But I find it's 
 the thing here in the East to disown your relations ef 
 they warn't more'n honest folks, makin' their own livin'. 
 Billy,'' called out this terrible woman, " I hear you're 
 going to give a fandango when you goes out o' business. 
 Let me know when it's to come off, and I'll send you a 
 bar'l o' hams." 
 
 Miss Billy took no other notice of this offer than to 
 bow her head in acknowledgment. Her mortification 
 over Mrs. Bull was fast reaching the point it had attained 
 from the brothers Schmidtlapp, and bid fair to pass that 
 mark. She saw that her two fashionable friends, Miss 
 Sorby and Miss Boggs, were sullen and indignant, and 
 that while the rest of the company were more or less 
 amused, there would be a greater feeling of security in 
 the bosom of every one present if Mrs. Bull could be 
 abated. It was useless, however, to expect that any- 
 thing could be done. The probability of her going off 
 in a fit of some kind was scarcely to be thought of. 
 Had there been the slightest tendency to apoplexy, cer- 
 tainly the volitional convulsions which she exhibited in 
 the early part of the evening would have produced a parox- 
 ysm. No, there was nothing to do but to hurry through 
 with the dinner, and get out of the room as soon as possible. 
 
360 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Though he could not console her in her trouble, Bur- 
 ton could honestly praise the dinner, and his commenda- 
 tion almost atoned for the annoyance Mrs. Bull was 
 causing, The menu was excellent, the wines were good, 
 and were of the proper temperature, and were served in 
 the right places. For all these things, however, Miss 
 Billy was no more responsible than was the man in the 
 moon, though she was perfectly willing to take all the 
 credit to herself, and she bowed and giggled over Bur- 
 ton's encomiums as though she really had done some- 
 thing more than pay for the dinner. 
 
 She began to feel that she was making good headway 
 with Burton. She knew that he would be a difficult fish 
 to hook, and a still more difficult one to land ; but she 
 thought that, even if he had not nibbled at the bait, he 
 had eyed it with a half- formed idea that he might nibble, 
 and from nibbling proceed, by easy gradations, to swallow- 
 ing. She was not one to buoy herself with false hopes. 
 She had had, when she first conceived a love for Burton, 
 no very sanguine expectations that she would ever win 
 him. She was quite sure that he had been attracted by 
 Rachel Meadows, but she was unaware of the extent to 
 which matters had gone with him and the lady, and of 
 course entirely ignorant that there had been any dis- 
 agreement between them. She had noticed, with both 
 surprise and delight, that the extracts from Rachel's lect- 
 ure that she had read to him had produced a strong im- 
 pression against her rival. She had counted on nothing 
 more than a slight objection on his part, which might 
 serve as the basis for future operations ; instead of which 
 a decided feeling of disgust had evidently been excited. 
 
 During the dinner, although the general effect had 
 been most unfortunate, the calamities she had been 
 
A TERRIBLE WOMAN. 361 
 
 forced to endure had roused in him a degree of sym- 
 pathy for her which was very apparent, and which had 
 caused him to change his rather distant manner to one of 
 kindness, almost reaching tenderness, that had made her 
 little heart swell with joy. She knew enough of human 
 nature to be aware that any feeling that can be excited 
 in the breast of another, even though it be one of enmity, 
 is more likely to lead to love than that utter indifference 
 which is at once the padlock that closes the heart, and 
 the iceberg that contracts it. She saw that the indiffer- 
 ence was disappearing ; she had certainly succeeded in 
 rousing an emotion of pity, and she had read that pity 
 is akin to love. Still, she was aware that with Burton it 
 was a very distant relative, and that she had a great deal 
 to do yet before she could succeed in exciting more than 
 a transient feeling, born of the circumstances of the hour. 
 Nevertheless, so far it was good, and she inwardly re- 
 joiced that, though her dinner might be hereafter looked 
 back upon by all the rest as one of the episodes in their 
 lives that they would not wish repeated, to her there was 
 a prospect of its being the starting-point to the attainment 
 of the supreme object of her existence. 
 
 The influence of Burton's presence was also noticed 
 by her in another way. She had been in love with him, 
 according to her light, for several months, during which 
 time she had had occasion to consult him on the Texan 
 legal matter which he had managed so successfully and 
 had seen him from afar off in the streets, or in various 
 public places. But she had never till now had a really 
 good opportunity of becoming acquainted with him. 
 Heretofore in all their personal associations he had held 
 himself aloof, and had evidently been unwilling that any 
 other than professional relations should exist between 
 16 
 
362 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 them. Now, however, she had clearly been admitted 
 into fellowship. She stood nearer to the plane upon 
 which he stood, and had every reason to expect still 
 further advancement in his affection, if she might call 
 whatever feeling he entertained toward her by that name. 
 Yes/ she was satisfied. If she could do that much in 
 one day, what might she not expect to accomplish in 
 time ? For the future, during a considerable period, 
 owing to the business matter she had placed in his hands, 
 there would be many occasions for meeting, and it would 
 argue little, she thought, for her tact if she could not 
 manage to ingratiate herself into his good graces. When, 
 therefore, she gave the signal, as Miss Sorby had told her 
 she was to do, for the ladies to retire into the drawing- 
 room, leaving the gentlemen to their cigars, she felt, not- 
 withstanding all the contretemps that had occurred, that 
 she had done well ; and when Burton announced to her 
 that he proposed to go with the ladies, she experienced 
 a degree of elation which almost made her feel as though 
 she could fly. For why should he go into the drawing- 
 room if not for the purpose of being with her ? As a 
 matter of fact, however, Burton had left the other gentle- 
 man the poet to smoke his cigar in solitude for the 
 reasons that he did not wish to be bored by the disquisi- 
 tion on the ars poetica which he had been promised, 
 and that he desired to have an opportunity for a five-min- 
 utes' conversation with Miss Fitzgerald, who, he had dis- 
 covered, by one or two allusions made at table, was an 
 intimate friend of several years' standing of Rachel 
 Meadows, whom she had known abroad. But in this 
 last he was doomed to disappointment, for Miss Billy 
 kept close to him, and Miss Fitzgerald took her leave 
 soon after returning to the drawing-room. The pros- 
 
A TEKRIBLE WOMAN. 363 
 
 pect was therefore rather dreary, for he was the only 
 man to contend, not only with Miss Billy, but with 
 Mrs. Willoughby Bull and the Misses Sorby and Boggs. 
 The odds were so much against him that he also would 
 have gone home but for the fact that the hostess had 
 invited the young ladies to sing, and he could not well 
 go till their performances were over. After they had 
 finished Miss Billy was importuned to favor them, and 
 Burton could not, of course, avoid adding his solicitations 
 to those of the others. Then she consented, remarking, 
 as he led her to the piano, that it was only to oblige him 
 that she complied, and yet that it was fear of him that 
 had caused her to hold back. " 1 am ever so anxious to 
 gratify you, Mr. Burton," she said, with a lackadaisical 
 air, " but I hear you are a very severe musical critic, and 
 that anything short of the highest excellence is positively 
 displeasing to you." 
 
 " Oh, I am not so bad as that," said Burton, laugh- 
 ing, and yet at the same time pleased with the double 
 compliment she had paid him. " There are other ele- 
 ments in a musical performance, especially a vocal one, 
 than the mere notes and the facility of uttering them. 
 A song, for instance, may not be sung with absolute per- 
 fection of technical execution, and yet there may be so 
 much feeling put into it by the singer as to make it a 
 very pleasing performance." 
 
 " You are very kind to make allowances for me before 
 I begin. I hope 1 shall not disappoint you. Here," she 
 said, handing him a roll of music, " select something that 
 you would like me to sing." 
 
 Burton turned over the leaves. He saw that all the 
 songs were arranged for a contralto voice. It was his 
 favorite, as it is of most men of sanguine temperaments 
 
364 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 and quick feeling. " Yoi che sapete," from Le Nozze di 
 Figaro; u II segreto," from Lucrezia Borgia; " Lei 
 parlate d'amor," from Faust / " O mio Fernando," 
 from La Favorita. He would have that. If she could 
 sing that song as it ought to be sung, his opinion t)f her 
 would be exalted far above the point at which it now 
 stood. 
 
 " You have chosen one of my favorites," said Miss 
 Billy, as he placed the piece on the rack. " I will try 
 and do my very best, for I want to please you." 
 
 He smiled encouragingly, though he had no idea that 
 she would give anything more than a school-girl rendi- 
 tion of a song that requires not only great technical skill 
 and power, but also a degree of passional activity which 
 he did not believe that Miss Billy possessed. She had 
 not, however, sung ten notes before his anticipations were 
 disappointed in a manner which astonished while it 
 pleased him beyond measure. Her voice was a phenom- 
 enal one in all its range of high, middle, and low 
 notes. There was not a shade of falseness in any one of 
 them, and they seemed, from the depth of passion with 
 which they were enunciated, to come from the very bot- 
 tom of her heart, and with a sweetness, a mellowness, a 
 fulness, that took Burton's mind entirely away from all 
 the commonplace things around him, and caused him to 
 lose himself in a revery of heavenly rapture. Was it 
 possible that a woman like Miss Billy, coarse and vulgar 
 as she was by nature, and whose associations had been in 
 keeping with her origin, could sing like that ? He did 
 not think it possible. He did not believe that a soulless 
 woman could put such pathos and emotion into music as 
 did she who was now singing. He had underrated her ; 
 she had capacity ; all she wanted was a chance to de- 
 
A TEEEIBLE WOMAN. 365 
 
 velop. She had been kept back by her ignoble surround- 
 ings, and from these she was about to emerge into that 
 higher life that nature intended her to live. His eyes 
 filled with tears they always did when he heard certain 
 kinds of music and when Miss Billy finished he could, 
 as on the night before with Rachel Meadows, only stam- 
 mer out a few words of thanks. 
 
 " I am glad you like it," she said. " I am passion- 
 ately fond of music ; and now that I see that I am able 
 to please you with my humble efforts, 1 hope you will not 
 hesitate to call me often into your service." 
 
 " You are a siren, Miss Bremen. If you were seated 
 on a rock in the middle of the ocean, and I was at the 
 helm, and you should sing that song, I would steer my 
 bark toward you if I were sure she would go to pieces 
 the next minute." 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Burton," cried Miss Billy, in an ecstasy of 
 delight, "I am so glad! But then," she added, 
 demurely, ' ( the sirens were wicked women, were they 
 not, who lured men to destruction ?" 
 
 " And you lure them to happiness. No one who can 
 sing like you can possibly be wicked, nor," he added to 
 himself, " can she be vulgar." 
 
 Now, of course, Burton, in enunciating this opinion, 
 did not know what he was talking about. I am bound, 
 however, in the interest of truth, to expose all the short- 
 comings of one of my heroes perhaps the principal 
 even though 1 run the risk of making him ridiculous. 
 One of the great faults of Burton's character was his im- 
 pressibility and his disposition to form opinions from in- 
 sufficient data. Moreover, he was prone to think that 
 whatever pleased him must necessarily be good, not only 
 of its kind, but in exerting an influence over matters 
 
866 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 with which it had no possible connection. The fact, 
 therefore, that Miss Billy had a vocal apparatus so con- 
 structed as to produce a particular kind of a voice ; that 
 this had been cultivated by competent instructors, and 
 that at the same time she had acquired the art of feeling 
 what she sang, and of manifesting emotion in her musical 
 inflections, was sufficient to make him believe that he 
 had misjudged her, and that, after all, though she might 
 be deficient in some of the elements of personal beauty, 
 there might be a loveliness of mind and heart more than 
 sufficient to compensate for the Jack of comeliness of face 
 or elegance of figure. He knew that some actors and 
 actresses when off the stage were not presentable people, 
 but that they were capable of assuming parts requiring 
 the exhibition of all the refinements and virtues of life. 
 But he thought this was impossible where music was 
 concerned. He did not know, for instance, that the 
 beautiful Signorina Angela Flangieri, whose lovely con- 
 tralto voice and whose method were even superior to 
 those of Miss Billy, and who delighted the opera-goers 
 at the Academy of Music with her matchless rendition 
 of such parts as Arsace, Pierotto, Orsini, and Leonora, 
 ate peas with her knife, picked her teeth with her fork 
 and her fingers, drank brandy, kicked off the hats of her 
 male friends who came behind the curtain, and swore at 
 her maid with all that fecundity and emphasis and ampli- 
 fication in maledictional exercises that only an Italian of 
 the lower class possesses. 
 
 The siren, as he had appropriately called her, though 
 only with reference to the nobler characteristics of her 
 influence over him, had, however, not yet, in her estima- 
 tion, completed her work. She saw now clearly that 
 through her musical powers she could in all probability 
 
A TERRIBLE WOMAN. 367 
 
 erelong bring the Hon. Tom a suppliant at her feet, and 
 she was determined to let him see that in singing the u O 
 mio Fernando !" she had not shown the whole compass of 
 her voice or emotion. lie was perfectly willing to stay 
 by her side as long as she would sing. He was, in fact, 
 an enthusiast where music was concerned, and when a 
 small boy had often followed the organ-grinders who 
 came to Lutetia not only all around the streets of that 
 town, but even to the neighboring villages. So that 
 when his entertainer offered to sing again if he would 
 chose what he would like, he was only too glad of the 
 opportunity. Instead of making a choice, however, he 
 expressed a wish to hear something of her selection. 
 She looked over her music for some time, thinking what 
 she should decide upon as most eligible for displaying 
 her low notes, as well as for moving him not only by its 
 music, but by the sentiments expressed by its words. 
 Finally she made choice of a song popular several years 
 ago, u Oh, cast that shadow from thy brow," which 
 had a very touching minor passage, pitched in so low a 
 key that very few contraltos could sing it. The song 
 represents, in appropriate words and sympathetic music, 
 the distress of a girl who finds her lover in a state of 
 mental depression, for which she very naturally thinks her 
 smiles ought to be an adequate antidote. But they are 
 not sufficient, and not even the " wild roses" that she has 
 placed in her hair exert the legitimate influence that 
 wild roses are, it is presumed, supposed to exert in such 
 cases. Then it is that she sings in the touching minor 
 key, and in notes that might move an anchorite, and in 
 allusions to the inefficacy of the wild roses aforesaid, 
 
 " But you have breathed their fragrant air 
 As some cold vapor from the tomb." 
 
368 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 And it must be confessed that Miss Billy did not per- 
 mit the words or the music to suffer from any lack of 
 effort on her part. She sang them magnificently ; and 
 when she changed at their end to the major key and the 
 words, 
 
 " Nay, speak not now ; it mocks my heart ! 
 
 How can hope live when love is o'er? 
 I only know that we must part ; 
 I feel we part to meet no more," 
 
 Burton felt that he could have thrown his arms around 
 her, and have sworn that never would he be absent from 
 her five minutes so long as he might live. He was as im- 
 pressionable and as incapable of separating the ideal from 
 the realistic as was the gentleman from Colorado who 
 visited a theatre at which some touching drama was being 
 acted. A young and pretty woman is on the stage, and 
 she laments in piteous terms and with streaming eyes the 
 fact that she is on her way back to her home of destitution 
 and misery, and without money wherewith to get a 
 morsel of food. The Colorado gentleman is touched ; 
 his handkerchief is up to his eyes, his strong, burly frame 
 shakes with his sobs. Suddenly he rises in his seat and 
 looks around at the audience. " I am a poor man, gen- 
 tlemen," he exclaimed, " but, by Heaven ! I'll give that 
 woman a dollar !" 
 
 " Of course I'm making a fool of myself, Miss 
 Bremen," said Burton at last, " but 1 saw the President 
 of the United States cry like a child when he was in 
 Richmond, at the close of the war, when a band serenaded 
 him and played l Home, sweet Home. ' I did the same 
 thing last night but not so bad as this time when Miss 
 Meadows played for me, arid ' ' 
 
A TERRIBLE WOMAN. 369 
 
 u Did Miss Meadows play for you last night ?" said 
 Miss Billy, turning pale. 
 
 " Yes ; but she'll never do so again." 
 
 This was satisfactory, as far as it went, but at the same 
 time the words expressed too much and too little, and 
 she was afraid to ask for an explanation, lest the discussion 
 might lead to something, she knew not what, that might 
 lessen the antagonism that Burton evidently felt against 
 her rival. She mastered her curiosity in that direction, 
 and said : 
 
 " Does Miss Meadows sing well 2" 
 
 " I did not hear her sing, but she plays magnifi- 
 cently." 
 
 " You must visit her, then ?" interrogatively. 
 
 " No ; I have never visited her. 1 met her at dinner 
 last night at Mrs. Moul trie's.'* 
 
 " Oh !" 
 
 " They are old friends of mine." 
 
 "Oh !" 
 
 The conversation had had a dampening effect upon 
 Miss Billy, and it was some time before she was able to 
 recover the necessary degree of equanimity and assurance 
 for continuing her attack. Burton noticed that she was 
 somewhat subdued, and attributing it to the effect of her 
 own music, was glad to perceive, as he thought, that 
 she had the sensitiveness which he had hitherto denied 
 her. 
 
 " Shall we join the others 2" she said at last, thinking 
 that she had, probably, after all, better desist for the pres- 
 ent and let the ferment that she had put into his heart do 
 its work. " I am afraid they will think me very rude 
 for having absented myself from them for so long." 
 
 " And I think, if you will kindly dispense with my 
 
370 A STEONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 company, that I will take my departure. Miss Bremen, 
 I must thank you for a very delightful evening." 
 
 " Must you really go ?" 
 
 " Yes ; I have several letters to answer to-night." 
 
 " But I shall have the pleasure of seeing you again 
 very soon ?' ' 
 
 " Oh, Miss Bremen, I am afraid you will see more of 
 me than you will like. If you will allow me to come 
 every now and then and hear you sing, life will be more 
 tolerable than it now is !" 
 
 " Are you, then, unhappy ?" she said, in a trembling 
 voice, and with eyes cast down, as though to hide any 
 tears that might be in them. 
 
 For a moment the Hon. Tom hesitated. In the strict 
 sense of the word, he was not unhappy ; but at the same 
 time, if he had the command of the universe, he would 
 order things somewhat differently from the way they 
 were going on at present, so far as he was concerned. 
 But he never said what he did not believe to be true, 
 and, therefore, when the question was put point blank 
 to him, he was obliged to answer in the negative. 
 
 " I can't say I'm exactly unhappy, but 1 might be 
 happier. There are degrees of ' ' 
 
 u Then come here as often as you like, and let me 
 sing for you. Perhaps I may add a little to your happi- 
 ness. I know you will add to mine. Must you really 
 go now?" as Burton held out his hand. " Will you 
 grant me a favor," she continued, as he still held her 
 hand in his a fat, pudgy hand, with stumpy fingers 
 loaded with diamond and ruby rings " a little thing for 
 you to grant, but a great deal for me to receive ?" 
 
 " Yes ; I shall only be too happy." 
 
 " Then, don't call me Miss Bremen ; call me Billy." 
 
A TEREIBLE WOMAN. 371 
 
 For an instant he was on the point of bursting into a 
 hearty laugh at the absurd words and at the utter pros- 
 tration of soul which seemed to have overtaken his host- 
 ess, and which was manifested by her pathetic voice 
 and cast-down eyes. Then he recollected that she had 
 done her best to please him, and that she had pleased 
 him, so he answered her with that honest recklessness 
 which so often influenced him. 
 
 " I will upon one condition" (a squeeze of the hand 
 encouraged him), " and that is that you will call me 
 Tom." 
 
 It was her turn now to be overpowered, or at least to 
 seem to be. She only answered, however, by another 
 pressure of the hand. 
 
 Then the Hon. Tom, having made his bows to the 
 other ladies, and said a few words expressive of the in- 
 tense satisfaction he had derived from the charming din- 
 ner and still more charming company, turned to his host- 
 ess for the final adieu. 
 
 They walked together to the door leading into the 
 hall. With one hand he pushed back the gaudily em- 
 broidered portieres, while he held the other out to her. 
 " Good-night, Billy," he said, with a pleasant smile on 
 his face. 
 
 " Good-night, Tom !" 
 
 He started and dropped her hand as though he had 
 been shot. Then without another word he turned and 
 left the room. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 INVESTIGATION. 
 
 IMMEDIATELY on liis arrival at the Planters' House in 
 St. Louis Tyscovus had inquired for letters. There was 
 but one the only one, in fact, that he had expected. 
 He recognized the handwriting as that of the woman he 
 loved, the one whom in all the world he regarded as the 
 most honest and the most true. He had had a longer 
 journey from Denver than was usual at that season of the 
 year. Several " washouts," the results of severe rain- 
 storms, had occurred, and the train had, in consequence, 
 arrived late in the evening instead of early in the morn- 
 ing, in accordance with its schedule time. lie was at 
 once shown to his rooms, and after he had gotten rid of 
 the dust of travel, and refreshed himself by a cold bath, 
 he sat down before the soft-coal fire in his comfortable 
 apartment and proceeded to make himself acquainted 
 with the contents of his letter. 
 
 He had kept it in sight during all his toilet operations, 
 speculating upon the exact nature of its contents, and 
 looking forward with eager expectation to the pleasure 
 of its perusal. It is said that the anticipation of a joy is 
 always greater than the reality. Whether this be so or 
 not, a joy without anticipation is only half felt. There 
 was pleasure to him in the surmises he formed relative 
 to what Lai would have to say to him, and then he knew 
 that he should enjoy the letter all the more when he 
 
INVESTIGATION. 373 
 
 could read it without the disturbing influences of water, 
 towels, brushes, and the other agencies for obtaining 
 physical comforts which a long railway journey render 
 indispensable. 
 
 No one seeing John Tyscovus among a hundred other 
 men would have failed to note him as a remarkable-look- 
 ing man. He was not, perhaps, what would be called 
 handsome, according to the standard of the Apollo Bel- 
 videre. His face was thin, his forehead high, his nose 
 prominent, his mouth rather larger than was in strict ac- 
 cordance with the canons of beauty, but his eyes were 
 large and wonderfully expressive of intelligence and of 
 kindness of heart ; the outlines of his lips were grace- 
 ful, his teeth perfect, and his countenance as a whole 
 evidently that of a man of large and liberal ideas, to 
 whom all littlenesses and meannesses were abominations, 
 and who at the same time was possessed of a spirit of 
 independence and of determination before which ob- 
 stacles that stood in his way would very probably go 
 down, if courage and honesty of purpose went for any- 
 thing in the contest. Two years' residence in Colorado, 
 during which his existence had by no means been that of 
 the palace to which he had been accustomed in his native 
 land, had done much to strengthen a naturally strong 
 constitution. He was fully six feet in height, but was 
 as straight as an arrow, and every movement that he 
 made showed that there was no element of physical weak- 
 ness in his organization. He had ordered his dinner to 
 be served in his apartment, and while it was being got 
 ready he intended to read his letter and indulge in that 
 most pleasing of all occupations, castle-building, with a 
 firm basis of present and prospective happiness for the 
 ideal superstructure to rest upon. 
 
374 A STRONG-MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 He lield the letter in his hand, reading the direction 
 over and over again, anxious to get at the contents, yet 
 not willing to lose a moment of the sweet anticipation 
 which he knew must soon yield to the stronger feeling. 
 Finally he opened it. There were two sheets a long 
 letter ! How good of her ! He unfolded the first that 
 came to his hand. It was not in her handwriting, but 
 it was welcome, and it gave him good news, and referred 
 him to the other for what to him was sweeter and dearer. 
 Well, it was not so long, then, as he had thought ; but 
 doubtless what it lacked in length it would make up in 
 love, and what could be better than that ? He unfolded 
 it, and began to read. But surely this was not from his 
 Lai. It was not in her style ; there were none of her 
 freshness and originality and love about it ; it was strained 
 in its expressions, and it told him that she did not love 
 him. What could it mean ? It was evidently written 
 by her, but she was not in it. Not one gleam of his own 
 brave, loving, true-hearted Lai, his " Prairie Rose," 
 could he find in all its words and sentences and carefully 
 turned phrases. 
 
 It was impossible for him to realize that this cold, cruel 
 letter had come from the girl whose glances of love had 
 flashed upon him in his cabin on the butte, who had 
 fallen into his extended arms on that dreadful night 
 when she had sought a refuge from her pursuers, who 
 had plighted her faith to him at Chetolah, and whose 
 passionate kisses, when she had last parted from him, were 
 even yet warm in his heart ! No, it was impossible ! If 
 she had written that letter, great God ! whom could he 
 trust ? In what man or woman in all the world could he 
 put his faith if she were false ? 
 
 He laid the letter on the table, and rising from his 
 
INVESTIGATION. 375 
 
 chair, paced the room, his head bent upon his chest, his 
 hands clasped behind his back. The servants entered 
 with his dinner, but he heeded them not. One of them 
 approached him and called his attention to the fact that 
 it was on the table, and was getting cold. He made some 
 sign with his hand which the man interpreted into a de- 
 sire to get rid of him, so he left the room, and Tyscovus 
 was again alone. 
 
 And this, he thought, was the end, after all his love 
 and hope ! At one fell swoop, by a touch of the pen, 
 his happiness had been destroyed, and by the one in 
 whom he had trusted, and who he would have sworn, 
 as she had sworn, would be faithful through all the 
 temptations to which she might be subjected. Doubt- 
 less some other man had gained her affections. Well, 
 he might have expected that. She was, as she said in 
 this letter, young and inexperienced in the ways of the 
 world. She had not known her own heart. She had 
 thought she loved him ; she was honest enough, was 
 honest now. Yes, if she had changed, it was right for 
 her to tell him so at the earliest possible moment. But 
 the change must have been a sudden one, for only a 
 week before she had written him a letter full of the 
 sweetest words the language contained ; and this was his 
 dismissal ! It was difficult for him to understand. No, 
 he could not understand. 
 
 He took the letter and read it over very slowly and 
 deliberately, weighing each word, as though his life de- 
 pended on the interpretation it received, and trying to 
 find some evidence that would shake his belief in its 
 authenticity. The handwriting was certainly hers. Still, 
 it would not do for any doubt to exist on this point, 
 so he opened a trunk and took from it another letter 
 
376 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 from her dated just a week before this one. He laid the 
 two on the table side by side, and compared several 
 words that occurred in both letters with each other. 
 Yes, there was no doubt that both were written by her. 
 The words u love," " suffered," " ignorant," for in- 
 stance, as well as many others, were formed in exactly 
 the same way in each, and then the general resemblance 
 was a still more decisive piece of evidence. 
 
 Then the date was what it ought to have been to ac- 
 cord with the post-mark, " New York, Nov. 17th, 10 
 A.M." True, she had never addressed him before as 
 " Dear John." She had always used a warmer designa- 
 tion than that ; but then the change was entirely consis- 
 tent with the alteration in her feeling from love to friend- 
 ship, that she declared had taken place. 
 
 Never before had she signed her name by the initial 
 letter only. It had always been ' l Lai, " " Your own 
 Lai." But this change was also to be accounted for by 
 the fact that she did not regard herself any longer as 
 being his Lai, but only his friend. 
 
 But there were two facts that were directly opposed to 
 the letter being her composition. The style was not like 
 hers. It was more finished, and lacked the ruggedness 
 and conciseness of her diction ; and then a still more im- 
 portant point, it was orthographically correct as regarded 
 every word. Lai made many errors in spelling. It was 
 not to be expected that, even after the most careful 
 study, she should be able at the end of two years to do what 
 most people do not succeed in accomplishing after many 
 years of attention. Again, he compared the two letters, 
 and he discovered a systematic deviation from correct- 
 ness that at once excited special interest. In order to 
 have the matter more directly before him, he took a 
 
INVESTIGATION. 377 
 
 sheet of paper, and made lists of all tliose words in both 
 the letters before him which were spelt differently. 
 These he arranged in two columns as follows : 
 
 Letter of November Sth. Letter of November \th. 
 
 Reccolection. Recollection. 
 
 Paine. Pain. 
 
 Admitt. Admit. 
 
 Leving. Leaving. 
 
 Grattitude. Gratitude. 
 
 Annother. Another. 
 
 Remmember. Remember. 
 
 Allways. Always. 
 
 These differences were to his mind utterly inexplain- 
 able, upon the hypothesis that one person had written 
 both letters. That Lai in one week could have acquired 
 the knowledge and readiness of expression requisite for 
 the change he did not believe. To make the matter still 
 more certain, he got other letters of hers, and found that 
 several words occurred in them which were in the letter 
 of November 9th and in that of November 16th, and 
 that they were spelled exactly as in the first named. 
 
 A fraud was always possible. He did not see how one 
 could have been perpetrated here ; but that there might 
 have been one was quite certain. The composition of 
 the letter, its reference to events that had taken place 
 all seemed to indicate Lai as the author. The handwriting 
 showed indubitably that she had written it. The forgery 
 of a name so perfectly that not even the person whose 
 signature was imitated could detect the imposture was 
 likely enough ; but the counterfeiting of a person's hand- 
 writing so as to deceive one perfectly familiar with the 
 
378 A STEONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 real writing was to him almost an impossibility, except, 
 perhaps, after years of practice in the perpetrator, and an 
 impossibility of making comparisons with undoubted 
 specimens of the real chirography. In this view he took 
 new hope, that, after all, there might be something 
 that he did not understand something that would absolve 
 his darling from the guilt of the lie that this letter told. 
 For she had loved him ; that he knew ; and her love 
 had continued all through the year of their separation to 
 this time. She could not have mistaken her heart, and 
 if she said that what she thought was love was only friend- 
 ship, then she was false. 
 
 Now, what was to be done ? Tyscovus was a man 
 of action. His brain worked quickly, his mental proc- 
 esses were rapid and accurate, and then he did promptly 
 what he had determined to do. Still, the subject before 
 him required a certain amount of deliberation. His first 
 impulse was to send a telegram to Lai, asking her if she 
 had written the letter of the 16th of November, and if it 
 expressed her real feelings. Then he reflected that there 
 could be no certainty that the words " letter of the 
 16th" would convey the same idea to her mind that it 
 did to his. For instance, she might have written another 
 letter of the 16th, which she had intended to send him, 
 but which had, by some accident, been replaced by this, 
 which she had never meant to send. It would be better, 
 therefore, to telegraph to her father, acknowledging the 
 receipt of the letter, and intimating that, as at present 
 advised, he would not go to New York. This would lead 
 to inquiries, and such explanation as might be necessary 
 would then be made. He at once, then, sent the telegram 
 which was received on the evening that Burton and 
 Rachel Meadows dined with the Moultries, which, as 
 
INVESTIGATION. 379 
 
 the reader will recollect, was the day on which Theodora 
 had given her lecture at the " Martha Washington Medi- 
 cal College for Women." 
 
 But he had no sooner despatched this telegram than a 
 servant came to his rooms with another letter, which had 
 just that moment been delivered. He took it eagerly. 
 It was post-marked New York, though the superscrip- 
 tion was not in Lai's handwriting ; neither was it one with 
 which he was acquainted. He tore open the envelope, 
 and turning over the page, read the signature " Julia 
 Sincote." Then he read the letter. Whatever hope he 
 had entertained was now altogether dissipated. Lai was 
 false beyond a doubt. The letter of the 16th was a real 
 letter, the writing of which was known to the family, as 
 were also the reasons why she had written it. Yes, even 
 the exact characteristic was known ; for here it was 
 spoken of as a " cruel" letter, and it was cruel. 
 
 Evidently the letter of the 16th was genuine ; it had 
 been discussed by the family, and had apparently been 
 agreed to by all but Mrs. Sincote. Moultrie and his wife 
 had, then, also deserted him ! Some one else had taken 
 his place some one considered more eligible as a matri- 
 monial prize for the rich and fashionable Miss Lalage 
 Moultrie. 
 
 The good- will of the aunt was, however, clearly mani- 
 fested in her letter. She at least was his friend, and it 
 would be some satisfaction to hear how the change that 
 Lai had undergone had been brought about. Her letter 
 of the 16th was now quite intelligible. The incongrui- 
 ties that he had thought existed were reconciled. Some 
 one her mother perhaps had written the letter, and Lai 
 had copied and adopted it. That hypothesis explained 
 everything, even the good spelling. 
 
380 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 He then sent his telegram to Julia Sincote, and tried 
 to eat a few mouthfuls of the dinner, now cold, that still 
 stood on the table. This, however, was hard work. He 
 had no appetite, and the food semed to stick in his 
 throat. His head was hot and full, so he went out for a 
 walk, hoping that the cool night air for it was now 
 midnight might refresh him. 
 
 He walked through street after street in the quietest 
 parts of the city ; but at that hour he was not very likely 
 to encounter many people, no matter where he went. In 
 all his life he had never had anything to shake his faith 
 in humanity like this nothing to cause him a tithe of 
 the wretchedness that this caused him. What was life 
 to him now, when more than half his life was gone ? 
 The rest was nothing. It might as well go too. The 
 sooner the better. On he went, faster and faster, strid- 
 ing over the pavements as though walking for a wager, 
 and then he found himself by the mighty river upon the 
 banks of which the city is built. Immediately in front 
 of him was the entrance to the great bridge. Half 
 mechanically, not caring where he went, only so that he 
 was in motion, he crossed the street and went out on the 
 huge structure. Every now and then a vehicle passed 
 him a market wagon going into the city, or a carriage 
 containing a boisterous party that had been revelling on 
 the other side, and was now returning in a half -intoxicated 
 condition. It was a long walk before he reached that 
 part of the bridge that was over the water, and then he 
 went on till he was at about the centre of the middle 
 span. He looked over the railing into the turbid, seeth- 
 ing, bubbling waters below, and he thought how easy it 
 would be to leap into their flood and end at once all the 
 heart-ache, all the bitterness, all the despair that crushed 
 
INVESTIGATION. 381 
 
 liis very soul, and made him feel that there were worse 
 things in the world than death. 
 
 But he was not the man to fly like a coward from the 
 misfortunes to which he might be subjected, by jumping 
 into a river or seeking death after any other method. 
 He was a brave man, full of both physical and moral 
 courage, and urged always by a stern sense of what he 
 deemed right. He had suffered before this in mind and 
 body. He had, among other frowns of fortune, been 
 imprisoned in Siberia, and had endured without failing 
 in spirit all the hardships and indignities that a cruel and 
 tyrannical government could inflict. He had never yet 
 succumbed before any tribulation that had come upon 
 him, and he had passed unscathed, in his lofty sense of 
 self-respect, through every ordeal to which he had been 
 submitted. True, this was the worst of all. Not even 
 the snowy wastes of a Siberian penal colony, the rigors 
 of a prison life, the blows, the stripes, the hard -tasks, 
 the degradation of body and soul, had equalled this. All 
 those had come from enemies, but this had been dealt by 
 the woman he loved and who had sworn to love him in 
 return the one that he had succored and nursed and 
 sheltered when things were going hardly with her, and 
 he was the one person in all the world that she could call 
 her friend. Great God ! was it possible that she was 
 false ? 
 
 He sat down on one of the benches, and though the 
 night was cold, he felt great beads of perspiration start- 
 ing out on his forehead. The full pale moon was sail- 
 ing overhead in a cloudless sky. It was just such a night 
 as that on which she, his Lai, had staggered up the 
 butte, her trembling limbs scarcely able to sustain her 
 another foot of the way, and when she had found a 
 
382 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 refuge from all her woes in his arms, and now " No !" 
 he exclaimed aloud. " Never ! She is not false ! I'll 
 not believe it ! Not though all the world should say it, 
 unless it comes to me from her own lips, spoken to me 
 when I am face to face with her ! Not till I see them 
 move, not till I hear the words ! Never ! so help me 
 God of heaven ! I do not believe she is false !" He 
 started to his feet, animated by a new feeling that filled 
 his whole being and urged him on with a force before 
 which nothing antagonistic could have stood. He re- 
 traced his steps over the bridge, and then walked, almost 
 ran, through the streets till he reached the hotel. 
 
 There was no one about but a sleepy-looking watch- 
 man, sitting on one of the benches in the hall, and a still 
 more sleepy-looking clerk in the office. 
 
 " When does the next train go to New York ?" he 
 inquired of that official. 
 
 The man looked at the dial behind him. It was two 
 o'clock. 
 
 u The next train leaves at four. In two hours," he 
 answered. 
 
 u Call me, please, at half -past three. I am going on 
 that train." 
 
 Then he went to his room, and without undressing 
 threw himself on the outside of the bed, and in five 
 minutes was sound asleep. But how long he slept he 
 was never able to determine with exactness, but probably 
 not longer than ten minutes. He had neglected to look 
 at his watch just before lying down, but it was, as near 
 as he could determine from a consideration of the fact 
 that it was exactly two when the clerk looked at the 
 clock, about ten minutes past that hour. But he was 
 awakened by a strong impression that something had 
 
INVESTIGATION. 383 
 
 happened to him that, for the moment, he did not un- 
 derstand ; and then all at once the truth in regard to 
 the origin of the letter flashed upon his mind. He knew 
 it word for word ; he knew where it came from ; it was 
 all as clear to him as day. He lay in bed for several 
 minutes, repeating it over aloud to himself, and imagining 
 by what accident Lai had put it into the envelope instead 
 of the letter she had intended to send, and how the date 
 1574 had been changed to 1874. Then he got up, lit the 
 gas, and examined the letter closely. There was no 
 doubt that the figure 5 had been altered into an 8. The 
 stroke of the pen making the change was different from 
 that which had formed the original figure, and a part of 
 the little transverse line at the top of the 5 was still to 
 be seen. 
 
 He looked at his watch. It was just half -past two, and 
 only about twenty minutes had elapsed since he had lain 
 down. It was very evident that during his sleep, and 
 when the brain was relieved from the many points with 
 which, while awake, it had been engaged, it had quietly 
 solved the mystery of the letter. He lay down again, 
 perfectly satisfied that all the essential circumstances 
 connected with the letter all, at least, that bore upon 
 his darling and her truth and constancy had been ex- 
 plained. How the letter had gotten into the envelope 
 was nothing to him now. Whether by accident or by 
 treachery mattered not. That it was not hers was all he 
 cared to know. 
 
 He slept soundly till he was called at half-past three, 
 and at four o'clock, after a hurried breakfast, he was on 
 the train for New York. Before Moultrie's telegram 
 reached St. Louis, he was two hundred miles on his 
 way. 
 
384 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 There was ample time for reflection while on the 
 train, and the more he thought of the matter, the more 
 he was convinced that the explanation he had arrived at 
 was the correct one. The letter was entirely clear to his 
 mind. He had read it a hundred times or more. He 
 knew it by heart, as he did nearly every page of the 
 little vellum-bound book which appeared to be so inti- 
 mately connected with his fate. And the whole story of 
 the perfidious aunt and the Countess Louise, whose initial 
 was at the end of the letter, was as familiar to him as 
 any incident in his own life. It seemed strange to him 
 now that he had not at once recalled it ; but he supposed 
 his failure to do so was due to the fatigue of travel and 
 the suddenness with which the circumstance had been 
 forced upon his mind. He had not been able, in fact, 
 to gather his wits together. He was like a person who, 
 when suddenly asked a question in regard to a perfectly 
 familiar matter, is unable to give an off-hand answer, 
 and blunders or stammers in the attempt to do so, be- 
 coming more and more confused every moment. 
 
 Then his mind had been running in quite a different 
 direction relative to the contents of the letter. He had 
 anticipated something altogether different, and hence his 
 brain was taken unawares, and, being in a more or less 
 exhausted state from the general bodily fatigue, was not 
 in a fit condition to exercise all its powers, especially 
 that of memory, which is generally the first under such 
 circumstances to exhibit weakness. 
 
 But with the first few minutes of sleep a different 
 state of affairs ensued. He knew that in many positions 
 in which he had been placed he had experienced the 
 most efficient brain-rest from sleep of even less duration 
 than that which he had taken ; and, then, as had often 
 
INVESTIGATION. 385 
 
 happened to him before, lie had awakened with the 
 whole subject as fresh before him as though he had just 
 read the letter from the book in which it was printed. 
 
 He had a compartment in the Pullman car all to him- 
 self, so he took out of his pocket Mrs. Sincote's letter, 
 and began to read it over. He had not previously given 
 much attention to its study, but now he read it with the 
 view of sifting it thoroughly, and, if possible, to discover 
 its real object. 
 
 One point he settled at once, and it was one that any- 
 body with ordinary common-sense would have deter- 
 mined in the same way that he did. If Lai was the victim 
 of an accident or of treachery, then this letter of Mrs. 
 Sincote's was written with the intention of deceiving 
 him ; for it assumed that the letter of the 16th was a 
 genuine one, and written by Lai because she had ceased 
 to love him. From this dilemma there was no escape. 
 If Lai was still true to him, Mrs. Sincote was a traitress. 
 It was she who was false, and her letter had been written 
 with the intention of heightening the effect which she 
 knew the false letter could not fail to produce. He read 
 it over, therefore, with the intention of studying its 
 motives so far as they could be determined from the 
 words written, and now, with the light he had received 
 relative to the false letter of the 16th, the conclusion 
 was irresistible that Mrs. Sincote had written it with the 
 intention of misleading him. It was a very carefully 
 contrived epistle, as the reader knows, but it was not so 
 cunningly devised that a man of Tyscovus's intellect and 
 knowledge could not see through its misrepresentations 
 and false assumptions. It never occurred to him, then, 
 however, to suspect Mrs. Sincote of having deliberately 
 substituted the one letter for the other ; but he did believe 
 17 
 
386 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 that she in one way or another had heard of the mistake 
 that had been made, and had set out deliberately to use 
 it for her own ends. 
 
 He had seen very little of this lady. On her arrival 
 at Chetolah, Dr. Willis's residence in Colorado, some- 
 what over two years ago, he had been in her company 
 perhaps half a dozen times, but had not, on any one of 
 these occasions, addressed to her half a dozen words. At 
 that period of his life his mind was occupied with far 
 graver things than in seeking the company of women in 
 whom he took no special interest. She had, in fact, 
 scarcely attracted his notice ; and as to her being in love 
 with him, the idea had never entered his mind. If he 
 had known of her feeling for him, he would have been 
 quick enough to associate her with the act of changing 
 the letters ; and even as it was, though he could not at 
 first find it in his heart to suspect her, the more he 
 thought of the matter, and of her cautious and evidently 
 treacherous letter to him, the more he found it impossi- 
 ble to avoid forming a half suspicion that in some way 
 or other she had taken an active part in the deception that 
 had been practised. 
 
 On his arrival in New York he went at once to the 
 Windsor Hotel, and as soon as he could make himself pre- 
 sentable proceeded to Moultrie's house, only a few yards 
 distant. It was just nine o'clock in the evening when he 
 ascended the steps leading from the street to the front 
 door, and he thought, from what Lai had written him in 
 regard to their habits, that he should find them all in the 
 library or drawing-room, according to the particular oc- 
 cupation or amusement that might be engaging their at- 
 tention. He had not determined upon any definite course 
 of action, but now he thought he would send in his card, 
 
INVESTIGATION. 387 
 
 and wait in the reception-room for an answer. For a mo- 
 ment he stood on the large flat stone at the top of the flight 
 of steps, his mind filled with the memories of the past, 
 and then, in rapid succession, with all the incidents, the 
 thoughts, the fears, the hopes of the past three days. In 
 a few moments the question of the truth or falsity of the 
 woman he loved would be settled beyond a perad venture, 
 but for him it was already determined as surely as any 
 event of his life. There was not one lingering doubt in 
 his mind. During the journey from St. Louis he had so 
 sifted and digested all the circumstances of the letter as 
 to be absolutely certain that he had arrived at the true 
 interpretation in ascribing the fraud to Julia Sincote. 
 There was nothing in his heart but joy. She whom he 
 loved was separated from him only by a few walls, and 
 by doors that would open at his touch. In a few mo- 
 ments she would be in his arms. Every moment's delay 
 was an age to him. He rang the bell, and in an instant 
 the door was opened. 
 
 " Are Mrs. Moultrie and Miss Moultrie at home ?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 " Will you take my card to them, please ?" 
 
 " The ladies are in the library. Walk into the draw- 
 ing-room, sir." 
 
 The man helped him to remove his overcoat, and then, 
 throwing aside the heavy portiere, ushered him into the 
 drawing-room. 
 
 The house was a deep one, and Was situated on a cor- 
 ner. Next to the drawing-room, and on the same range, 
 was a smaller room, the two only separated by an arch- 
 way from which portieres descended. Beyond this was 
 the library, but also communicating, like this smaller 
 room ; so that a person in the drawing-room could, if 
 
388 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 the portieres were separated, see through the whole 
 range of rooms into the library. Tyscovus entered, but 
 did not sit down. As he crossed the floor toward the 
 centre of the room, he turned his face to the left, and 
 there, far back, he saw seated at a table two ladies, both 
 of whom he at once recognized, even at that distance. 
 There were books on the table, and they might have 
 been reading ; but at that moment they appeared to be 
 engaged in earnest conversation. He saw that one of 
 them was Mrs. Moultrie, and that the other was his dar- 
 ling. Her face was turned almost directly toward him, 
 and the soft light of the lamp fell full upon it. " Was 
 there ever beauty like hers ?" he thought. The raven- 
 black hair, with its lustrous sheen, the soft black eyes, 
 the full, graceful mouth, the clear olive complexion, with 
 the tint of the wild rose struggling to show itself on her 
 cheeks, and barely succeeding, were all there as he had 
 seen them in Colorado, but still more lovely, for they 
 were toned down and refined and spiritualized, as 
 though some heaven -born artist had touched them all 
 with his inspired brush. He stood, scarcely able to 
 restrain himself from rushing in without further cere- 
 mony, and then he saw the servant hand to Theodora a 
 salver on which his card lay. She took the little piece 
 of pasteboard, and then, with an exclamation of surprise 
 and pleasure, handed it to Lai. The girl rose to her feet, 
 and for a moment looked around, as though expecting to 
 see him before her. He could hold back no longer. 
 With rapid steps he crossed the floor, and had entered 
 the middle room when she heard him coming. She 
 turned, and in an instant met his gaze fixed upon her. 
 A soft, low cry of joy escaped her lips, and then they 
 were pressed to his, and she was folded to his heart. 
 
INVESTIGATION. 389 
 
 "I knowed you would come," she said, as he kissed 
 her again and again. " Oh, no, it warn't in you to think 
 bad o' me, for you was certain to remember, even if you 
 mought be led wrong for awhile, what I said to you on 
 the butte the day I came away, ' that there warn't ary a 
 thing in all the world that could make me forgit you.' " 
 
 " I did remember it, darling. It was my confidence 
 in your truth and love that brought me right, after a few 
 hours' doubt, and then 1 hurried to you, sure that I 
 should find you unchanged." 
 
 " I suppose I am of no consequence," said Theodora, 
 holding out both her hands to Tyscovus ; " but I must 
 welcome you, if only for Lai's sake." 
 
 " And for your own, too, I trust," replied Tyscovus, 
 as he grasped her hands, and raised them one after the 
 other to his lips. " I have not forgotten one of my 
 earliest Colorado friends, and who will some day be still 
 nearer to me." 
 
 ' Yes, it excites my risible faculties," she answered, 
 with a silvery laugh, " when I think that I shall one day 
 be your mother. But come ! sit down and tell us your 
 adventures, and then we will tell you ours. First, how- 
 ever, 1 must send a telegram to Geoffrey, for I presume 
 that he is looking around St. Louis for you at just about 
 this time. You did not, I suppose, receive the telegram 
 he sent you day before yesterday morning, at ten 
 o'clock ?" 
 
 " No ; at that time I was far on my road to New 
 York." 
 
 " It explained everything. However, we shall go 
 over the whole matter with you. I have only one re- 
 quest to make. Be charitable, and extend your forgive- 
 ness to the one who has wronged us all." 
 
390 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " I think 1 know all that you can tell me. If you and 
 Lai have forgiven her, surely I can." 
 
 Theodora went to the other end of the room to write 
 her despatch, and before she had finished Lai had 
 nearly told Tyscovus the whole story of the fraud. He 
 was scarcely surprised, for, except in the fulness of the 
 details, the story did not differ from that which had, by 
 the exactness of his reasoning, been forced upon his mind. 
 
 It was late when he returned to the " Windsor," and 
 before he left, a telegram from Moultrie for Theodora 
 was received. It announced what of course they knew, 
 that Tyscovus had started for New York, and then that 
 he himself, with his sister Julia, would do so in the morn- 
 ing. " By the time you get this," he continued, 
 u Lalage will be happy." 
 
 " Yes," she said, " I am happy, but I think I should 
 be still happier if my dear father were here. And he 
 has had all that long journey for nothing !" 
 
 " Not for nothing, dear," said Theodora, softly. 
 
 " Ko," she answered ; " my happiness has made me 
 selfish. He has saved her, and that is a good deal." 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE WILES OF THE TEMPTER. 
 
 IN due time Moultrie returned to New York, bring- 
 ing his erring but repentant sister with him. Evidently 
 she felt in full the disgrace she had incurred. She made 
 no attempt to conceal the part she had played in the 
 affair, nor to extenuate her guilt. She only asked that 
 she might not be compelled to see any member of the 
 family, not even her mother, till such time as it might 
 be supposed their feeling against her had been softened. 
 It was in vain that her brother represented to her that 
 they were all prepared to extend full forgiveness ; but 
 she persisted, and declared that she could not look Lai or 
 Tyscovus in the face without being overcome with shame 
 and mortification. It was agreed, therefore, that she 
 should go to Moultrie's country-seat on the North River, 
 and stay there till she had recovered sufficient confidence 
 in the good-nature of her friends and in her own power 
 to face those she had injured, to warrant her return to 
 New York. 
 
 Of course the presence of Tyscovus interfered very 
 materially with the course of Lai's studies. They walked 
 and rode together every day, and when not doing either 
 of these things were talking with each other, either in 
 some quiet nook in the library by themselves, or in the 
 evening in the drawing-room with Moultrie and his wife. 
 Congress was to meet in a few days, and arrangements 
 
392 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 for the departure of the Moultries had to be made. It 
 had been determined, after due consideration, that Lai 
 should go also, and that the house in New York should 
 be left unoccupied during the winter. Theodora was 
 not feeling very well, but she infinitely preferred being 
 in Washington to remaining alone in New York. 
 
 Moreover, another and a still more important point had 
 been decided upon. And that was, that Tyscovus and 
 Lai should be married daring the coming winter. 
 Tyscovus had plead so earnestly, and had adduced so 
 many convincing arguments to the effect that nothing 
 advantageous to Lai's education would be gained by 
 delaying the marriage, that her father felt obliged to 
 yield. He showed conclusively that it would be impos- 
 sible for her to devote her attention to the work of learn- 
 ing lessons and recitations any more assiduously before 
 than after marriage. He promised to be a better in- 
 structor than any one that could be found in all the 
 world, " for," reasoned this specious logician, " it is im- 
 possible for Lai to study when I am with her, which, of 
 course, is nearly all the time. I am not her instructor, 
 and, therefore, she loses a great deal, whereas if we 
 were married she would get her education from me, and 
 I will devote more time and earnestness to that matter 
 than any mercenary teacher is likely to give. " 
 
 As to Lai, she admitted that as things were going on 
 there was very little attention paid to the tasks set by 
 Mrs. Bowdoin. When interrogated by her father rela- 
 tive to the matter, she frankly declared that she was ready 
 to marry Tyscovus at any moment, and that she hon- 
 estly believed nothing would be lost in her educational 
 advancement by such a procedure. Theodora added her 
 arguments and entreaties to those of the parties most in- 
 
THE WILES OF THE TEMPTER. 393 
 
 terested, so the matter was settled by arranging that on 
 the 28th of December, in Washington City, the nuptials 
 should take place, and that Tyscovus and his bride should 
 then reside with the Moultries during the session of 
 Congress. 
 
 Moultrie had been fortunate enough to be able to pur- 
 chase a large and beautiful house in the newer part of 
 the city. Upholsterers and decorators had been at work at 
 it for several weeks, and it was proposed that the whole 
 family should go to Washington in a day or two, so that 
 Theodora might be able to give her personal supervision 
 to the work that was being done. Both she and Moultrie 
 had their own ideas in regard to house decorations and 
 furniture, and were not disposed to give an order to some 
 fashionable establishment, and then to leave the details 
 to the taste of the workmen, without giving the matter 
 any further care. 
 
 The day after the dinner the Hon. Tom Burton had 
 called, as in duty bound, to pay his respects to Miss Billy 
 Bremen. He had found the young lady at home, for she 
 had determined to stay in the house every afternoon till his 
 visit had been made, rather than run the risk of missing 
 him. She was one of those individuals that never let the 
 grass grow under their feet. She was quite sure that she 
 had made a strong and favorable impression on Burton, 
 and she did not intend to leave any room for the asser- 
 tion that she had failed to follow up her advantage. At 
 the same time, she was aware that there might be danger 
 in exhibiting the full strength of her feeling. She was 
 by no means thoroughly acquainted with Burton. In 
 fact, she had seen as yet only one phase of his character, 
 and that the most superficial the one, too, that with 
 him was always seen first. Of his good common-sense 
 
394 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 and of his steadfastness of purpose after he had gotten 
 over the glamour of first impressions she knew absolutely 
 nothing. Bat she had sense enough to be aware of this 
 fact. She knew that she knew nothing, and that was a 
 great deal. 
 
 Thus far, however, it must be admitted that her con- 
 quest had been an easy one. Indeed, she had been 
 greatly surprised at the readiness with which the Hon. 
 Tom had received the flattery she had offered and the 
 attentions she had paid. These latter had been so open, 
 especially after the dinner, when they were together at 
 the piano, and just as he was taking his departure, that 
 both Miss Sorby and Miss Boggs had thought it their 
 duty to inform her that she had gone farther than the 
 customs of " good society" warranted. And Mrs. Wil- 
 loughby Bull had said that if she Miss Billy were 
 " not going to marry that young man, she ought to be, for 
 things was entirely too free and easy and promiscuous- 
 like for mere company." To all of which Miss Billy 
 had turned a deaf ear. So far she was sure she had not 
 gone beyond the bounds of what was proper. Although 
 she did not know the meaning of finis coronat opus, yet 
 she had a very clear idea that the object was worth all 
 the labor that she could bestow upon it, and that so long 
 as her wiles appeared to be favorably received by him 
 upon whom she exercised them, there was no danger of 
 disgusting him. That the matter, however, required 
 watchful attention, she was ready to admit, and watchful 
 attention she meant to give it to the utmost of her 
 ability. 
 
 Burton had entered her house with very different feel- 
 ings from those that he had experienced the night be- 
 fore. He had been reflecting deeply upon the situation 
 
THE WILES OF THE TEMPTER. 395 
 
 of affairs, and he could not avoid arriving at the conclu- 
 sion that he had acted in a very idiotic manner. The 
 last words, " Good-night, Tom," that Miss Billy had 
 spoken to him had cut him to the heart. They were 
 what Eachel was to have said, and did not, and he could 
 not avoid contrasting the effect that would have been 
 produced upon his mind in the one case, and the effect 
 that actually was produced in the other. The two 
 women were so entirely different in mind and person that 
 he wondered for the moment how he, who had been at- 
 tracted by Rachel Meadows, a lady, pretty, refined, of 
 good family, should have felt himself in a measure cap- 
 tivated by Miss Billy Bremen, who was not a lady, who 
 was thoroughly vulgar, and whose family well, it was 
 dangerous to think about families in New York, when 
 he did not know but that the mother of the beautiful 
 and fashionable young lady at his side, whom he drove 
 out to the Park a day or two ago, might have done his 
 mother's washing. He did know that she could not 
 speak ten consecutive words of good English. Yes, the 
 words, " Good-night, Tom," coming from Miss Billy's 
 not over-pleasant-looking mouth, had done much to 
 break the spell that had been thrown around him, and 
 he had gone home feeling dissatisfied with himself, and 
 almost resolving that with the payment of his visite de 
 digestion his social relations with Miss Billy Bremen 
 should cease. 
 
 And the more he thought of the matter after he had 
 arrived at his comfortable apartment in the Menhaden 
 Club House, the more decided he became on the point 
 in question. Seated in his large arm-chair, with a cigar 
 in his mouth, and his clothing so arranged as to facilitate 
 comfort, he had read over the short and touching letter 
 
396 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 which he had that very morning received from Rachel, 
 and which lie had answered so guardedly. " I was very 
 wicked, and I am very wretched," he read. " Poor 
 Rachel !" he continued, " I have behaved to her like a 
 cold, calculating, contemptible brute. I ought to have 
 gone to see her at once. She was worth the trouble. 
 And suppose she was trying to fool me again ? It's no 
 disgrace to be fooled by a woman. And if she was in 
 earnest and I'll swear she was I have lost her, and have 
 made a greater fool of myself with that Bremen girl in 
 one evening than Rachel, with everything in her favor, 
 could have made of me in a lifetime." The reflection 
 was not pleasant, so he tried to dismiss the subject from 
 his mind, and turned his attention to writing several let- 
 ters that he was obliged to mail that night. 
 
 And then the next day he had gone to pay his visit to 
 Miss Billy. He was thus prompt because he intended 
 to go to Washington by the night train, to arrange about 
 the Mexican business, and it was probable that he might 
 not be back for several days. Indeed, he might go direct 
 from there to Mexico. He was anxious to get away 
 from New York, and he welcomed the chance that the 
 contemplated appointment gave him. 
 
 There was no one in the drawing-room when he entered, 
 but he did not have long to wait, for before he had had 
 time to look around at the articles of virtu scattered 
 about on the wall, and a dozen or more small stands and 
 tables, Miss Billy entered the room. 
 
 "How are you, Tom !" she exclaimed, rushing for- 
 ward with outstretched hands. " I hope that you have 
 not suffered either in mind or in body from your Dissipa- 
 tion of last night." 
 
 The words of greeting she had used grated offensively 
 
THE WILES OF THE TEMPTER. 397 
 
 on his ears. For the life of him he could not have re- 
 turned her salutation in like manner. He merely bowed, 
 hoped she was well, and declared that he had never felt 
 better in his life. 
 
 " But you are forgetting your bargain," she said, with 
 a little giggle. " You promised to call me Billy, and 
 here, the first time you meet me afterward, you don't 
 call me anything at all." 
 
 u Billy !" he exclaimed, with desperation, "I hope 
 you are well." 
 
 " Quite well, thank you, Tom, and all the better for 
 seeing you." 
 
 " I hope you will not think me too punctual in call- 
 ing. But I am going to Washington this evening, and 
 may not be back for some time. " 
 
 " You could not be that ; I am always glad to see 
 you." 
 
 " I suppose," he said, finding the conversation lan- 
 guishing, " that you would not care to sing now." 
 
 " I will always sing for you!" she exclaimed, getting 
 up at once and going to the piano. " No, don't move," 
 she continued, as he rose to follow her. " I want you to 
 sit down at your ease and listen, or, rather, sit here,' ' draw- 
 ing, as she spoke, a large and luxuriously upholstered 
 chair to a place on the floor just behind where she would 
 sit at the piano. " I think it is so nice to be comfortable 
 when there is music. You can throw yourself back, and 
 shut your eyes and dream. That is what I like to do 
 when any one is singing for me, provided, of course, 
 that the singing is is ". 
 
 " As good as yours," he interrupted. " Of course 
 you know you sing divinely." 
 
 " 1 know 1 sing well," she answered, casting down 
 
398 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 her eyes, with an attempt at a modest expression, " for I 
 have had great pains taken with me, and I have worked 
 hard to succeed." 
 
 He took the seat she indicated and thanked her. He 
 was already beginning to feel the influence of her flat- 
 tery. 
 
 Then she began to sing ; and from that time on poor 
 Tom was lost in a re very of pure delight. He had fol- 
 lowed her advice, and with closed eyes, so as to shut out 
 all sensory impressions coming through them, he gave 
 himself up completely to the intoxication of the hour. 
 She did not speak, and he did not speak, but her lovely 
 voice filled his heart, and he felt at times as though he 
 could almost worship the being, angel or demon, who 
 was capable of affording him such keen enjoyment. At 
 last she stopped. 
 
 " You are very kind," he said, gravely, u to be will- 
 ing to give me so much pleasure. It is a shame for me 
 to ask for more ; but if you are not too tired I would be 
 infinitely obliged for just one more song. I never knew 
 but one woman who could sing it as it ought to be sung, 
 and she is dead. " 
 
 u I am not tired. Singing never tires me. What is 
 it?" 
 
 " Beethoven's Adelaide.' 1 
 
 " Oh, yes ; it is my favorite of all songs." 
 
 He had never heard it sung with a tenth part of the 
 fervor or of the vocal excellence that she gave to it. All 
 his late ideas of the coarseness of Miss Billy vanished 
 under the emotion her music excited. It was impossible 
 for him to resist her hocus-pocus, or whatever else it 
 might be. He thought of Orpheus, who even attracted 
 the beasts of the fields and the very trees of the forest. 
 
THE WILES OF THE TEMPTER. 399 
 
 What matter was it whether Orpheus were handsome or 
 not ? He had power to move the heart. The ancient 
 myth was simply to show that music was a force before 
 which nothing in the whole range of animated nature 
 could stand unmoved. "What was there strange, there- 
 fore, in his giving himself up to such music as this 
 woman was able to produce ? 
 
 He rose as she finished and stood beside her. 
 
 " Why are you so kind to me ?" he said, with a little 
 tremor in his voice. ' ' What have 1 ever done for you 
 that you should be so gracious to me ?" 
 
 "Why am I kind to you?" she answered, turning 
 round and facing him. " Can you not guess ?" 
 
 Now, Burton did not know that Miss Billy was in love 
 with him and wanted to marry him. He thought she 
 was disposed to be very friendly with him, and that she 
 wished to gain his good opinion for some object that she 
 had in view in some way connected with the woman's 
 rights movement. He knew that she had separated 
 from the leaders of the effort in the city of New York, 
 that she had endeavored to set him against them, but he 
 did not suspect for a moment that she was in love with 
 him ; so he answered very promptly : 
 
 "No, I do not know. Tell me." 
 
 Billy's face turned redder than ever as she perceived 
 that a crisis in her episode with Burton had come, and 
 that, perhaps, if she managed matters with discretion, 
 she might, within the following ten minutes, gain all 
 for which she was struggling. But she was by no means 
 clear in her own mind how to act. He had opened the 
 door for her by asking her to tell him what it all meant. 
 To be sure, this was something of an imputation that she 
 had been taking an initiative that ought to have come 
 
400 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 from him, but she thought she perceived that he had 
 had no idea of ascribing any unmaidenly conduct to her. 
 His inquiry was clearly prompted by a sense of her good- 
 ness to him, and of his deep appreciation of her musical 
 genius. Evidently he was prepared to reciprocate to the 
 full any motive which she might have had to spur her 
 on in her efforts to please him. 
 
 " I'll tell you," she said, still with downcast eyes. 
 " It is impossible for me to keep back the manifestations 
 of any feeling I may have, kind or unkind, good or 
 bad. If I hated you I should let you know it very 
 plainly ; but as I like you, I let you see that, too." 
 
 " And you really like me ?" 
 
 " Yes ; more than I have ever liked any one else in 
 all my life." 
 
 " And why V said the Hon. Tom, bending low over 
 her " why do you care for me, a comparative stran- 
 ger?" 
 
 " Ah ! how can I answer such a question ?" exclaimed 
 Billy, clasping her hands together. " 1 do not know. 
 Can we ever tell, we women, why our hearts become 
 filled with some one of your sex ? I only know that you 
 are good and kind, and that somehow or other my des- 
 tiny seems to be linked with yours." 
 
 Now, if the Hon. Tom had not been in some respects, 
 and certainly in those in which women were concerned, 
 an egregious ass, he would have been disgusted with this 
 speech of Miss Billy's and with her previous manoeuvres. 
 He was not in the slightest degree in love with her when 
 out of her presence ; he was capable of appreciating her 
 at her true value, and of experiencing the proper amount 
 of dislike for her, and for what he then had no difficulty 
 in perceiving were unpleasant qualities. But music so 
 
THE WILES OF THE TEMPTER. 401 
 
 affected his emotional system as to pervert his intellect 
 in a way that, to say the least of it, was extremely illog- 
 ical, but to which, in some degree at least, all mankind, 
 with a touch of what is generally called '(J'liearV ' in 
 their compositions, are subject. Why do menfight bet- 
 ter under the stirring noise of the drum and fife than 
 when there are no such incentives ? Why do others 
 have their arms and legs thrown into convulsive move- 
 ments under the influence of the lively strains of a waltz 
 or dance ? Why do strong, rugged men, who have all 
 their lives defied the church, find themselves praying 
 and the wicked feelings going out of them when some 
 solemn and melodious composition is played on the 
 organ ? All these are illogical and incongruous acts, for 
 which there is no rational interpretation. And then, it 
 may be asked and a like answer would have to be 
 given why should the Hon. Tom Burton be so moved 
 by the magnificent singing of a coarse-minded and alto- 
 gether commonplace woman, who had scarcely a re- 
 deeming quality beyond her appreciation of music why 
 should he be so affected as to feel like wishing to make 
 her his wife ? Such things are ultimate facts. We 
 only know that they do exist, and it will be apparent, 
 doubtless, that the Hon. Tom Burton, a man of the 
 world and in love with another woman, was one of the 
 most striking instances that have ever been recorded. 
 
 He stood in silence after this last speech of the 
 tempter, struggling mentally against the influence that 
 was bearing so hardly upon him. He had still a little 
 a very little, intelligence and self-control left, but it was 
 fast disappearing. If he had been endowed at the time 
 with the least spark of common-sense, and with the 
 slightest power of exerting his perceptive faculties, he 
 
402 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 would at once have known that Miss Billy was acting a 
 part, that there was really no passion in her conduct ex- 
 cept that lowest of all, the desire to possess, for the sake 
 of the material advantages she might derive from a mat- 
 rimonial alliance with a man as distinguished as was 
 Burton. She had heard that he had been offered a high 
 position in the diplomatic service of the country, and 
 the idea that she might, by playing her cards well, go to 
 Mexico with him as his wife, had taken complete posses- 
 sion of her, and was continually urging her on to acts 
 that, in her opinion, would tend to aid in the fulfilment 
 of her wishes. 
 
 Meanwhile Burton was silent, and Miss Billy began to 
 feel some little apprehension that unless she followed up 
 her advantage she might lose her prey. The shades of 
 night were beginning to fall, and she knew that, as Bur- 
 ton was going to Washington by the night train, he 
 would be leaving her house soon, and that she would not 
 have another opportunity of attacking him, if at all. 
 But what could she say unless he made some response, 
 either by word or deed, to her last tender speech ? In 
 her dilemma she ran her fingers over the keys of the 
 piano, and she played very softly and deliciously, with- 
 out, perhaps, knowing what she was doing, one of the 
 loveliest of Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words." 
 That turned the scale in her favor ; Burton laid a hand 
 on her head. She stopped and turned toward him. 
 " Billy," he said, as he drew her head to his breast, " I 
 believe you are an angel in disguise. I don't know 
 whether you love me or not, but if you will try to do so, 
 and will be my wife, you will make me the happiest 
 man in the world." 
 
 " I do love you," said Billy, standing up and yielding 
 
THE WILES OF THE TEMPTER. 403 
 
 herself unresistingly to his embrace ; " I think I loved 
 you the first moment I saw you, and I will be your 
 wife. Oh, Tom," she continued, " 1 am so happy !" 
 
 The probability is that she was happy, and that at that 7 
 moment her happiness was increased by a genuine emo- 
 tion of an ennobling character. There was every reason 
 why she should be greatly elated, for her efforts to 
 inveigle Burton into a marriage proposal had been emi- 
 nently successful. To be sure, he had not been gained 
 by any consideration of her mental or personal character- 
 istics beyond that of her ability to interpret vocal and 
 instrumental musical compositions in a way that took 
 away his mastership of himself ; but for that she cared 
 very little. She had him, and that was the main point, 
 after all. 
 
 " I never heard any one play or sing like you," said 
 Burton, disposed to dwell upon these characteristics of 
 Billy that he admired most. " You make me forget 
 everything when 1 hear you, and I am scarcely responsi- 
 ble for what I do." 
 
 Now, it must be confessed that this was not exactly 
 the sort of speech that a young lady who had just re- 
 ceived a proposal of marriage, accompanied by those acts 
 of tenderness that generally attend upon an affair of the 
 kind, would like to hear. To be told by her lover that 
 he is not accountable for his actions, when the chief of 
 these actions the only one, in fact, which concerns her 
 is asking her to be his wife and then putting his arms 
 around her, is calculated to dampen any feeling of ela- 
 tion she may be experiencing. But the effect upon 
 Billy was not so great in this respect as might have been 
 supposed by a person ignorant of her real sentiments and 
 designs. She had no fear of losing Burton. She knew, 
 
404 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 or at least she thought she did, that when he had once 
 pledged his word to anything, and especially when he 
 had given it to a woman, he would stick to it, no matter 
 how much repentance he might subsequently feel. She 
 had more infinitely more confidence in his honor than 
 she had in his love. In fact, she had no confidence what- 
 ever in the durability of the impression she had made. 
 She was clever enough to see through the Hon. Tom as 
 clearly as though his envelope were of glass instead of 
 the skin and flesh of nature and the costume that civil- 
 ization required him to wear ; and she saw very plainly 
 that the present demonstrations were altogether based on 
 a transient emotion, that there was not the slightest 
 depth to them, and that, born as they were of the im- 
 pulse of the moment, he would bitterly regret his weak- 
 ness so soon as he was out of her presence. Her object, 
 therefore, was to settle him in his position as her ac- 
 cepted husband so firmly that he could not escape the 
 thraldom without doing such violence to his sense of 
 justice and right and honor that he would never venture 
 to make the attempt. 
 
 " When we are married, dear," she said, " I will play 
 and sing for you all day long. Oh, you will never get 
 rid of me then !" she continued, throwing her arms 
 around his neck. 
 
 The first faint glimmerings of the fact that he had 
 made an ass of himself began to dawn upon the Hon. 
 Tom. He winced a little under the encroachments that 
 Billy was making. He had not yet kissed her ; he had 
 felt at first as though he should do so, but it had been 
 deferred for a moment, and now he felt quite sure that 
 he should not perpetrate that act. He could not. The 
 idea was one that was extremely repugnant, and his fear 
 
THE WILES OF THE TEMPTER. 405 
 
 now was that Billy, after throwing her arms around his 
 neck, would, as the ensuing performance on the pro- 
 gramme, kiss him. 
 
 What to do next he did not know, and the situation 
 was every moment becoming more embarrassing. Here 
 he stood, with his arms around Billy, and hers clasped 
 about his neck. It was impossible for him to stand in 
 that position very much longer, for if he went to Wash- 
 ington that night and he was now more than ever de- 
 termined to do so he would require all the intervening 
 time for his preparations. He made a little movement 
 toward releasing himself, but her clutch around his neck 
 only became the firmer. But the act had the effect of 
 calling forth another tender speech from Billy. 
 
 " Tom," she exclaimed, " you do love me, don't 
 you?" 
 
 "Yes," he answered, " I think you play and sing 
 better than any person I ever heard. " 
 
 This was not altogether a very passionate response, but 
 it was a partial reiteration, and to that extent was satis- 
 factory. 
 
 " You don't love any one else, do you, dear Tom ?" 
 
 Now, this was a poser, and it was one that by its terms 
 required a categorical answer. Of course he could have 
 lied about it, as many men in his position would have 
 done ; but it was not in his nature to lie. He could not 
 tell the truth, for that would be to make the woman he 
 was holding to his heart feel uncomfortable ; so he 
 gazed abstractedly at the ceiling, and said, as though the 
 idea which had prompted his last observation was still 
 floating through his mind, " Yes ; more divinely than 
 any person I ever heard. ' ' 
 
 If Billy had had as much sound intellect as she had of 
 
406 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 a certain kind of Yankee smartness, she would have let 
 matters drop, have taken her arms from around Bur- 
 ton's neck, and have let him go, with the assurance she 
 was rightly entitled to entertain that she had hooked her 
 fish so firmly that escape from the landing-net was im- 
 possible. But the success she had had was altogether so 
 much more speedy and complete than she had supposed 
 was possible, that her brain was beginning to be a little 
 turned, and she was approaching that mental condition 
 which prompts an individual to form a feeling of con- 
 tempt for the active or passive powers of resistance of 
 an antagonist. She felt so sure of her conquest that she 
 determined not only to put the chains around her cap- 
 tive, but to rivet them so securely that he would see at 
 once the utter hopelessness of all efforts to free himself, 
 and would be reduced to such an abject state of servi- 
 tude that her slightest wish would be law. She there- 
 fore repeated her question, with a slight modification, 
 and with a little preamble, calculated to lessen any diffi- 
 culty in giving an answer. 
 
 " Of course I know, dear," she said, " that a gentle- 
 man like you, living in the gulf of fashion, and thrown 
 with all kinds of beautiful ladies, must have been in love 
 at some time or other ; but they're all out of your mind 
 now, Tom, aren't they ?" 
 
 " Yes, I think they are." 
 
 " You don't love that Rachel Meadows, do you? 
 You never did love her ?" 
 
 " What do you know about Rachel Meadows ?" he 
 exclaimed, roused to himself again in a way and to an 
 extent that no other words in the language could have 
 produced, and breaking loose at last from Billy's em- 
 brace. 
 
THE WILES OF THE TEMPTER. 407 
 
 " I know a good deal about her," exclaimed this 
 young woman, her eyes sparkling with anger and her 
 face assuming the usual livid hue that it did whenever 
 she lost her temper. " I know she's a nasty, lying, 
 treacherous, disagreeable thing," and with each adjective 
 Billy stamped her square foot violently on the carpet. 
 
 " I know Miss Meadows," said Burton, becoming as 
 pale as a sheet with disgust, " better, perhaps, than you 
 do, Miss Bremen, and I know her to be everything that 
 is lovely." 
 
 " Then you are in love with her ?" 
 
 " God help me, I believe 1 am 1" 
 
 " And here," she continued, pounding her chubby 
 fists on the key -board of the piano, and thus keeping up 
 a discordant accompaniment to her speech, " you have 
 been telling me you loved me !" 
 
 " Excuse me, Miss Bremen, I never told you anything 
 of the kind." 
 
 " You did ! You know you did ! And now you 
 dare to deny it !' ' 
 
 ( ' I asked you to be my wife. ' ' 
 
 " And isn't that the same thing ?" 
 
 " 1 think not ; 1 did, under the influence of feelings 
 aroused by your beautiful music, ask you to be my wife. 
 I am ready to make you Mrs. Burton whenever it may 
 suit your convenience, provided you have practised no 
 deceit upon me no actual fraud. " 
 
 " What do you mean by fraud ?" 
 
 ' ' When you were in my office yesterday, ' ' he contin- 
 ued, in a firm, steady tone, and with a resolution that no 
 one could have excelled, for he was at his best, now that 
 the glamour had gone, " I was in trouble, for a mis- 
 understanding had occurred between me and Miss Mead- 
 
408 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 ows, whom 1 had asked to be my wife, and whom 1 
 loved with all my heart. I should probably have taken 
 measures to stop all the cross-purposes at which we were 
 playing but for something that you told me about her, 
 and in which you were apparently supported by irrefrag- 
 able evidence. If in all that, you told me the truth if 
 your evidence was not manufactured for the occasion, I 
 will marry you whenever you please, even though I 
 leave you at the altar. But as to loving you after the 
 exhibition you have just given me, that is out of the 
 question. If you had shown yourself to be good and 
 honest and true, 1 should doubtless in time have loved 
 and respected you. All that is now impossible." 
 
 While Burton was speaking Billy's face passed through 
 all the hues of the rainbow, and she looked as though 
 she might be going to have one of the " spells" against 
 which her physician had warned her. The anger, the 
 jealousy, and the vindictiveness that filled her whole be- 
 ing kept her up, so that by the time he had finished she 
 was ready to resume her part in the contest. 
 
 " It is you who are the fraud !" she exclaimed, wav- 
 ing her arms wildly. " You promised to marry me, 
 and I'll make you do it, if I have to appeal to the law for 
 protection." 
 
 " Such a procedure, Miss Bremen, will not be neces- 
 sary. You have only to convince me that you have 
 committed no imposition upon me, and you may send 
 for a clergyman this instant. Or I will go round the 
 corner to the nearest magistrate and be married at once." 
 
 " What do you mean by imposition ?" she shrieked. 
 "How dare you accuse me of such a thing !" 
 
 " Let me see the newspaper that you showed me yes- 
 terday." 
 
THE WILES OF THE TEMPTER. 409 
 
 " I haven't it ; I lost it on my way home. You ain't 
 such a fool as to doubt your senses, are you ? Didn't 
 you read for yourself ?" 
 
 " I glanced over it merely ; I wish to read the whole 
 of it. Yesterday 1 had more confidence in you than I 
 have now. Please, therefore, to regard our engagement 
 as standing contingently on the truth of the meaning 
 you conveyed to my mind yesterday. I shall get a copy 
 of the paper this evening. If you are right, 1 will marry 
 you to-morrow, if you like ; if you have deceived me, 
 you will never have an opportunity of bringing your 
 arts to bear upon me again. " 
 
 " Yery well, sir, I am satisfied. Perhaps you call 
 yourself an honorable man because you say you are will- 
 ing, under certain circumstances, to fulfil the letter of 
 your promise. Now, sir, I want you to understand it is 
 I who cast you off. You are a fraud, sir ! A moment 
 ago you called me an angel ; now you are trying to sneak 
 out of it. Yes, sir, you can go. I have no more use 
 for a fraud like you." 
 
 " Then you did deceive me yesterday ? Yes, I see by 
 your face that you did. How I do not know, but that 
 will be a very easy matter to find out. Happily, your 
 machinations will fail. True, I called you an angel an 
 ' angel in disguise ; ' so much disguised, I may say, that 
 nobody but a fool like me would have taken you for 
 one." 
 
 " Go back to your Rachel Meadows, if you like ; if 
 you can stand a woman of her character " 
 
 " Stop !" exclaimed Burton. " You" 
 
 " You sold yourself to me for five thousand dollars ! 
 A very honorable man ! Oh, very honorable !" 
 
 In an instant Burton had his pocketbook in his hand ; 
 18 
 
410 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 lie opened it hurriedly, and taking out the check that 
 Billy had given him yesterday, tore it into a hundred 
 pieces and threw them on the floor, while Miss Billy 
 continued to indulge in a series of piercing shrieks, end- 
 ing by falling apparently in a lifeless condition on a sofa 
 that stood conveniently at hand. Burton looked at her 
 for a moment, and seeing that she was not so dead but 
 that she could open her eyes and glance at him defiantly, 
 he walked out of the house with as much composure as 
 he could command, cursing himself for his folly, but 
 resolved to fulfil to the letter his engagement with Billy 
 if, upon examination, he found she had not imposed 
 upon him relative to Rachel's lecture. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 CONSOLATIONS. 
 
 IT was only half-past five o'clock when Burton left 
 Miss Billy in a paroxysm of impotent rage in her own 
 drawing-room, but it was already quite dark. His dog- 
 cart, with its team of bays tandem, in which he had 
 driven up to East Seventy-fifth Street, was at the door, 
 and the young gentleman in livery and top-boots who 
 officiated as groom was standing at the head of the lead- 
 ing horse and beginning to wonder if his master intended 
 to " stay in there all night." Burton jumped in, followed 
 by the youth, who seated himself in that humiliating po- 
 sition which those of his official grade are compelled by 
 the requirements of fashion to assume, and seizing the 
 reins let the team go pretty much as they would through 
 Seventy-fifth Street to the Park, then down the east drive 
 to Fifth Avenue, and then on to the Menhaden Club. 
 How he ever contrived to avoid the vehicles he passed 
 was a wonder. Perhaps if he had tried he would have 
 run into some of them ; as it was, he let the horses have 
 their own way, and their instinct and training had saved 
 him from disaster. The first thing he did on arriving 
 at the club-house was to ask for a file of the Tattler for 
 the last six months. 
 
 This was obtained with some difficulty ; for, as the 
 clerk informed him, the paper was not now taken by the 
 club, the library committee having stricken it from the 
 
412 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 list on account of its unreliability, and the files of the 
 old numbers having been put aside in some out-of-the- 
 way place. Finally he got it, and ascending to his apart- 
 ment, seated himself in his enormous arm-chair and 
 began the search for the lecture. It was not much of a 
 task, and then he began the perusal, intending to read 
 every word of it from beginning to end. 
 
 The beauty of the language, the conciseness of expres- 
 sion, and the refinement of the ideas pleased him beyond 
 measure ; then he came to the passages that Miss Billy 
 had read to him. They were not Rachel's ! They were 
 quoted from Mary Wollstonecraft's " Rights of Women," 
 and were the only obscure parts of the lecture. And, 
 what was more, they were cited for the purpose of con- 
 demning them, and they were condemned in no measured 
 phrases. 
 
 Again, therefore, he had abundant evidence of his 
 folly in allowing himself to be so egregiously deceived 
 by the vulgar little minx, from whom now, happily, by 
 his discovery of her treachery, he was free. He did not 
 spare himself he was not the man to do that but he 
 made a solemn vow that, for the future, he would en- 
 deavor to be a different kind of a man. He thought he 
 had in him the nerve to attempt the revolution of his 
 character and the will-power to carry out his intentions. 
 He felt ashamed and humiliated at the thought of what 
 he had gone through during the last twenty-four hours, 
 and he saw very clearly that the chief blame rested on 
 his own shoulders. Now, what was to be done ? 
 
 First, he decided to postpone his Washington journey 
 to the following night, and then to return as soon as was 
 practicable. In the arrangements he had contemplated 
 relative to his voyage to Mexico, and of not returning to 
 
CONSOLATIONS. 413 
 
 E~ew York, lie had forgotten that he was under engage- 
 ment to deliver a lecture on " Texas Before the Annex- 
 ation." This lecture was appointed for that day a week, 
 so that his stay in Washington would not be long. 
 
 Second, he resolved to act generously and magnani- 
 mously to Rachel. His escape from Miss Billy's clutches 
 had warmed up the love that was a little cooled by the 
 adverse influences to which it had been subjected. He 
 saw more markedly than ever the differences between 
 the two women, and shuddered when he thought of the 
 life he would have led as the husband of the little 
 butcheress of East Seventy-fifth Street. He determined 
 that he would not let another night pass over his head 
 without making an effort to see Rachel, and to renew 
 the relations which, only two nights ago, seemed as 
 though they were destined to exist through their whole 
 lives. 
 
 Having come to this conclusion, which was, perhaps, 
 the most sensible one he had reached for several days, 
 he dressed and went to dinner. Then taking a cab, he 
 drove up to the u Joan of Arc," and sending up his card, 
 waited impatiently to be ushered to Rachel's apartment. 
 He walked up and down the floor of the little reception- 
 room, feeling the gravity of the situation in which he 
 was placed, but resolved to act his part without either 
 pride or prejudice in a manly effort to effect a reconcilia- 
 tion. He regretted that he had not gone to her on the 
 receipt of her note, and he reproached himself bitterly 
 for the excessive caution and distrust that had prevented 
 him taking a large-hearted and chivalrous view of her 
 conduct. Probably, he thought, she had acted more out 
 of playfulness than anything else. Certainly she would 
 never have written him that she was wicked and wretched 
 
414 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 if she had not continued to love him. As to her trying 
 to inveigle him into other and deeper complications, that 
 was absurd. Yes, he had been an awful fool to think 
 such a thing, even for one moment. She was made of 
 different stuff from that which entered into the composi- 
 tion of Miss Billy Bremen. 
 
 But his meditations were interrupted by the return of 
 the servant with the information that Miss Meadows and 
 her mother had left early in the afternoon on a visit to the 
 country, and that they would not return for several days. 
 
 His heart sank within him. " Do you know where 
 they have gone ?" 
 
 " The janitor is out, sir, and I'm taking his place till 
 he comes back. Perhaps if you were to call to-mor- 
 row you could find out." 
 
 Yes, perhaps he would call. In the mean time there 
 was nothing to do but to wait till his return from 
 Washington. It would be something, however, of a 
 relief to write to her. So to-morrow he would return 
 and get the address. Then he went back to his club, 
 where we can leave him in safety till we have followed 
 up the movements of some of the other important per- 
 sonages of this history. 
 
 When Rachel wrote her note to Burton she was 
 suffering from remorse for her conduct to him and from 
 that mental anguish that comes from the consciousness 
 that through our own acts we have lost something that 
 is very dear to us certainly the worst form of the 
 affection. The more she reflected upon the matter, the 
 more she was convinced that she really loved Burton, 
 and with an intensity and depth that she had not sus- 
 pected, even when she stood by his side at the piano and 
 her hot tears were falling thick and fast on his hand. 
 
CONSOLATIONS. 415 
 
 She had from the first moment of their acquaintance 
 been strongly impressed with the sense of his thorough 
 honesty and ingenuousness, amounting almost to sim- 
 plicity. In fact, he had seemed to her like some frank 
 and unsophisticated boy, whose innate chivalrous spirit 
 had not been enlightened by living in contact with a 
 world of pretension and deceit. This had been a good 
 foundation upon which to erect a warmer and firmer 
 superstructure, and she had built it with almost as much 
 rapidity as a similar process of creation had been going 
 on in Burton's heart. 
 
 She had said nothing on the subject to her mother, for 
 the reason that Mrs. Meadows, while a very excellent 
 woman, had, through her many contests with her late 
 husband, the commodore, acquired an impassivity and un- 
 susceptibility of disposition that repelled any idea Rachel 
 might have had of making her a confidante in a matter 
 requiring sympathy and advice. There was but one 
 person of all her acquaintances to whom she could turn, 
 and that was Miss Richardson. First of all, however, 
 she had her note to write to Burton. As the reader 
 knows, it was short, but expressive and comprehensive. 
 Pages would not have . conveyed a more accurate or 
 thorough idea of her mental condition than did the few 
 words she used, except in the one matter of her desire 
 that he should call and see her. In the first note she 
 wrote she had invited him to do so ; but upon reflection 
 she had determined to omit any request of the kind, so 
 she destroyed that one and wrote another. "If he 
 chooses to come," she said, u he will know that I shall 
 be glad to see him. He will see that I am sorry for 
 what I have done, and that I have set all pride aside in 
 making my confession." 
 
416 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 She had risen early, had written her note, and then 
 taking a cup of chocolate and a biscuit, sallied out for a 
 morning's walk. It was then only seven o'clock, too 
 early, she thought, to walk in the Park unattended. So, 
 dropping her note into the nearest letter-box, she started 
 at a brisk pace down Fifth Avenue. If the Hon. Tom 
 Burton had seen her then he would have been more pas- 
 sionately in love than ever, and indisposed to wait a mo- 
 ment in tendering his forgiveness. She was dressed in a 
 suit of blue cashmere, with a jaunty little hat on her 
 head, from beneath which the tresses of her luxuriant 
 chestnut brown hair seemed to be struggling to escape. 
 Her figure was perfection itself, her hands were nicely 
 gloved, and her feet daintily shod, and she walked with 
 that graceful, firm, swinging gait that showed that she 
 had legs and not pipe-stems beneath her petticoats. 
 There was nothing of the stride in the way that she 
 moved over the pavement. She did not set her feet 
 down on the flag-stones as a pestle is rammed into a 
 mortar, but they glided forward with a decision and an 
 apparent knowledge of just where they were to go, and 
 just how long they were to stay, that almost made one 
 think that they had intelligence and wills of their own. 
 " By Heaven !" the Hon. Tom Burton had exclaimed, 
 when he first saw her come out of a side door and cross 
 to her place on the platform, as she was about to begin 
 that unfortunate lecture in Galveston, " she walks like an 
 Andalusian milkmaid." The simile was not exactly a 
 correct one, for there are no milkmaids in Andalusia, 
 and Rachel Meadows walked more airily, and at the 
 same time lithesomely, than any Andalusian woman that 
 ever lived. 
 
 She walked down the Avenue as far as Fourteenth 
 
CONSOLATIONS. 417 
 
 Street, passing the Menhaden Club-house while the 
 Hon. Tom Burton was still firmly clasped in the arms 
 of Morpheus, though slumbering uneasily under the 
 semi -consciousness that matters were not going well with 
 hinK TEerTshe^went along Fourteenth Street to Union 
 Square, and along the west side of that thoroughfare to 
 Broadway, and up that street to Pursell's, which place 
 of refreshment she entered, as she often did, for the 
 purpose of getting her breakfast a meal which, after a 
 brisk walk such as she had taken this morning, she spe- 
 cially enjoyed. 
 
 She had bought a morning newspaper as she came 
 down-town, and while her breakfast was being prepared 
 she sat near a window reading the news of the day and 
 the editorial comments. First she read an account of 
 Theodora's lecture, and then the remarks that were 
 made upon the subject and upon that of the education 
 of woman in general. That brought to her mind the 
 fact that Mrs. Moultrie had announced her intention of 
 resigning her professorship. Indeed, she knew that the 
 resignation had already been sent, and would probably 
 reach them that morning. Rachel was not a fool. She 
 had surmised, from the few words of explanation that 
 had been given her, the cause of the dissolution of the 
 relations between Mrs. Moultrie and the college, and the 
 subject set her to thinking whether it might not be 
 possible that there was a limit to the field of use- 
 fulness of women that should be ascertained by some 
 better process than the hap-hazard one adopted by 
 the association of which she had been a member up 
 to the time of Miss Billy Bremen's vulgar assault upon 
 her. 
 
 She turned over the pages of her newspaper, when the 
 
418 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 heading " News from Washington" met her eye, and 
 she read : 
 
 "Complications with Mexico. Trouble has arisen with 
 Mexico in regard to the incursions of our troops into her 
 territory while in pursuit of hostile Indians. There ap- 
 pears to be a friendly feeling existing on the part of the 
 Mexican Government, which it is exceedingly desirable 
 should be still further cultivated. At the same time it is 
 highly prejudicial to the interests of both countries that 
 when Indians have crossed from Mexico, and have com- 
 mitted depredations on one side of the Rio Grande, that 
 the pursuit of them should cease the moment they have 
 reached that river. The President has taken the matter 
 into serious consideration, and, it is understood, was yes- 
 terday for several hours in consultation with the Secre- 
 tary of State on the subject. The full result of the 
 conference has not been made public, but it is quite cer- 
 tain that the Hon. Tom Burton, late of Texas, but now 
 residing in New York, will be offered the appointment 
 of special envoy to the Republic of Mexico, with the 
 view of arriving at some understanding satisfactory to 
 both countries. Other matters of importance will also 
 be placed in that gentleman's hands. The President and 
 Secretary are of the opinion that Mr. Burton has a pecul- 
 iar fitness for the delicate mission in question ; and though 
 he is a Democrat, it was decided that the appointment 
 should be offered to him." 
 
 Surprise, delight, pride, regret all struggled in Ra- 
 chel's bosom as she read these lines. This was the man 
 she had trifled with, a man who, in spite of his politics 
 being different from those of the party in power, had 
 been chosen from all the eminent men in the land for this 
 position of honor and responsibility. She was proud that 
 
CONSOLATIONS. 419 
 
 such a man had loved her, proud of him, proud of her- 
 self, that she had been able to inspire the love of one in 
 whom the rulers of the nation placed such implicit con- 
 fidence. It could not be, she thought, that she had lost 
 him forever by one inconsiderate act of which she had 
 fully repented. When he received her note he would 
 come back to her, and then she would amply atone for 
 her fault. 
 
 So he was going to Mexico. Oh, if she could go with 
 him as his wife ! " Oh, Tom, Tom !" she murmured, 
 from behind her newspaper, " come back to me ! Oh, 
 I'll never, never, never say a cross word to you again ! 
 My brave, noble, chivalrous Tom ! You called me your 
 ' Beauty ' last night, but I really believe I'm more of a 
 ' Beast' than Billy Bremen !" She glanced across the 
 room toward a looking-glass, and smiled away the tears 
 from her eyes as she saw how comely she was, and what 
 inestimable advantages, in this respect at least, she pos- 
 sessed over Miss Richardson's " Beast." 
 
 Then she turned her attention to her breakfast, and 
 having despatched a couple of Yorkshire muffins and an 
 omelette, with a goodly sized cup of coffee, she resumed 
 her walk up-town. The clock at the Fifth Avenue 
 Hotel indicated nine o'clock. By the time she could 
 arrive at Miss Richardson's residence it would not be 
 too early for her to receive an intimate acquaintance. 
 Miss Richardson had only a short time previously pur- 
 chased a very pretty little English basement house, situ- 
 ated in West Forty-sixth Street, not far from Fifth 
 Avenue. Here she lived in great comfort, not to say 
 luxury, with a distant relative, a lady of fifty, and two 
 women servants. She had a small fortune of her own, 
 and she had added to it very considerably by her lectures 
 
420 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 and her literary labors, chiefly by two immensely suc- 
 cessful novels, each of which had been sold to the extent 
 of many thousands of copies, besides being very popular 
 in Great Britain, and having been translated into several 
 European languages. Of course, however, owing to the 
 absence of an international copyright, she had derived 
 nothing but honor from the foreign sales. 
 
 Miss Richardson received Rachel with great kindness. 
 " I see," she said, as she kissed her affectionately, " that 
 you have recovered from the effects of that little 
 i Beast's ' assault. I never saw you look lovelier, my 
 dear, than you do to-day. What is your secret ? Is it 
 a clear conscience, or early hours, or plenty of exercise 
 in the open air, or a good digestion ? Or," she added, 
 looking closely into Rachel's face, over which a rosy 
 blush was beginning to appear, " are you in love ?" 
 
 " Do you think I look well ? It's very strange, for I 
 never felt so miserable in all rriy life." 
 
 " Why, my dear child, what's the matter ?" said Miss 
 Richardson, tenderly, as Rachel covered her face with 
 her hands and began to sob. " Are you still worried 
 over that little ' Beast ' and her vulgar attack ? Don't 
 think of her, my dear. Come," putting her arms 
 around her and drawing her toward a sofa. " Sit down 
 here and tell me what troubles you. You know how fond 
 I am of you, and that my sympathy is always with you. " 
 
 " It's not th-that " sobbed Rachel. 
 
 " Then what is it ? My dear, are you really in love ?" 
 
 " Yes ver-very mu-much." 
 
 " I never knew of this before. How long, dear, have 
 you been in love ?" 
 
 " Only since since last night," sobbed Rachel, bury- 
 ing her face in Miss Richardson's bosom. 
 
CONSOLATIONS. 421 
 
 " Only since last night ! Well, it can't be so very 
 bad, seeing that twenty-four hours have not yet elapsed." 
 
 " But it is very bad, and I'm the most mis-miser- 
 miserable woman that ever lived." 
 
 " They're all alike. How could you trust one of 
 them ? The man must be very wicked, my dear, who 
 could treat you badly." 
 
 " Oh," exclaimed Rachel, raising her head and for 
 the moment stopping her sobbing, " he's not bad at all ! 
 He's everything that's good and noble and true. It's 
 I who am wicked, for I be-believe I've bro-broken his 
 hear-hear-heart. ' ' 
 
 '' Pooh ! pooh ! my dear ; men's hearts are not so read- 
 ily broken as all that, especially for the loss of a woman. 
 If they lose a few thousand dollars in Wall Street their 
 hearts, or what they call such, undergo some sort of a 
 process which they call ' breaking.' But even you, 
 lovely and good as you are, couldn't break the heart of 
 the worst or best man in New York. Now, dry your 
 eyes, and tell me who this paragon is whose heart you 
 think you have broken." 
 
 " It's Mr. Tom Burton," said Rachel, wiping her 
 eyes with her handkerchief, and with an effort com- 
 manding herself. 
 
 u Mr. Tom Burton ! So he's the c Admirable Crich- 
 ton ' whose tender heart has given way in consequence 
 of your real or fancied nn kindness ! My dear, I have 
 just corne in from an early meeting of the Executive 
 Committee of the United Women of America. I saw 
 Miss Billy Bremen, the i Beast,' there, and I heard her 
 say that Mr. Burton had accepted an invitation to dine 
 with her this evening. And that is not all," she con- 
 tinued, seeing Rachel suddenly become calmer and a 
 
422 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 look of indignation beginning to make its appearance on. 
 her pretty face. " As I was coming home I met Mr. 
 Burton, whom I know by sight, going up the Avenue, 
 probably on his way to visit Miss Billy ; and as he passed 
 me he was looking as happy as a lark, and was humming 
 4 Le Sabre de mon Pere ' with as jovial an accent as 
 though recollections of Tostee were floating pleasantly 
 through his head." 
 
 u He couldn't have received my letter," stammered 
 Rachel, somewhat taken aback by this report of the 
 coolness of her lover under the injuries she had done 
 him. " I know that he was very much affected last 
 night." 
 
 66 Now, my dear, begin at the beginning and tell me 
 all about the affair. Then I shall be in a position to ad- 
 vise you, whereas now I am all in the dark. To be sure, 
 I have never been in love, but 1 think I know what is 
 due to a woman ; yes, and what is due to a man under 
 such a circumstance." 
 
 " Yes, Til tell you all. But I must begin by saying 
 that I alone am to blarne. I want you to understand 
 that from the very start, and to bear it in mind all the 
 time I am speaking." 
 
 " 1 don't believe it. You are not talking now like the 
 strong-minded woman I have always taken you to 
 be." 
 
 " But I'm not a bit strong-minded. 1 never was, and 
 I'm less so now than ever. I wish I had never had any- 
 thing to do with woman's rights. If I had kept in my 
 proper position I would never have behaved so badly to 
 Tom." 
 
 " Oh, it's * Tom,' is it ?" said Miss Richardson, with 
 a smile. " Oh, well, perhaps, then, things are not past 
 
CONSOLATIONS. 423 
 
 cure. Go on, my dear. Never rnind the women and 
 their rights now. Tell me all about this sad affair." 
 
 " Don't laugh at me, please," said Rachel, looking as 
 though she were about to go to pieces again. " I've 
 been very wicked, for I've made two people unhappy." 
 
 " Ah ! but think. You may have made two very 
 happy. ' ' 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 " Why, Mr. Burton and the ' Beast,' I suppose. For 
 1 have to guess, since you won't tell me, that you have 
 jilted him. In which case nothing would be more like 
 a man than for him to propose to Billy this evening." 
 
 " Impossible ! I see you don't know him. He 
 would absolutely loathe a woman like her." 
 
 u After marriage, doubtless. But I have known re- 
 fined and educated and high-toned gentlemen to marry 
 their cooks and laundresses after being jilted. That's 
 the way a man's broken heart generally shows itself. 
 Now, will you tell me all about it ?" 
 
 Rachel told the whole story of her love from the be- 
 ginning to the end, not only giving the facts, but her 
 impressions, and leaving out nothing that tended in the 
 slightest degree to elucidate the situation. " Now," she 
 continued, as she described the scene on the sidewalk in 
 front of Moultrie's residence, " don't you think I have 
 acted very badly ?" 
 
 " My dear child," said Miss Richardson, seriously, 
 " I think you acted foolishly in allowing Mr. Burton to 
 go so far on so short an acquaintance. But having done 
 so, and if you were really in love with him and on that 
 point there appears to be no doubt I am of the opinion 
 that you were unnecessarily harsh. You accepted the 
 terms he purposed, and in doing so you gave him to un- 
 
424 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 derstand that you would say the words he put into your 
 mouth. It was too late then for you to think that you 
 had been lightly won." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I know all that now." 
 
 " But certainly," continued her friend, smiling, u he 
 is not going to lose a treasure like you for a little thing 
 like that. Your note, which was very proper under the 
 circumstances, will bring him back to you if he is worth 
 having and he really loves you. He may hold off for a 
 day or two, but, depend upon it, you will erelong have 
 him at your feet again, more in love than ever." 
 
 " Do you really think so ?" 
 
 " Do I think so ? I know it." 
 
 " But he's going to Mexico, and may not come back 
 for years." 
 
 ' i He will settle the whole matter before he goes. 
 You have done all that it is proper for you to do toward 
 effecting a reconciliation. It would lower you in his 
 estimation if you were to make any further advances. 
 He will probably answer your note. Perhaps he will 
 come in person. Wait, at any rate, for his next move." 
 
 " Perhaps he was going to see me when you met him 
 on Fifth Avenue," said poor Rachel, catching at a straw. 
 
 "No," rejoined Miss Richardson, mercilessly, " he 
 was then far above your street. But, my dear," she 
 continued, putting her arms around Rachel's waist and 
 smiling kindly, " he was really looking very much wor- 
 ried, and was evidently only whistling to keep his cour- 
 age up. He had a cane in his hand, and he was switch- 
 ing the air with it very savagely as he passed me." 
 
 " Poor Tom !" exclaimed Rachel, sadly ; " 1 am sure 
 he is very miserable." 
 
 " ' Poor Tom's a-cold,' " quoted Miss Richardson. 
 
CONSOLATIONS. 425 
 
 " If he is still walking in the Park as fast as when I met 
 him he's Warm enough by this time. He is perfectly 
 able to take care of himself, I think. Now, I'll tell 
 you what I think you ought to do. Go home and wait 
 to-day for him, or his answer to your note. Then, if 
 the affair is not arranged to your satisfaction by to-night, 
 go out of 'town for a day or two. Depend upon it, you 
 will lose nothing in his estimation, neither will you 
 diminish your prospect of ultimate happiness by this 
 course. I see by this morning's papers that he is sum- 
 moned to Washington. He will be back here, without 
 doubt, before he goes to Mexico. Special envoys don't 
 leave the country on a day's notice. Of course, if he 
 does not love you, or if his love is no stronger than milk 
 and water, you may never see him again. In which 
 case, I hope you would not waste a thought on him, 
 much less a tear. But if he is the man you take him to 
 be, he will come back to you, my dear, loving you more 
 fondly than ever. " 
 
 " Then you think there are some good men in the 
 world ?" 
 
 " Good men in the world," said Miss Richardson, 
 gazing out of the window vacantly, " yes, there are good 
 men in the world." 
 
 " And you have known some yourself ?" 
 
 "I knew one," she answered, as though automati- 
 cally. " But don't ask me any questions about the men 
 I have known," she continued, rousing herself with a 
 little laugh. " It is your man we are talking about, and 
 I am telling you how to get him back. My dear child," 
 she went on, "I think your ' Tom,' as you call him, is 
 a good man. I am not sure that a good man isn't better 
 than a good woman. There are times when I lose faith 
 
426 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 in my own sex. But not in you, for you are the sweet- 
 est and the gentlest of them all. You said just now that 
 you are not strong-minded. Ah, my dear, when is a 
 woman strongest in mind ? Is it not when she can gain 
 the pure, mastering, and chivalrous love of a man like 
 your Tom, who is willing to lay down his life for her ? 
 Don't mind what I said just now. These are my true 
 sentiments. I knew one man to die of a broken heart for 
 the woman he loved. There, there ! go home now and 
 get your letter, and never fear but that all will be well. 
 Of course, we shall lose you from the ranks of those who 
 are fighting for the rights of women. They all go when 
 a man comes along and takes them. Look at Mrs. 
 Moultrie ! One lecture, and then a resignation." 
 
 " It was a splendid lecture." 
 
 " Yes, it was splendid, and she is a glorious woman. 
 But we cannot keep such as she with us. It is as you 
 said the other day. Only widows and only old maids 
 like me are to be relied upon, and I wouldn't trust the 
 widows any farther than 1 could see them ; and the only 
 old maid who is thoroughly reliable is myself." 
 
 Rachel took her leave, her spirits restored, and confi- 
 dent that, as Miss Richardson had told her, all would 
 come right between herself and Burton. She had never 
 seen her friend in such a mood before, and she had a 
 little suspicion that, notwithstanding her repeated assev- 
 erations to the contrary, Miss Richardson had once upon 
 a time been in love. 
 
CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 LOSSES. 
 
 WHEN Rachel arrived at the " Joan of Arc" it was 
 nearly one o'clock, and she found her mother somewhat 
 worried in regard to her whereabouts. She had, how- 
 ever, left word that she was going for a walk and would 
 not be home to breakfast, so that there was no great 
 amount of anxiety. She often did that very thing of 
 starting for an early ramble through the streets, and tak- 
 ing her breakfast at PurselFs. It gave her opportunity 
 for reflection which the home breakfast did not ; for 
 her mother, though, as I have said, a good woman and 
 very much beloved by her daughter, had several little 
 troublesome peculiarities which Rachel, when her mind 
 was preoccupied, found it expedient to avoid rather than 
 to attempt to combat. 
 
 She entered her pretty little parlor, and there on her 
 desk was Burton's letter. She knew it at once, and she 
 opened it hurriedly, with mingled feelings of pleasure 
 and apprehension. After she had taken it out of the 
 envelope she stood with it in her hand, fearing to open 
 the single fold, and trying to imagine its contents, 
 though she knew she could ascertain them in a few sec- 
 onds by a little motion of her fingers and a glance of her 
 eyes. Finally her joy seemed to predominate ; a smile 
 overspread her face, and a rosy blush mantled her 
 cheeks. " I know he loves me," she said, scarcely 
 
428 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 above her breath. " Surely, he would not give me up 
 for a single fault, when I have repented so sincerely 
 and then he is so kind ! He would never be so cruel as 
 I was." She raised the single fold that covered the 
 writing and read. As she did so her expression changed, 
 and tears which she did not try to repress came to her 
 eyes. 
 
 " My poor, dear Tom !" she exclaimed, as she read 
 the short note again. " And it is 1 who have made you 
 so unhappy. Oh, what a wicked monster I am ! His 
 wound bleeds ! My wound, that I wantonly gave him 
 when his heart was full of love for me full of the ex- 
 pectation that I loved him, and that I was going to speak 
 kindly to him. Oh, I could tear my eyes out with shame 
 and grief when I think of all the sorrow I have caused ! 
 Mine is as nothing to his ; I am suffering justly. It is 
 no more than I deserve, but he, my darling !" pressing, 
 as she spoke, his note to her lips, " if I could only go to 
 you, how gladly would 1 do so !" She rose from her 
 chair and hurriedly paced the floor, as though she fret- 
 ted at the idea of the impossibility of her rushing into 
 his arms. At that very moment the Hon. Tom was 
 seated in the Central Park kissing her note to him, and 
 studying the paper with the view of identifying a little 
 spot that he had detected on the surface, and which he 
 had finally determined was a tear. If these two un- 
 happy mortals could only by some magical power have 
 been brought together, the reader would be spared any 
 further details of their history. But, unfortunately, 
 there was no way of doing this, for the one was in the 
 " Joan of Arc," and the other three or four miles dis- 
 tant in the Central Park. Their history is therefore not 
 yet ended. 
 

 LOSSES. 429 
 
 It was evident to Kachel, from an attentive considera- 
 tion of Burton's note, that for the present he did not 
 feel equal to an interview. His wound was still bleed- 
 ing, and time would be necessary for the assuagement of 
 the hemorrhage. It would be better for her, therefore, 
 to follow Miss Richardson's advice and go into the coun- 
 try for a few days. The change, too, would do her 
 good, besides enabling her, from the absence of those 
 disturbing factors inseparable from a city life, to give 
 more thought and sympathy to her " poor, suffering 
 Tom." Where to go was the next question, and on this 
 point her mother's wishes, if she could succeed in induc- 
 ing that lady to consent to the change, would exercise a 
 governing influence. 
 
 She did not have long to reflect upon the matter, for 
 while she was in the midst of her cogitations her mother 
 entered the room in a state of great excitement, and 
 holding an open letter in her hand. 
 
 " Oh, Rachel," she exclaimed, " we are ruined! 
 All our little fortune is gone at one blow. Read that ! 
 What we are to do, Heaven only knows !" She sank 
 into a chair, while Rachel, scarcely able to comprehend 
 what had happened, took the letter and read as follows : 
 
 " 157 WALL STREET, NEW YORK, ) 
 November 20, 1874. f 
 
 " DEAR MADAM : A short time before his death Com- 
 modore Meadows invested his entire fortune, amounting 
 to about the sum of fifty thousand dollars, in the stock 
 of the ' Tillitudlum Plate- Glass Works,' which at that 
 time were doing an excellent business, and which, as you 
 know, have ever since paid a semi-annual dividend of three 
 per cent, or a total of about three thousand dollars a 
 
430 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 year. Under these circumstances I did not, as the trus- 
 tee under his will, think it advisable to change the in- 
 vestment, though I could at any time within the past 
 BIX months have sold out the stock at par. So safe did 
 I think the concern, that, in accordance with her re- 
 quest, I invested ten thousand dollars belonging to Miss 
 Meadows in its stock. 
 
 " But I have just received a visit from the secretary, 
 who informs me that there will be no dividend for the 
 past six months ; that the company has lost heavily, is 
 largely in debt, and that it has been deemed advisable to 
 close the works, and to wait for better times. This un- 
 fortunate state of affairs has been induced by the action 
 of Congress at its last session in reducing the duty on 
 plate-glass to such a low rate that it is impossible for the 
 American industry which is yet in its infancy to con- 
 tend with the foreign manufacturers, who have entered 
 into a combination to undersell the American producer 
 with the hope of breaking him up, even if they lose 
 money in the attempt. As you see, their efforts are be- 
 ing crowned with success. 
 
 " You could get very little for your stock now, and 
 therefore I advise you not to sell. Besides, there is a 
 possibility that Congress will, at its ensuing session, 
 restore the duty, in which event the ' Tillitudlum Plate- 
 Glass Works ' will resume operations, and all will again 
 be well. 
 
 " I am, very respectfully and truly, 
 
 u ROBERT PENGAVIN." 
 
 " Well, mother, it is bad, to be sure," said Rachel, 
 " but it is not death to us. It only means that I shall 
 have to work a little harder than usual. 1 was begin- 
 

 LOSSES. 431 
 
 ning to reduce the number of my lectures, for we were 
 getting along so nicely on your fortune and what I had 
 saved, that it wasn't necessary for me to work so hard 
 as I once did. But now I shall do all I can. I am sorry 
 for you, mother," she continued, " but you know you 
 shall never want while I can work. We shall be able to 
 live here just the same as though nothing had happened, 
 and then, you know, there is the hope of which Mr. Pen- 
 gavin speaks, that Congress will restore the duty." 
 
 She embraced her mother as she finished talking, and 
 tried to comfort her by soothing speeches ; but the old 
 lady could not see beyond the fact that her fortune two 
 thirds of which by law would have been Rachel's but for 
 the Commodore's will was apparently gone, and she 
 continued to sob and to wipe her eyes with a handker- 
 chief already wet through with her tears, notwithstand- 
 ing all her daughter's efforts to quiet her. 
 
 But when Rachel suggested that it would be a relief 
 to go away for a few days, Mrs. Meadows agreed at once 
 to the proposition, was eager to get out of the city at the 
 earliest possible moment, and although she continued to 
 sob, she went about the work of getting ready with a 
 surprising degree of alacrity. Rachel could not, how- 
 ever, avoid feeling a little hurt as the idea occurred to 
 her that, as often as she had gone to her mother with 
 her sorrows, she had never been able to draw out a single 
 tear, or anything more than some commonplace observa- 
 tion about trusting in Providence. Now, however, the 
 loss of a few thousands of dollars threw her into a state 
 of uncontrollable grief. Her mother was not, then, so 
 impassive as she thought ; she was impressionable enough 
 to the loss of her money. Where to go was the next 
 point to be considered. Happily, while they were con- 
 
432 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 juring their brains over the matter, a note arrived from 
 Miss Richardson, saying that she had determined that a 
 little change would benefit her, and suggesting that they 
 should all go together to Babylon, on the south side of 
 Long Island. " It's a little cool, perhaps, at the sea- 
 shore for some people," she wrote, " but I have often 
 gone down there at this time of the year, and have 
 found it delightful. If you agree to this plan of mine, 
 come round, you and your mother, and take lunch with 
 me at two o'clock. The train leaves at four, and we 
 can go to the Thirty-fourth Street ferry direct from my 
 house." 
 
 This was very agreeable to both the ladies, though it 
 somewhat hastened their preparations. Rachel wrote a 
 hurried note to her friend accepting the invitation, and 
 soon afterward she and her mother were seated at Miss 
 Richardson's hospitable table. At six o'clock they were 
 sniffing from the veranda of the Watson House the cool 
 ocean breeze that came from the waters of the Great 
 South Bay. 
 
 The next morning Burton repaired to the " Joan of 
 Arc," but the janitor only knew that Miss Meadows and 
 her mother had left the house shortly before two o' clock 
 on the previous afternoon ; that they had gone out of 
 town, "somewhere on Long Island," he believed, but 
 exactly where he did not know ; and they would be ab- 
 sent for one week. " By that time," said Burton, as he 
 walked away dejectedly, " I shall be back from Wash- 
 ington, will have delivered my lecture in Boston, and 
 will have all the time I want to devote to my poor, 
 suffering Rachel. ' ' 
 
 He went to Washington that night, and the following 
 morning had an interview with the Secretary of State. 
 
LOSSES. 433 
 
 The questions of the incursions of hostile Indians from 
 the Mexican Republic into the United States, and that 
 of following them by the troops of the latter country, 
 were discussed, and Burton's views on the subject were 
 so practical, asd apparently were such as both countries 
 would agree to, that the Secretary was delighted. 
 " There is another point, Mr. Burton," he said, as he 
 took several imposing-looking documents from a drawer 
 in his desk, " that the President is very anxious to have 
 brought to the attention of the Mexican Government ; 
 and that is, the adoption by that nation of a treaty which 
 I have prepared with great care, and which I propose to 
 submit to the Senate during the ensuing session of Con- 
 gress. The President and I are both of the opinion that 
 this treaty will, if ratified by the high contracting par- 
 ties, prove mutually advantageous, and it is hoped that 
 you will be able to urge it successfully on the Mexican 
 Government. Now, how soon can you start ?" Burton 
 reflected for a moment, and then said that he thought he 
 could be ready in ten days. 
 
 " That will do very well," said the Secretary. " Con- 
 gress meets next Monday, and I do not care to have you 
 go before that time. Perhaps, even, it would be better 
 to delay your departure say to the 20th of December. 
 There is a steamer leaving New York on that day. 1 
 am anxious to consult with several prominent senators 
 and others relative to this treaty, and they have not yet 
 arrived in Washington. Yes, 1 think we may fix your 
 departure for the 20th. I will have your instructions 
 ready for you by the 10th, and there will, therefore, be 
 time for any explanation of them that you may require." 
 
 " Have you any idea," inquired Burton, " how long 
 I shall probably be absent ?" 
 19 
 
434 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Not the least. These Mexicans move slowly. Prob- 
 ably, however," after a little reflection, " you may be 
 gone a year." 
 
 " It will not be necessary for me to return to Wash- 
 ington before starting ?" 
 
 " That I cannot tell at present. Should it become so 
 I shall telegraph you. Now, as you will probably wish 
 to see the President before you return, and as I know he 
 desires to see you, I have half an hour at your disposal, 
 and will go with you to the White House." 
 
 But the President was so deeply interested in the 
 Mexican business that he kept Burton considerably over 
 the half hour that the Secretary of State had at his dis- 
 posal. " It appears to me, Mr. Burton," said his Excel- 
 lency, " that you are just the man to arrange our affairs 
 with Mexico in a satisfactory manner, and I congratulate 
 myself on the good fortune that lias enabled me to 
 secure your services for the country." 
 
 "If it is no secret, your Excellency," said Burton, 
 as he rose to take his departure, " I would like to know 
 how you happened to think of me in connection with so 
 important an appointment ?" 
 
 " Oh, you must ask the Secretary about that ! I ex- 
 pect to be abused by the party press that is, by the 
 press of my party, for selecting a Democrat for such a 
 high diplomatic position. Have you any objection, Mr. 
 Secretary," he continued, turning to that official, " to 
 informing Mr. Burton how we happened to pitch upon 
 him ?" 
 
 " None at all," answered the Secretary, laughing. 
 1 ' When it became necessary to send some one to Mexico 
 to represent the country, and the President requested 
 me to make a nomination to him, I thought at once of 
 
LOSSES. 435 
 
 my old friend Geoffrey Moultrie, of New York, who I 
 knew was, from his long residence there, acquainted 
 with the principal personages of the country, and with 
 the traditions and prejudices of the people. I wrote to 
 him asking if he could be induced to accept the place. 
 But he replied that, having just been elected to Congress 
 on a special issue, he did not see his way clear to accept- 
 ing any office that would require him to resign his seat. 
 Knowing that he was not a politician in the party sense 
 of the word, and having the utmost confidence in his 
 honor and knowledge of men, I requested him to sug- 
 gest to me some one whom he knew personally, and who 
 in his opinion would perform the work required with 
 fidelity and efficiency. He replied at once, and spoke in 
 such high terms of you that, in conjunction with what I 
 know of you from your general reputation as a member 
 of the last Congress, there was no doubt in my mind as 
 to my duty in the premises." 
 
 " And you may add, Mr. Secretary," said the Presi- 
 dent, laughing in turn, " that the moment you men- 
 tioned Mr. Burton's name 1 recognized him as the gentle- 
 man who had made more effective speeches against my 
 administration than any other of my political opponents. 
 1 thought, after reading two or three of them in the 
 Congressional Globe, that the man who could discover so 
 many weak points in my official conduct would be ad- 
 mirably calculated to sift thoroughly any matter commit- 
 ted to his charge, and then Mr. Moultrie' s letter settled 
 the point." 
 
 " I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Secretary, and 
 especially to you, Mr. President," said the Hon. Tom, 
 somewhat overcome by the magnanimity of the two 
 high officials, " f or the confidence you have placed in 
 
436 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 me. It will be my constant effort to see that it is not 
 misplaced. But, Mr. President, I have never questioned 
 your patriotism, nor have I ever, having in mind your 
 great services to the country, doubted that you were sin- 
 cerely desirous of doing full justice to all sections. Be- 
 sides," he added, with one of his handsome smiles, " I 
 have always stood in a kind of wholesome awe of you r 
 for I have never forgotten that I was one of the garrison 
 of Vicksburg." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! You were there, were you ?" said the 
 President. " Well, you fought like heroes, all of you. 
 I respect every man, Mr. Burton, who stood up bravely 
 in fair fight against me. But how is it that you are 
 simply ' Mr.' Burton ? I thought every man in the 
 Confederacy was at the end of the war at least a colonel." 
 
 " I was a brigadier-general, your Excellency," said 
 Burton. " But I dropped my military title as soon as 
 the war was over. The last six months of my service 
 were spent in a military prison. I was captured " 
 
 " Oh," exclaimed the President, interrupting and 
 smiling, " are you the General Burton who was cap- 
 tured, with his whole cavalry command, by a couple of 
 regiments of infantry under Sanders ?" 
 
 " I was that unfortunate man," said Burton ; " and I 
 have nothing to say in extenuation except that, before 
 that I had, with that same cavalry command, captured 
 half a dozen regiments of all arms of the service." 
 
 " Well," said the President, eying him very sharply, 
 " I don't think you will let the Mexicans surprise you. 
 If you do, then I shall cease to consider myself any 
 longer a judge of men." 
 
 " So I owe this to Moultrie," said Burton, as he sat 
 in his section of a palace car on his way back to New 
 

 LOSSES. 437 
 
 York. u lie has been better than his word. But good- 
 by to Venice and the t Venetian Gondola Manufacturing 
 Company ' for the present. That's a thing that will 
 keep, I think. If there ever was money in anything it's 
 in that idea." 
 
 He went to bed, and awoke to find himself in Jersey 
 City at six o'clock in the morning, the most dismal place 
 at that hour of all the dismal places that it falls to the 
 lot of the traveller to visit. 
 
 After his dinner that evening he went up to Moul- 
 trie's, not only to thank his friend for his kind offices in 
 his behalf, but also to ascertain if they had any informa- 
 tion there of where Rachel had gone. He found the 
 whole family at home, but somewhat unsettled, as 
 they were ready to go to Washington on the following 
 day. 
 
 " I never can thank you sufficiently," he said to Moul- 
 trie, after he had exchanged greetings with him and 
 Theodora and Lalage, " for the letter you wrote to the 
 Secretary of State in my behalf. 1 never should have 
 heard of it from you, I know ; but the Secretary was 
 communicative enough to tell me its general purport. 
 Do you know, my friend," he continued, with feeling, 
 " that when I think of what you said about me I fear 
 that you have seriously misunderstood my character. 1 
 am apprehensive that I am not suited, either by natural 
 bent or by education, for any position involving judg- 
 ment or tact. Now, won't you tell rue honestly in just 
 what I am lacking, or in what I am redundant ? I have 
 no false pride in the matter, and I don't mind the pres- 
 ence of Mrs. Moultrie or Miss Lalage. Women are 
 very observant, and while I don't suppose they have 
 paid any attention to me, there is probably some fault of 
 
438 A STEONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 mine that they have observed, and that I hope they will 
 be good enough to call to my notice." 
 
 " My dear fellow," said Moultrie, laughing, " I am 
 quite sure that you are better suited for this Mexican 
 appointment than any other man of my acquaintance. 
 You are excellent at great things. It is only the little 
 ones that seem to give you any trouble." 
 
 " No, it is worse than that. There is something radi- 
 cally wrong in my character, but I am not competent to 
 detect it with certainty. You know it is a legal maxim 
 that ' No man is a judge of his own case,' and I have 
 noticed that the same principle holds good in medicine, 
 as physicians never, if they can help it, prescribe for 
 themselves. Now, I ask you, as a friend, to take the 
 knife into your hand and cut me open till you find the 
 disease, if it is not so obvious that exploration is not 
 necessary. I don't want to be spared, and I promise to 
 take your opinion as final, and to set to work honestly 
 to rectify my faults. I believe in a man's power over 
 himself in a matter of this kind, and I think I have 
 will-power enough to apply the moral cautery to any 
 moral ulcer you may detect." 
 
 " My dear Burton," said Moultrie, " you ask of me 
 no more than one friend has a right to ask of another, 
 and knowing, as I do, your thorough sincerity, I think it 
 is my duty to give you my impressions of your character 
 and disposition. Remember, however, that they are 
 only impressions that have been formed from rather in- 
 sufficient data ; for although I have seen a good deal of 
 you, I think in order to know a man well one should live 
 with him. But ever since I first knew you which, you 
 will recollect, was soon after you took your seat in the 
 last Congress I have kept you under close observation ; 
 
LOSSES. 439 
 
 and though I cannot pretend to have arrived at any 
 great degree of certainty in my results, I will give you 
 my deductions for what they are worth. And they may 
 all be summed up in a few words. You lack concentra- 
 tiveness ; you are too diffuse ; at the same time, when 
 you take hold of a matter you pursue it with great ardor 
 for a while, often to find out that you have made a mis- 
 take. You detect your error very soon, and then you 
 retrace your steps without much regard to the conse- 
 quences. When, however, you are sure you are right, 
 you persevere with a constancy and a force of determina- 
 tion that are almost sure to result in success. The truth 
 is, that you don't sufficiently consider before you enter 
 upon a course of action. If you did this you would 
 commit fewer errors, and you would be remarkable for 
 the accuracy of your judgment and for your persever- 
 ance. Now, in this Mexican matter I was sure you 
 would reflect deeply about it, and when your serious 
 thought is given to a subject nothing more can be asked. 
 You will do the best with it that can be done. " 
 
 " I think you have got at the truth," said Burton, 
 after a moment's reflection, u and I am eternally obliged 
 to you. But I think I am really worse than you im- 
 agine. I have done some very foolish things lately 
 things to which I gave no consideration at all, and one of 
 which, but for an accidental allusion, would have led to 
 the most disastrous results the blighting of my whole 
 life. Still, you have done me a great service, and I thank 
 you. Now, Mrs. Moultrie, may I ask for a stroke or 
 two of your knife, or, rather, scissors ? The judgment 
 of a sensible woman or two would be of inestimable ser- 
 vice to me." 
 
 Theodora looked at her husband inquiringly. 
 
440 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " I tliink you may gratify Mr. Burton, my dear," lie 
 said. " He evidently is not afraid of the most severe 
 criticism. If you know anything against him tell him, 
 by all means." 
 
 ' ( I know nothing but good of Mr. Burton, ' ' answered 
 Theodora, smiling. 
 
 " Thanks," he said ; " but that is because you don't 
 know everything that 1 have done. But I am here now 
 in the pillory, and I want you all to throw a stone at 
 me. Moultrie's stone is i diffuseness. ' I am spread out 
 over too large a surface. I am like a piece of gold that 
 the beater thinks he will make cover a square foot, when 
 it is only fit for half that space. As a consequence, it is 
 too thin for use. That's it I'm ' too thin.' Now, 
 Mrs. Moultrie, I really want you to throw something. 
 I'm thoroughly in earnest. From this night on I'm 
 going to be a new man, and my improvement is to be 
 based on your opinions." 
 
 " The only criticism I am able to make, Mr. Burton," 
 said Theodora u and I make it with some reservation 
 is that perhaps you are more influenced by your emotions 
 than is sometimes safe, and that when you come to bring 
 your intellect to bear, you find out that you have done 
 something that does not meet with your own approval 
 and yet it is scarcely proper to speak of this, without 
 qualification, as a fault. If we were always to stop to 
 reflect the world would lose most of the noble deeds that 
 are daily being done. If, for instance, the man that 
 sees another fall into the water were to stand thinking 
 whether he should jump in after him or not, weighing 
 all the arguments for and against, the probability is that 
 he would let his fellow-creature drown. The man who 
 thinks in such a situation doesn't act ; but the one who, 
 
LOSSES. 441 
 
 on the impulse of the moment, acting through his emo- 
 tions, and who does not stop to consider his own safety 
 or the welfare of his wife and children, risks his own life 
 to save that of another. Of course it is better to be gov- 
 erned by the emotions sometimes, and by the intellect at 
 others ; but it is almost impossible to draw the line. 
 Every man, I suppose, must be a judge for himself. I 
 should not like a man who was always influenced by his 
 intellect and never by his emotions ; such a one would 
 necessarily be cold, calculating, and selfish. As for 
 women," she continued, smiling, " we are supposed to 
 be always governed by our emotions, and not to use 
 our reason at all." 
 
 "You use reason, Mrs. Moultrie," exclaimed Burton, 
 " and you employ it to good effect, too. Between you 
 and your husband I've got my character pretty well 
 mapped out for me, and I'm going to see what I can do 
 to improve it. But, Miss Moultrie, have you nothing 
 to throw at me ? I am used to hard knocks by this 
 time. Come, I'm still in the pillory. But," he con- 
 tinued, " I perceive that you have never given a thought 
 to me. So I'll step down from the pillory with my 
 humble thanks to the kind friends who have pelted me, 
 and with the reiteration of my determination to turn 
 over a new leaf, and, as the Scripture says, ' To do my 
 duty in that state of life to which it has pleased God to 
 call me.'" 
 
 " That is the catechism, Mr. Burton," said Lai, smil- 
 ing. 
 
 " So it is. I knew I had seen it somewhere. It ap- 
 pears to me, Miss Moultrie, that you are looking particu- 
 larly good-natured this evening." 
 
 " I have never been cross to you, have I ?" 
 
442 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " No ; you are very sweet to every one." 
 
 " If you had heard her remarks on Miss Gildersleeve 
 the other morning," said Theodora, with a light laugh, 
 " and had seen the savage way in which she put the 
 Tattler into the fire, you would have learned that she 
 can inject a little acid into her disposition when occasion 
 requires." 
 
 " Lai is particularly jolly at this time," said Moultrie, 
 " because Mr. Tyscovus, a very dear friend of hers, 
 arrived a couple of days ago. He dined with us this 
 evening ; but, having some business with several gentle- 
 men from Colorado, was obliged to leave early. I want 
 you to know him. By the by, have you read the even- 
 ing papers ? I see one of our friends has met with a 
 serious loss. You remember Miss Meadows, with whom 
 you dined here last week ?" 
 
 " Yes !" exclaimed Burton. "I was about to ask 
 where she had gone. What about her ?" 
 
 " She and her mother, between them, have lost sixty 
 thousand dollars by the collapse of the * Tillitudlurn 
 Plate-Glass Works.' There's a full account of the fail- 
 ure, with a list of the stockholders, in the Pinnacle. It 
 is ascribed to the reduction of the duty on plate-glass by 
 the late Congress. I'm not so much of a free-trader as 
 you are, you know. 1 think some of our infant indus- 
 tries should be protected. This of plate-glass is one of 
 them, and you see that as soon as the duty is removed 
 they have to close their works. ' ' 
 
 While Moultrie was speaking Burton's face had as- 
 sumed an expression of chagrin and distress, that gave 
 evidence of the state of his feelings produced by the 
 intelligence. Moultrie noticed it, and attributed it to 
 the fact that Burton had lost money by the failure. 
 
LOSSES. 443 
 
 " I didn't know you were interested in the factory," 
 he said. " However, it is well to know these things as 
 soon as possible." 
 
 "No," said Burton, " I am not interested, but I #m 
 very sorry for Miss Meadows 's loss ; and it is all my 
 fault, for I introduced the bill reducing the duty on 
 plate-glass, and made a speech in its favor. It seems 
 that my capacity for doing harm is unlimited, and this 
 time I have hurt one who is very dear to me. As we 
 say in Texas, I feel as though I ought to be ' shot with 
 a pack-saddle.' ' 
 
 " 1 had a note from Miss Meadows to-day, dated from 
 Babylon," said Theodora. " She went down there with 
 her mother and Miss Richardson for a few days. She 
 seems to be taking her loss with great equanimity, for 
 she does not even mention it. Unless," she continued, 
 taking the letter from the table and reading it, " this 
 may be an allusion to it. i I find, ' she says, ' that I 
 shall have to do a greater amount of work than for some 
 time past. I am getting up a new lecture on " Women 
 in Non-Christian Nations." I find it a very interesting 
 subject, and that 1 can write here much better than I can 
 in town, where I am every moment liable to interrup-, 
 tion.'" 
 
 " Mrs. Moultrie," said the Hon. Tom, " I am sure 
 our friends here will allow ine to say a few words to you 
 in private. Shall we go into the library ? It is a mat- 
 ter of great importance that I must communicate to 
 you." 
 
 Theodora signified her consent, and led the way into 
 the library, where Burton poured into Theodora's sym- 
 pathizing ear the whole story of his love, his rebuff, his 
 subsequent conduct with Miss Billy, his repentance, his 
 
444 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 present unhappiness, and his intense desire to re-establish, 
 his relation to Rachel as her accepted husband. 
 
 u For I do love her, Mrs. Moultrie," he continued. 
 " It's about the only thing I'm sure of now, but I know 
 that as well as I know that I'm alive. I've ruined one 
 of the most important industries of the country by my 
 tinkering with the tariff, and caused Rachel to lose a 
 large sum of money. I'm going to study that question 
 over from the beginning ; and perhaps, in the general 
 reformatory process that is to be initiated, I may change 
 my views on the subject of free-trade. But in the 
 mean time help me to straighten out things with Rachel." 
 
 " I don't see how there can be any difficulty about the 
 matter. You love her, and I think she loves you. Her 
 note to you was honest undoubtedly ; for she is not a 
 woman to play false deliberately in that way. You 
 were too impulsive, you see. You bore her along with 
 you, and she began to see that you were both going too 
 fast ; so she, in her effort to put on the brakes, exerted 
 more force than she intended, and stopped the motion 
 altogether." 
 
 " I suppose that is exactly the way it happened ; but 
 ,what am I to do ? 1 can't sit quietly and let her drift 
 away from me entirely. And she will if she stays down 
 there writing a lecture and I go to Mexico." 
 
 " No, you can't do that, and I am willing to do all in 
 my power to bring you together again. What shall I 
 do?" 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Moultrie, you know better than I can tell 
 you. I place my fate in your hands. Do what you 
 think best." 
 
 " It would be very easy for me to telegraph her, asking 
 whether she would receive you if you came to Babylon 
 
LOSSES. 445 
 
 and I have no doubt she would reply in the affirmative 
 but I think you should have the opportunity for becom- 
 ing more intimately acquainted with each other. You 
 have had no courting, and thus you are both losing what 
 is often the happiest period of life. As you know, we 
 go to Washington to-morrow, to be absent all winter. 
 Now, how would you like it if I should invite Rachel to 
 spend the time between this and the 20th of Decem- 
 ber when you sail with me in Washington ? You 
 will have business there, and you can make that 
 city your headquarters till you are ready to go to 
 Mexico." 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Moultrie," exclaimed Burton, raising 
 her hand to his lips, " you are an angel ! Nothing 
 could be better than the plan you propose." 
 
 " Then we will consider it settled, so far as we are 
 concerned. It only remains now to get Rachel's con- 
 sent. A letter mailed to-night will reach her to-morrow 
 morning, and if she will go with us I will ask Mr. Moul- 
 trie to delay our departure a day." 
 
 " You have made me very happy. I begin now to 
 see everything couleur de rose again as it was that 
 night when we walked together from the piano to where 
 you were sitting. I seemed then, as some poet has it, 
 ( to walk on thrones. ' : 
 
 " I saw you were both very happy," said Theodora, 
 smiling, " but I had no idea that you had gone so far as 
 to become engaged. Now, I must send you back to Mr. 
 and Miss Moultrie, for I have to write my letter to 
 Rachel and mail it before ten o'clock." 
 
 " God bless you !" said Burton. " How sweet some 
 women are in their ways !" he continued, as he went 
 into the drawing-room ; " and how horribly vulgar others 
 
446 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 are !" he added, as the thought of his experience with 
 Miss Billy Bremen flashed across his rnind. 
 
 He and Moultrie discussed the approaching session of 
 Congress and the Mexican business till Theodora re- 
 turned with her letter. " I have asked her to telegraph 
 me on its receipt," she said. " If you will stop in to- 
 morrow morning at eleven o'clock, I shall probably be 
 able to tell you something you will like to hear." He 
 rose to go. " You shall not be without your share in 
 the good work," she continued, smiling, " for you shall 
 be allowed to drop this into the letter-box at the 
 corner." 
 
 He thanked her, arid departed, with a load taken off 
 his heart. 
 
 The next morning at eleven Theodora showed him her 
 answer. " A thousand thanks," it said. " I will join 
 you with pleasure, according to your arrangement. 
 God bless you!" " You see," continued Theodora, 
 " that the proverb ' Doubly blessed is the one who re- 
 unites alienated friends ' is having an application to 
 me." 
 
 "Yes," said Burton. " ' Blessed are the peace- 
 makers, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.' ' 
 
 " I thought," she answered, laughing, " that it was 
 little children that constituted the kingdom of heaven ; 
 but I have no doubt that there are plenty of peacemakers 
 there." 
 
 Then it was settled that on the next day the Moultries, 
 with Rachel, should go to Washington, and that Burton 
 might go at any time he pleased, but not on the same 
 train with them, for Theodora intended that the meeting 
 between the two separated lovers should be in her own 
 house, with all the accessories that refinement and ele- 
 
LOSSES. 447 
 
 gant surroundings could give, and not in a railway car. 
 Burton finally determined that he would go that night, 
 and he agreed that he would not call till he received an 
 intimation from Mrs. Moultrie that his presence was 
 desirable. 
 
CHAPTEK XXIII. 
 
 DISCOVERIES. 
 
 THE south side of Long Island, for persons who are 
 not afraid of salt air, and plenty of it, is a delightful 
 region all through the months of October and Novem- 
 ber, and often far into December. For those who are 
 fond of the water it is especially so, for along nearly the 
 whole of its extent runs the Great South Bay, a portion 
 of the ocean shut off from the main body of the " great 
 deep" by a low sandy bar, which, under different names 
 and occasional interruptions of its continuity, acts as a 
 kind of natural breakwater to the force of the huge 
 waves that roll in from the south. This bar is not high 
 enough to shut off the breezes, and hence, so far as the 
 ocean air is concerned, there is as much of it on the coast 
 of Long Island as though no sand appeared above the 
 surface between there and the Cape of Good Hope. But 
 it makes a comparatively smooth and placid lake out of 
 what would otherwise be as turbid a piece of water as 
 any other part of the ocean, and hence is particularly 
 affected by those who like to sail about in the trim little 
 yachts which do there abound, and yet do not wish to 
 run the risk of sea-sickness or shipwreck. 
 
 The morning after their arrival at Babylon Miss Rich- 
 ardson and Rachel walked down to the landing, a dis- 
 tance of something less than a mile, and after a little pre- 
 liminary bargaining engaged the " Swan," a sloop-yacht 
 
DISCOVERIES. 449 
 
 commanded by Captain Jabez looker, and with a crew 
 of a stout boy, his son Samuel, for a voyage to " Fire 
 Island," as that part of the bar opposite Babylon is called. 
 Mrs. Meadows, having recollections of the Commodore 
 still in her memory, hated everything of the semblance 
 of a sea-going craft. She was probably apprehensive 
 that in some way or other quarter-deck discipline would 
 be enforced upon her should she set foot on anything 
 that went upon the water. So she expressed such a de- 
 cided preference for remaining under the comfortable 
 shelter of the Watson House, that not even the tempta- 
 tion of a breakfast at Mrs. Dominick's could induce her 
 to leave it. She was not a pleasant companion on such 
 excursions. She was not a woman who was able, without 
 grumbling, to adapt herself to circumstances. A blue- 
 fish, though cooked five minutes after its exit from the 
 water, was not relished by her unless it was served with 
 all the accessories of fine linen and china, and these were 
 not to be had on Fire Island. So the two younger ladies 
 started off by themselves, leaving the elder one to the 
 more congenial amusement of discussing with two friends 
 she had come across, the comparative excellences and de- 
 fects of their respective clergymen. 
 
 There was a fresh wind from the south blowing that 
 morning, and the little craft had to beat against it as it 
 sailed over the bay. The two mariners occupied their 
 respective proper positions the commander at the wheel 
 and the crew forward while the ladies, carefully wrapped 
 up in shawls and cloaks, sat snugly ensconced in the lit- 
 tle cabin. Rachel already felt better for the change. 
 There was something here to take her thoughts from 
 herself, or, rather, from the subjects that for the last 
 few days had occupied them to the exclusion of every 
 
450 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 other. She was not a woman who was inclined to be- 
 come moody or morbid. Her temperament was natu- 
 rally hopeful : she was disposed rather to see the bright 
 than the dark side of things, and to bear the inevitable, 
 when she was satisfied that it was inevitable, with suffi- 
 cient equanimity and with a determination to make the 
 best of it. She had never, even when in the depths of 
 her self-reproaches, lost the hope that in some way or 
 other, and sooner or later, Burton would be brought 
 back to her ; and the beneficial effects that she was ex- 
 periencing from the change of air, scene, and associa- 
 tions were not exerted in causing oblivion of what had 
 occurred, or in benumbing her sensibilities, but in in- 
 creasing the natural elasticity of her spirits, and in en- 
 abling her, through their invigorating influences, to be 
 still more confident that all would yet be well. 
 
 The night before, she and Miss Richardson had dis- 
 cussed the financial problem, which, however unimpor- 
 tant it might seem to Rachel, was really of moment. 
 The suspension of the Tillitudlum Plate-Glass Works 
 had entailed a loss of nearly four thousand dollars of 
 their yearly income. Rachel had about two thousand 
 dollars to her credit in the bank, and this was all. With- 
 out any more than a pleasant degree of exertion she had 
 been making, for the last two or three years, an average 
 of three thousand dollars a year. This she did by giving 
 lectures on astronomy to several prominent schools for 
 young ladies in New York and the neighboring large 
 cities, and by writing short essays and stories for maga- 
 zines. Her lectures required scarcely any work except 
 that of giving them, for the subject was one with which 
 she was perfectly familiar, and the writing of a couple 
 of literary compositions every month was a labor of 
 
DISCOVERIES, 451 
 
 love. But now all this was changed. Of course she 
 and her mother could live on three thousand dollars a 
 year ; but if they wanted to keep up their present mode 
 of life, to continue to occupy their apartments in the 
 " Joan of Arc," and, above all, to lay by something 
 every year, she must manage, in some way or other, to 
 double her present income, so that she should have at 
 least six thousand dollars. All the way down to Baby- 
 lon she was racking her brain in the endeavor to find a 
 subject for a short course of lectures that should be 
 somewhat above the range of those she had heretofore 
 delivered, and yet not so abstruse as to repel the great 
 body of commonplace individuals who desire instruction 
 at the least possible expense to their reflective powers 
 the persons whose mental organizations cannot digest 
 strong food, but who require a sort of intellectual beef- 
 tea that they can take in and assimilate without any 
 severe taxing of their intellectual digestion. Rachel 
 was prepared to give them this kind of food, but she 
 meant that it should be the best of its kind. So she 
 puzzled her little brain (little, I desire all my strong- 
 minded women readers to bear in mind, is not used here 
 in its meaning of an adjective indicating small size, but 
 as one expressing endearment, after the manner of the 
 Spaniards and Italians, and for which there is ample 
 warrant among English and Americans. Rachel's brain, 
 I may as well say at once, was larger in the essential ele- 
 ments for making mind, and of far better quality, than 
 that of any one of half the men of my acquaintance) in 
 the endeavor to hit upon a subject for her lectures that 
 would be interesting and instructive to the people that 
 go to lectures, and that would constitute a basis for the 
 mild intellectual pabulum it was desirable to supply. 
 
452 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Railway travelling is, as every one knows, conducive 
 to thought, unless there is some pertinacious wretch near 
 you who will insist on talking to you, arid making you 
 strain your voice in yelling back at him ; and the train 
 had not gone more than half the distance to Babylon 
 before the topic had come to her, and in a sudden way 
 that made it all the more impressive. " Women Out- 
 side Christianity," or some such title, would about ex- 
 press the idea that came into her head. It was a large 
 theme and a noble, and it had its material advantages in 
 the fact that it appealed to a larger class than had any of the 
 other subjects that she had heretofore ventured to discuss. 
 
 But, of course, for the preparation of a series of three 
 or four lectures on a subject such as the one she had 
 selected, it was necessary to consult many authorities, 
 such as could only be found in a large library. She was 
 an " alcove reader" in the Astor Library, and was in the 
 habit of frequenting thai* institution armed with pencil 
 and paper-pad, and spending whole mornings there in 
 making notes and extracts from works bearing on the 
 particular subjects of her studies. Of course she could 
 do nothing of the kind at Babylon, and hence before she 
 had arrived at that place she was already desirous of 
 going back. But she could do this : she could arrange 
 in her own mind the general scope of her lectures, and 
 could do something toward the composition of the intro- 
 ductory one, without the necessity of consulting authori- 
 ties. Rachel had all her life been an omnivorous reader, 
 and she had given a great deal of attention to the subject 
 of the development of the social status of woman in all 
 ages of the world and in all nations during the historic 
 
 O ~ 
 
 period. She was an excellent linguist, and hence her 
 researches had not been confined to works written in the 
 
DISCOVERIES. 453 
 
 English language, but had embraced the literature of 
 France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. 
 
 Moreover, she was not one to sit down and make a 
 lecture by transcribing the words of different authors 
 and connecting them with a narrow thread of her own 
 ideas. She cited authorities for the support of views she 
 had advanced, or in opposition thereto, and she com- 
 mented upon them with a freedom, a perspicuity, and a 
 thoroughness that caused the listener to understand that 
 she was not a mere compiler of other people's theories 
 or facts, but that she had sufficient intelligence and in- 
 dependence to have views of her own, and enough com- 
 mand of language to express them in a lucid and agree- 
 able manner. 
 
 As she sat in the little cabin on her way to Fire Island 
 to taste the culinary productions of Mrs. Dominick, she 
 was laying out the plan of her first lecture, which she 
 had decided should present a succinct view of the posi- 
 tion of woman among the ancient Jews. Her reading had 
 taught her that the belief so generally prevalent, that the 
 sex was held in higher honor among this people than 
 among Christians, was an erroneous one, and that many 
 most unjust and degrading practices in the treatment of 
 women were engrafted upon the Jewish law, to be ex- 
 punged under the more beneficent dispensation of Christ. 
 She had not yet mentioned her proposed scheme to Miss 
 Richardson, but now she laid it before her, and went off 
 at once in the most energetic and eloquent manner to 
 talk of the ideas of the inferiority of woman which were 
 held by Moses, Abraham, David, and Solomon, and 
 which were predominant among the people chosen by 
 God from among all the nations of the earth as his 
 special favorites. 
 
454 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 Miss Richardson listened in silence, and with both 
 pleasure and astonishment. 
 
 " You are a wonderful woman, my dear," she said, at 
 last. " I have never given you credit for half your 
 worth, and now we are about to lose you you who can 
 do so much good to the cause of poor, suffering woman 
 all the world over. Of course, after you and ' dear 
 Tom ' arrange your little differences, that will be the 
 end of you, so far as work is concerned." 
 
 " I do not think so," said Rachel. " I shall do more 
 good than ever if I shall become Tom's wife. What 
 have I or any other woman done by lecturing, more than 
 simply to amuse and instruct ? We do not change the 
 opinions of a single man, nor do we add to the happiness 
 of one man or woman. Now, suppose every woman in 
 the world should marry a man with the intention of 
 making him happy, and were to live up to her purpose, 
 don't you suppose she would generally succeed, and that 
 she would at the same time secure her own happiness ?" 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Miss Richardson; " as 
 though woman had nothing else to do in the world than 
 to look after the happiness of some man. If a woman 
 has a brain and I presume her possession of such an 
 organ of some degree of development is not doubted 
 even though it be ever so small and ever so deficient in 
 convolutions, she will want to use it for something else 
 than looking after a man's happiness." 
 
 " But in looking after some man's happiness she is 
 doing the best possible thing to secure her own. So 
 that, even from a selfish standpoint, she cannot do bet- 
 ter. However, that is a side issue. What do you think 
 of my plan to increase my income, and what do you 
 think of my proposed first lecture ?" 
 
DISCOVERIES. 455 
 
 Miss Richardson did not immediately answer these 
 questions. She seemed to be weighing the arguments 
 arising in her mind for and against both of Rachel's 
 propositions. 
 
 " I'll tell you what I think," she said, at last. " 1 
 do not believe that you will ever give another lecture as 
 long as you live." 
 
 " Oh," exclaimed Rachel, blushing, " you think that 
 before 1 can deliver another I shall be married !" 
 
 " Yes, that is exactly what I think. The letter that 
 you received from your Tom, and of which you told me 
 last night, shows that his mental condition is not essen- 
 tially different from yours. Of course, under such cir- 
 cumstances, it will be impossible that you should not 
 meet very soon, and that your misunderstanding should 
 not be corrected. Then you will probably agree with 
 your Tom that, as he is going to Mexico for an indefinite 
 period, it will be well for you to yield to his solicita- 
 tions, and go with him as his wife." 
 
 " That is what I should like," said Rachel, frankly. 
 " My dear Amelia," she continued, " I am tired of the 
 life I have been leading ever since I became a woman. 
 Not the working part of it that I like but the isola- 
 tion, the loneliness, and, above all, the thought that after 
 a few years, when I am old, I shall be without any one 
 in all the world to care for me." 
 
 ' ' In about such a position as 1 am in now. ' ' 
 
 " No, I did not mean that ; for you are different ; you 
 do not care for the society of men. I do ; or, at least, I 
 care for the companionship of one good and true man, 
 who will protect and love me. There is no happiness on 
 earth, to my mind, comparable to that, and for such a 
 man 1 am willing to forego everything else." 
 
456 A STEONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " You carry the same enthusiasm into your love affairs 
 that you do into your plans for lecturing," said Miss 
 Richardson, somewhat sarcastically. 
 
 " I am speaking," replied Rachel, with just enough 
 elevation in her voice to show that she noticed Miss 
 Richardson's tone, " exactly as all women who are in 
 love feel. I thought you liked honest words from me. 
 But if I am too free, or if you think I am indelicate, I 
 shall be more reserved. You invited my confidence, 
 and I gave it." 
 
 " Oh, my dear child, forgive me!" exclaimed Miss 
 Richardson. " I am a cross old maid, and since you 
 have spoken so honestly to me I'll be equally frank with 
 you. I am envious of you envious of your happiness, 
 envious of your bright young life all before you, with a 
 man worthy of you and whom you love envious of your 
 fresh and pure heart, and of all the ardor and earnestness 
 with which you speak, showing how honest and truthful 
 you are ; yes, I am even envious of the blush that 
 suffuses your cheeks when the name of your Tom escapes 
 your lips. But not meanly so. God knows I would 
 not rob you of a single one of your charms, or of your 
 chances for a life-long happiness ! But when I see you 
 as you are, the thought comes into my mind that once I 
 was like you, with like feelings and a like prospect 
 of happiness, and that I lost it all through my 
 own folly and wickedness and worse, oh, much worse 
 than that ! and then I am a little cross, as I was 
 just now. But only for a moment, dear ; and then I 
 am ashamed of my thoughts and words ; for if I know 
 myself, I know that I am sincerely anxious for your 
 happiness, even though in securing it 1 have to lose 
 
 you." 
 
DISCOVEKIES. 457 
 
 " Oh, I know how good you are, and now I have 
 made you unhappy !" 
 
 " No, 1 am not unhappy. 1 have long since given 
 up all such ideas of happiness as I once had, and have 
 sought for it, and with fair success, in other directions. 
 It was only a momentary pang which your sweet frank- 
 ness caused me, and which is now gone, leaving me 
 none the worse, I trust, and certainly none the less anx- 
 ious to bring you and your Tom together. He'll be a 
 fortunate man, my dear, when he gets you, and if he 
 maltreats you my curses shall follow him, even should he 
 flee to the uttermost ends of the earth." 
 
 " I have no fears on that score. I wish you knew 
 him ; a child could lead him with kindness ; and if I 
 am ever his wife I mean to be very kind to him in all 
 things." 
 
 " And while you are striving to make him happy I 
 shall be working for the rights of my sex. Now, I will 
 tell you a secret. I have written a play which is an 
 illustration of the wrongs that women suffer at the hands 
 of men. It would take twenty plays to cover the whole 
 ground, and therefore I have restricted mine to a single 
 point the terrible outrage and disregard of the rights 
 of nature, to which the common law and the law of this 
 great State of New York subjects her when it deprives 
 her of the right to take her own children from the con- 
 trol of a brutal husband and father." 
 " Yes, that is very hard." 
 " Hard ! It is infamous ! But I have not only writ- 
 ten the play, I am going to take the principal part and 
 act it." 
 
 " You are going on the stage ?" 
 
 ".Yes ; I am studying the character of ' Hester Good- 
 20 
 
458 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 ridge,' and in a few days I shall attend the first rehearsal 
 at the ' Protoplasmic Theatre,' where the play will be 
 brought out." 
 
 " You astonish me very much. I had no idea you 
 had any liking for the stage." 
 
 " I have always had a desire to be an actress, and now 
 when I have an opportunity of appearing in a drama of 
 my own composition, I am delighted. I shall not only 
 feel that I am rendering good service to the cause that I 
 have so much at heart, but I shall gratify that love for 
 being before the public, which is one of my chief pleas- 
 ures. You have been frank with me, and I intend to 
 unbosom myself fully in regard to my characteristics. 
 I court applause. I love an honorable notoriety. I am 
 most happy when I am before a large audience, receiving 
 their rapt attention or their heartfelt plaudits. I could 
 not settle down into a humdrum life with a man, and 
 spend my days in looking after his comforts ; and the 
 admiration, the attention, the devotion of one man, 
 would not satisfy me. I crave popularity. I like to see 
 my name in the newspapers, to have my opinions quoted 
 and commented upon, either favorably or unfavorably ; 
 preferably the former, of course, but still noticed. Now 
 you see what a very vulgar woman you have for your 
 friend one who seeks to please the multitude, and one, 
 therefore, who stands on a lower plane than you do, my 
 dear, and who in all the world knows but one person 
 she cares to specially distinguish from the crowd, and 
 that is you." 
 
 " Yes, you are very good to me ; but I am sure you 
 are doing yourself injustice. You are exaggerating the 
 very natural love that you and almost every one has for 
 the good opinion of their fellows. I do not believe 
 
DISCOVERIES. 459 
 
 there is any unworthy or ignoble tendency in you, no 
 matter what you say." 
 
 " "Well, I shall not try to convince you. Come ! we 
 have sat here long enough ; let us go on deck, get a whiff 
 of the breeze without having to take it after it has 
 passed over that coil of tarred rope, and see where we 
 are. We cannot be very far from Fire Island." 
 
 There was a stiff breeze blowing, and the little vessel 
 lay so far over on her beam-ends as it struck squarely 
 against its mainsail, that the two women found it some- 
 what difficult to keep their feet. Nevertheless, with the 
 assistance of the crew, they managed to get to the wind- 
 ward side of the after-part of the sloop, and to sit down 
 on the cushioned seat that ran around that section. 
 Looking to leeward, they saw that they were within half 
 a mile of the Fire Island wharf, and the commander in- 
 formed them that they were sailing direct to the landing 
 nearest to Mrs. Dominick's, which he expected to reach 
 without being obliged to tack again. His anticipation 
 was verified, and in a few minutes the friends were 
 walking up the long wooden pier, at the end of which 
 was the unpretentious domicile of Mrs. Dominick, which, 
 though an insignificant, not to say repulsive, looking 
 place from the outside, was full of the good things that 
 come out of the sea ready to be cooked and to be served 
 without disguising and perverting French sauces, but 
 with the accompaniments of good bread, sweet butter, 
 and fresh Long Island cream and eggs. 
 
 As they had each taken nothing but a cup of coffee 
 and a biscuit before leaving the Watson House, and as it 
 was yet only eleven o'clock, they ordered a substantial 
 breakfast of an omelette, stewed oysters, bluefish, Sara- 
 toga potatoes, and hot rolls, and then set out on an ex- 
 
460 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 ploriiig expedition to the ocean side of the island. They 
 followed the board-walk that led over the sand to the 
 beach, but had not gone more than half the distance 
 when they saw in front of them a man and a woman, 
 who had come along a branch walk that led from a little 
 cottage a few hundred yards to the east of Mrs. Domi- 
 nick's and joined the main thoroughfare. The couple 
 were talking vigorously, and the female portion was 
 gesticulating violently and stopping every now and then 
 to enforce her words with vicious little stamps of her 
 foot. The man seemed to be expostulating in a mild 
 way, for he frequently threw out his hands with the 
 palms upward, in the deprecatory manner of the Latin 
 races of Europe, and occasionally shrugged his shoulders 
 to such an extent as to quite bury his ears in the capa- 
 cious fur collar of his overcoat. He was short and thick, 
 and the low, soft felt hat that he wore, and which was 
 battered out of its original shape, did not add to the 
 dignity of his appearance. He was smoking a cigarette, 
 not of the very best quality either, and as the wind came 
 from the south it blew the offensive vapor, after it 
 had been further contaminated with the emanations- 
 strongly garlicky from his lungs, right into the faces 
 of Rachel and her friend. 
 
 " Let us pass those nasty people," said Miss Richard- 
 son, angrily, " or else go back. Another minute of 
 that wretch's smoke will destroy all my appetite for 
 breakfast." 
 
 They hurried forward, but as they approached the 
 man and woman something in the manner and walk and 
 general " get up" of the latter forced itself upon their 
 attention, and at the same instant they recognized her as 
 Miss Billy Bremen. 
 
DISCOVERIES. 461 
 
 " My little Beast !" exclaimed Miss Richardson, while 
 Rachel shrank back, as though preparing to return to 
 Mrs. Dominick's. " 1 wonder what in the name of all 
 that's disgusting brought her here ! No, no, my dear" 
 for Rachel was still holding back " she can't eat you, 
 and of course you will not recognize her. Come, let us 
 go past them and sit down on a bench there under the 
 shed." 
 
 Reluctantly Rachel allowed Miss Richardson to draw 
 her along. As they approached the excited couple it 
 was impossible to avoid hearing a portion of their con- 
 versation. 
 
 ' i You told me, ' ' said Billy, ' ( that you would go away 
 out of the country and never come back, provided I gave 
 you ten thousand dollars. You got the money, and 
 here you are still. You are the same old liar that you 
 always were." 
 
 u Yes, I am here, todavia. But, que quieres, mi 
 alma f Vat do you vant ?" shrugging his shoulders as 
 he spoke. " I vas ready ; I go in twenty minute, muy 
 pronto. But you not get ze man. You make one mis- 
 erable failure, seguramente. I am mejor, better than no 
 man." 
 
 " No, you are not. I want you to go. I never want 
 to lay eyes on you again." 
 
 " Ah, mi dulce ! mi car a bien ! P or que estas tan 
 dura f Yy you so hard vit me ? Yo te amo I luff 
 you, con todo mi corazon, vit my heart all." 
 
 " I don't want your love !" exclaimed Billy, snapping 
 the lingers of both hands in the air. " I want you to go 
 back to Cuba, as you promised. Now, will you go ?" 
 
 " No ! Nunca. Nevair ! Tuesmimujer. My vife. 
 1 vill not go. Aqui estoy ! and here I vill stay," with 
 
462 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 which words the man jumped from the board-walk to 
 the sand, into which his feet sank till they were covered, 
 and it really looked as though they were rooted to the 
 earth. 
 
 At that instant Miss Richardson and Rachel passed 
 them unrecognized by Billy, for she was facing the in- 
 dignant Cuban, and evidently getting ready to give him 
 very emphatically some more of her ideas as to his future 
 conduct. 
 
 " Well," said Miss Richardson, as soon as they were 
 out of ear-shot of the contending parties, " did you 
 ever hear anything to equal that in all your life ? She's 
 married to him ! And evidently trying to get rid of 
 him in order that she may marry another man and run 
 no risk of a prosecution for bigamy. Didn't I tell you 
 she was a beast ? I saw what she w r as when she treated 
 you so outrageously. I saw it in her eye, and now it is 
 evident to you, even if you didn't take my word for it 
 before. ' ' 
 
 " Yes, the man is certainly her husband. She did 
 not deny being his wife when he called her so, and he 
 seems determined to stick to her." 
 
 " It's all very horrible. Probably she's been married 
 to him a long time, and here she has been imposing upon 
 us as a single woman, and affecting to hate the very 
 sight of a man ! I've known traitors to the cause be- 
 fore this, but she's the very worst specimen of a fraud 
 that I ever came across. Oh, how such women sicken 
 me with human nature ! A bad woman is, as I think 
 you once said, my dear, worse than a bad man. Prob- 
 ably because we expect more from a woman, and are 
 more shocked when we find her wicked and degraded. 
 But it has sometimes appeared to me that there are 
 
DISCOVERIES. 463 
 
 depths of brutality and pollution into which women 
 sometimes fall that man at his worst never reaches." 
 
 " That may be, but such cases are altogether excep- 
 tional. Mr. Burton said the other night at dinner that 
 women were better than men, and Mr. Moultrie agreed 
 with him that if women could govern the world it would 
 certainly be more moral than it is now. " 
 
 " I am not so sure of that. Look at the monsters of 
 iniquity in the guise of women that have sat on thrones 
 within the historic period. Look at Semiramis, Cleo- 
 patra, the two Catherines in fact, all the empresses of 
 Russia, Isabella of Spain, and many more that were 
 worse than the men of their times that were sovereigns. 
 The fact is, I am not quite sure that it is not always 
 dangerous to place women in power. I would not trust 
 myself. If I were an autocratrix I would probably do 
 what I pleased, regardless of abstract justice. And one 
 of my first acts, if I were to be this instant invested 
 with absolute power, would be to have that little Beast 
 carried out to sea and drowned." 
 
 " What's the matter with you to-day ?" said Rachel, 
 laughing. " I have never before seen you in such a 
 humor. You seem to have got up with your left foot 
 foremost, and the sight of the ' Beast,' as you call her, 
 has aggravated you into saying things that are contrary 
 to everything you have heretofore said." 
 
 " Well, never mind what I say to-day," rejoined Miss 
 Richardson, with a smile that was not without a tinge of 
 sadness. " That woman has upset me, I admit. She 
 is here for no good. I suppose that man lives here, and 
 she has come down to see him. Evidently she is his 
 wife. I didn't get a sight of his face, but if one may 
 judge by his back and his general appearance I should 
 
464 A STRONG -MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 say he was the keeper of a cigar shop in the Bowery, or 
 perhaps the janitor of a gambling house. In either case 
 he would be too good for her." 
 
 " Sit down here," said Rachel, as they reached the 
 shed, " and let the ocean breezes cool your brain." 
 
 There were several rustic benches, more picturesque 
 than comfortable, and on one of these the two friends 
 sat. Meanwhile Billy and her man had apparently made 
 up their differences, and were seen going back arm-in- 
 arm toward the building scarcely attaining a dignity 
 above that of a shanty into which they entered. 
 
 u I want you to come to the rehearsals of my play," 
 said Miss Richardson at last, after the two had sat in 
 silence for several minutes, " and I want you to criticise 
 not only the playwright, but the actress. As regards 
 the play, I have the assistance of Miss Durant, who is 
 thoroughly acquainted with the technique of the stage, 
 and to whose assistance 1 owe the fact that the situations 
 are striking, and the scenery and dresses in keeping. 
 Then, as she is such an accomplished actress, I found I 
 could not do better than have her put me in training ; so 
 for the last six months or more I have been taking pri- 
 vate lessons in stage manners. Of course my experience 
 as a public lecturer has been of service to me." 
 
 " Certainly I'll come. Won't you tell me something 
 of the play ?" 
 
 " No, I think not. I would rather you would see and 
 hear it on the stage first. Then you can read it after- 
 ward. You observe I did not invite you to come to a 
 full public performance. 1 never waste civilities. By 
 the time it is produced you will be in Mexico as the wife 
 of Special Envoy the Hon. Tom Burton." 
 
 Rachel laughed merrily at this speech. " You are 
 
DISCOVERIES. 465 
 
 taking time by the forelock," she said. " There's a 
 good deal to be done yet before I am married, and," 
 she added, seriously, " there may come many things to 
 prevent me ever meeting Tom again." 
 
 4 'Well, now, I think we have had enough salt air, 
 my dear, and if it's all the same to you we'll go back 
 and get our breakfast. I'm as hungry as a Kussian wolf 
 in midwinter, and visions of that broiled bluefish which 
 an hour ago was disporting itself in the waters of the 
 Great South Bay are floating before me." 
 
 They rose and walked briskly along the board-walk 
 that led to Mrs. Dominick's. The cool wind and the 
 exercise had deepened the color on the cheeks of both 
 the women, and the salt air had, as Miss Richardson said, 
 given them ravenous appetites, besides quickening their 
 pulses and freshening their mental powers. Rachel 
 thought she would like to begin then to study her lec- 
 ture, for she had rarely felt more capable of intense and 
 sustained thought than at that moment. As to Miss 
 Richardson, Rachel had never before seen her in a more 
 changeful mood. Evidently the conversation relative to 
 her troubles with Tom had revived recollections that had 
 for a long time been kept out of mind, and the revivify- 
 ing of which was not an agreeable process, or attended 
 with pleasant results. Then she thought of Tom and of 
 the possibility of their ever meeting again, and of the 
 consequences likely to follow the renewal of their rela- 
 tions if they should meet. They approached the place 
 where the two quarrelsome individuals had stood, and 
 where the man had jumped down into the sand. 
 
 " Is that a card lying there on the sand ?" said Miss 
 Richardson. " It is a card. Rachel, my dear, get 
 down there and pick it up. You are younger than I, 
 
466 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 and my innate curiosity is too great to let a find like that 
 go unnoticed." 
 
 " I will get it," said Kachel, laughing ; " but as a 
 punishment for being so inquisitive I shall not show it 
 to you till we are back at Babylon." 
 
 She leaped lightly down on the sand, a distance of a 
 couple of feet. The card lay with its face downward. 
 She picked it up, and still laughing, put it into her 
 pocket without looking at it, and then climbing up to 
 the platform as gracefully as such an act could be per- 
 formed, the two resumed their walk to their breakfast. 
 
 " You are cruel," said Miss Kichardson, " and the 
 only satisfaction I have is that you have not seen it yet 
 yourself. I will bet you a pair of gloves that the name 
 is either Fernandez or Alvaraz. But you are not to look 
 till we get back to Babylon." 
 
 < ' Done !' ' said Eachel. ' < I take the bet. ' ' 
 
 They ate their breakfast with that degree of avidity 
 which only those who have sailed over the Great South 
 Bay early on a November morning can understand. 
 And then they sailed back with a fair wind to carry the 
 " Swan" to her destination. Awaiting- Rachel on the table 
 in her room was Mrs. Moultrie's letter ; she read it with 
 the joy which only a woman like her, capable of experi- 
 encing love in its intensest form, could feel. Then she 
 called her friend. " Listen," she said, as she read an 
 extract from the letter. 
 
 " i He has just been telling me the whole story. My 
 dear, he loves you with all his heart. Be sure of that. 
 He is so honest and frank, and so anxious to see you 
 again and " make up," as the children say, that it was 
 hard for me to refrain from telling him to go to Babylon 
 to-morrow. But I think my plan is the best, and that 
 
DISCOVERIES. 467 
 
 the little delay will do him good. Telegraph me, then, 
 at once.' 
 
 " Of course I shall go. Oh, how kind she is ! Now 
 you see what a good woman can do to make others 
 happy. Now I must write and send the telegram at 
 once, and this afternoon I must go back to New York. 
 She says her carriage will meet me at Hunter's Point. 
 How good she is !" 
 
 Rachel was all excitement over the prospect of going 
 to Washington and of again meeting Tom. She wrote 
 and despatched her telegram, and it was then arranged 
 that Mrs. Meadows should remain at Babylon with Miss 
 Richardson and some other friends she had discovered 
 till Rachel's return. 
 
 " Now, my dear," said Miss Richardson, when all this 
 business had been attended to, " stop your packing for 
 a moment, and show me that card." 
 
 " Oh yes, the card !" exclaimed Rachel. u I had 
 quite forgotten it." She took it from her pocket and 
 looked at it. Then her face became very pale and 
 grave. With a manifest effort she controlled herself and 
 handed it to Miss Richardson. " You owe me a pair of 
 gloves,' ' she said, with a forced smile. Then her head 
 seemed to reel, she dropped into a chair, and covering 
 her face with her hands, burst into a passion of tears. 
 
 Miss Richardson took the card and read : 
 
 Mr. Tom Burton. 
 
 Menhaden Club. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 A MEETING. 
 
 Miss RICHARDSON allowed the first semi-hysterical 
 burst of grief to have its full sway and to work itself off. 
 There was a certain amount of pent-up force to be got- 
 ten rid of, and there was not, according to her ideas, a 
 safer or more effectual way than a flood of tears. It was 
 not long before Rachel became calmer, and in a little 
 while she dropped her hands from her face and looked 
 inquiringly at her friend, who was standing near by, with 
 Burton's card in her hand. 
 
 "Now, my dear," said Miss Richardson, "if you 
 have become sufficiently calm to consider this matter in 
 cold blood, we will go over it with the light of our 
 positive and circumstantial evidence, and endeavor to 
 understand what it all means. In the first place, you 
 heard the man with that little Beast tell her that she had 
 failed to get the man she was trying to inveigle into her 
 snare ; then that she wished very much to get him out 
 of the way in order, doubtless, that she might continue 
 the seductive process ; and then the finding of Mr. Bur- 
 ton's card causes you to think that he is the man against 
 whom her batteries are directed ; and this fear is 
 strengthened by the knowledge you possess that he dined 
 with her a night or two ago. Now, my dear, that is all 
 there is of it, and I must say that I think you have 
 shown a very decided deficiency in the good sense for 
 
A MEETING. 469 
 
 which I have always given you credit. You have ex- 
 ploded your nerve-force on the slightest jar. You re- 
 mind me of those little glass balls called Prince Rupert's 
 drops, which fly to pieces at a touch. Suppose he is the 
 man she is trying to get and I think that is very likely 
 what of it ? You can't prevent other women falling 
 in love with your Tom or admiring him. You ought to 
 feel flattered when they do so, for it is the highest ap- 
 preciation they can show of the good taste you yourself 
 have shown. From her own confession she has not suc- 
 ceeded, and if she could the Beast get him away from 
 my Beauty, in God's name, let him go ! Oh, you little 
 fool !" she continued, putting her arms around Rachel 
 and pressing her head to her breast. " I can't help lov- 
 ing you ; but if I thought all women were like you I'd 
 give up contending for their rights. A pretty Judge of 
 the Supreme Court of the United States you'd make." 
 
 " You wouldn't make a better one," said Rachel, rais- 
 ing her eyes with a smile. " You said this morning that 
 you'd drown that woman, whether she were guilty or 
 not." 
 
 "So I would ! That I'll stick to through thick and 
 thin, whatever that may be." 
 
 "I know I am very foolish, but the shock was so sud- 
 den, and caused such an entire revulsion, that I could 
 not help giving way. Mrs. Moultrie's letter had made 
 me so happy, and then came this discovery, showing, as 
 I thought at the moment, such an entirely different state 
 of affairs from that which I had 'just supposed to exist, 
 that my brain seemed to fail me utterly." 
 
 " The truth probably is that the card was the one he 
 left after dining with her. He cannot have seen much 
 of her." 
 
470 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " No ; for Mrs. Moultrie states in her letter that he 
 went to Washington the next day but one after we met 
 at her house, and that he had returned the day she 
 wrote, which was yesterday. No, he cannot have seen 
 much of her." 
 
 " Besides, he wants you. Mrs. Moultrie's letter 
 makes that perfectly apparent. So all you have to do is 
 to go to New York in time to join them when they 
 leave for Washington to-morrow morning." 
 
 " Mrs. Moultrie will not only send her carriage across 
 the ferry to meet me, but she insists that 1 shall come 
 direct to her house and stay there over-night. Oh, 
 Amelia !" she continued, throwing her arms around Miss 
 Richardson's neck, " I am so happy, and I am such a 
 fool !" 
 
 " Whether you're happy because you are foolish, or 
 foolish because you're happy, doesn't, 1 suppose, make 
 much difference. You are what the intellectual man 
 calls * a true woman,' and by ' a true woman ' they mean 
 one who " 
 
 " Hasn't got any sense," interrupted Rachel, her face 
 all smiles again. u Well, I don't know how it is, but I 
 really don't think I'm quite so much of a fool as I 
 thought. I've been able to get my own living. My 
 life has not been altogether a useless one. In fact, I am 
 quite sure that in my day and generation I have done 
 some good. If I had never done anything more than 
 teach young women astronomy I should not have lived 
 in vain. But 1 don't want to vote, I don't want an 
 office. I wouldn't be a Supreme Court judge if you'd 
 go down on your bended knees and beg me. On those 
 points my mind has undergone a revolution, and Tom 
 has done it." 
 
A MEETING. 471 
 
 Miss Kichardson looked at her with an expression in 
 which it was evident that many varied emotions were 
 contending for the mastery. Love, and sorrow, and 
 regret, and perhaps a little envy were there. Then she 
 turned away without a word and left the room. " She is 
 one of those women * true women ' they are called" 
 she thought, as she went along the long, narrow hall to 
 her own rooms, " who yearn for a baby's lips at their 
 breast. The maternal instinct. It is said to be dying 
 out in American women. I wonder if it is quite dead 
 in me ?" She entered her room without answering the 
 question she had put to herself, and seating herself at 
 the table, began a letter to the Woman's Journal, in 
 which she took the most advanced views relative to 
 woman's suffrage, which she declared was the only thing 
 that could cause the sex to receive the respect which 
 comes from the consciousness of equality with the other 
 sex. " When we have to make the laws under which 
 we live," she wrote, " then, and not till then, will man 
 yield us a proper kind of respect. ISTo respect is worth 
 anything that is not based upon a certain amount of 
 healthy fear. Now, when we wish to gain a point from 
 man we cajole him. Then we should be able to terror- 
 ize him. It is perhaps a sad alternative that there is no 
 other way by which he can be made to render justice to 
 a long-oppressed part of the human race." 
 
 Eachel in the mean time was perfecting her arrange- 
 ments for leaving Babylon on the four-o'clock train. 
 Her mother was willing enough to stay, and willing 
 enough, also, for Kachel to go. Though there was 
 affection, there was not much community of sentiment 
 between Mrs. Meadows and her daughter. The former 
 was a chronic complainer. She was always talking of 
 
472 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 the little physical ills none of them of any consequence 
 to which women of her age are generally more or less 
 subject, and this trait rendered her an unpleasant com- 
 panion to any one. The whole world has agreed to 
 regard the persons who are constantly drawing attention 
 to their bodily ailments as unmitigated bores ; for though 
 some cynic has said that there is no one who does not 
 enjoy the misfortunes of his friends, this proclivity does 
 not extend to diseases. The loss of a hundred thousand 
 dollars on the part of a person dear to us, his failure to 
 get an office for which he was an applicant, his breaking 
 down in a speech he has tried to deliver, the smash up 
 of his carriage, his slipping down in the mud and ruin- 
 ing his best evening suit, may each and all cause a thrill 
 of joy to flash through our hearts. We may even be 
 mildly hilarious should his wife elope with her coach- 
 man ; but when we hear that he has the diphtheria we 
 are truly sorry ; and when he himself tells us of his aches 
 and pains, so far from feeling any satisfaction at his mis- 
 fortunes, we are distressed and annoyed. It was danger- 
 ous to ask Mrs. Meadows how she was ; for the impru- 
 dent individual that ventured on this benevolent ques- 
 tion was certain to be stopped, even though his breakfast 
 were waiting for him and getting cold, till she had re- 
 capitulated all her sensations and the absence of sensa- 
 tions with which she had been afflicted for the past 
 twenty-four hours. In addition she had now the loss 
 she had had entailed upon her by the stoppage of the 
 Tillitudlum Plate- Glass Works. She inveighed bitterly 
 against the company for presuming to stop, even if they 
 were losing money, and especially against the Govern- 
 ment for reducing the duty on plate-glass to such a low 
 point that the home manufacturer could not compete 
 
A MEETING. 473 
 
 with the " pauper labor" of Europe. She had been 
 talking with several political economists, and she had 
 read articles in the newspapers on the subject, and she 
 had discovered that since the suspension of plate-glass 
 factories in various parts of the country the price of the 
 material had advanced over twenty per cent. " Now," 
 she said, with indignation in her voice and tears in her 
 eyes, " that they have succeeded in crushing an infant 
 American industry, they have put up the price to just 
 what they choose to make it. Now perhaps they'll see 
 the propriety of putting the duty back to where it was ; 
 or, what would be better still, making it prohibitory." 
 
 So at four o'clock Kachel took her departure, Miss 
 Richardson going with her in the omnibus to the station, 
 and in due season she was sitting in a lovely little room 
 talking with Theodora in regard to future plans in 
 Washington. Lalage had gone for a ride in the Park 
 with Tyscovus. Their love affairs were going on swim- 
 mingly. The day had been fixed for the wedding, and 
 Theodora had a latent hope springing up within her that 
 it might be within the range of possibility to have the 
 Hon. Tom Burton and Miss Rachel Meadows married at 
 the same time. This she kept to herself. It was not 
 quite time for her to expose her plans to the parties most 
 concerned. 
 
 " Mr. Barton went to Washington this morning," she 
 said to Rachel. " I had a short note from him, written 
 just before he started, and he is very unhappy." 
 
 " Very unhappy !" exclaimed Rachel, in a low tone 
 and with a slight blush, for she thought Theodora alluded 
 to the distress he felt at having to go away without see- 
 ing her. 
 
 " Yes ; and he authorizes me to tell you all about the 
 
474 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 matter. Perhaps the simplest way would be to let you 
 read his note ;" so saying she took from her pocket a 
 letter, and handed it to Rachel. 
 Rachel took it and read as follows : 
 
 " MENHADEN CLUB, November 28, 1874. 
 
 " MY DEAR MRS. MOULTRIE '. I am trying to submit 
 quietly to the sentence of banishment that you have 
 imposed upon me, though it is with great difficulty that 
 I refrain from staying over till to-morrow and dropping 
 in this evening after dinner." (" Poor Tom, I wish he 
 had !" said Rachel to herself.) " But I promised to go 
 to Washington, and before you get this I shall be nearly 
 half way there. 
 
 " What I wish particularly to say now is that I am 
 very unhappy on account of my agency in having the 
 duty on plate-glass reduced. I did it, and 1 thought 1 
 was doing a good thing. Now, however, I find, what I 
 did not know before, that the foreign manufacturers 
 have combined to sell plate-glass at a price below the 
 cost of manufacture for the purpose of destroying the 
 American factories. They have succeeded to a great 
 extent, and the price has now been advanced, and will 
 probably go still higher. This is an effect that I did 
 not anticipate, and that has opened my eyes to the erro- 
 neous character of many of my tariff notions. 
 
 u But I am distressed beyond measure at the loss that 
 has happened to Rachel and her mother, and for which 
 I cannot too strongly blame myself. Please tell her 
 how bitterly I regret the part I had in the matter, and 
 assure her from me, that immediately on my arrival in 
 Washington I shall go to work to undo the evil I have 
 done. 1 shall request a hearing before the Committee 
 
A MEETING. 475 
 
 on Ways and Means of the House, many of the members 
 of which I know, and shall submit the evidence that I 
 have in my possession of the disastrous effects of the 
 change. 
 
 " 1 suppose it would scarcely be proper to make this a 
 love-letter to .Rachel, of course but I should like to 
 do so. I shall be at the Ebbitt House, anxiously await- 
 ing your summons. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 "ToM BURTON." 
 
 " 1 don't care a bit about the loss of the money," said 
 Rachel, when she had finished reading the letter. 
 " What a kind heart he has ! I am sorry he should 
 trouble himself about it." 
 
 " It will give him something to do till he sees you. 
 But there are Lalage and Mr. Tyscovus, and I must go 
 and dress for dinner. We dine at seven, and you will 
 have an opportunity of making the acquaintance of the 
 dowager Mrs. Moultrie, as we call her. This is our last 
 dinner in New York for some time to come, and she 
 dines with us." 
 
 Rachel dressed and then descended to the drawing- 
 room, where she found the whole company Moultrie, 
 Theodora, Lalage, Tyscovus, and the dowager assem- 
 bled. Greetings from those she knew and introductions 
 to those she did not know of course ensued, and then 
 they all moved in to dinner. 
 
 " Are you any relation to the Miss Meadows who lec- 
 tures ?" said the dowager, addressing Rachel, after they 
 were seated at the table. 
 
 " Miss Meadows is the Miss Meadows who lectures," 
 said Moultrie, answering for Rachel before she could do 
 
476 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 so for herself, and anxious to prevent any offensive re- 
 marks by his mother by showing that he approved of 
 what she had done in this respect, " and Miss Meadows 
 is also the Miss Meadows who writes, and whose story, 
 ( The Mystery of Mrs. Brown,' in the Milky Way, you 
 were speaking of so warmly the other evening." 
 
 " Oh," exclaimed the dowager, " I am very much 
 delighted to make the acquaintance of so distinguished a 
 young lady. In my day " 
 
 " In your day, mother," interrupted Moultrie, with a 
 smile, but with a snap in his tone that warned the old 
 lady that she was in .danger of going too far " in your 
 day young ladies didn't know enough either to lecture or 
 to write." 
 
 " I read ' The Mystery of Mrs. Brown ' on my way 
 here from St. Louis," said Tyscovus. " I congratulate 
 Miss Meadows on having produced one of the best short 
 stories I have ever read. It shows a wonderful fertility 
 of imagination and a thorough knowledge of human 
 nature." 
 
 " I am so glad you think so," said Rachel. " I am 
 very anxious to become a good writer, and I think I 
 would rather be the author of a successful novel one 
 that would really make its mark in the world than have 
 almost any other distinction granted me." 
 
 " I am quite sure it would be easy for you to obtain 
 that distinction. You certainly possess the elements of 
 success in that direction." 
 
 " There is room for a great novel, and for any number 
 of them," said Moultrie. " There are three classes of 
 novelists who are now engaging attention : the one has 
 imagination, but no constructive skill or knowledge of 
 human nature ; the second has constructive skill, but no 
 
A MEETING. 477 
 
 knowledge of human nature and no imagination ; and 
 the third has no imagination or constructive skill, or 
 knowledge of human nature. The fourth class, having 
 all these requisites, is yet to come. Till it does we shall 
 have no great novelists. Miss Meadows, ' ' he continued, 
 turning to Rachel, " I greet you as its first representa- 
 tive." 
 
 So they talked all but Lai. She said very little, un- 
 less some remark were addressed to her, but then she 
 answered with the good sense and directness for which 
 she was noted among all who knew her. She conversed 
 easily enough with one person, and if the subject were 
 one in which she was interested and which she under- 
 stood, she expressed herself with remarkable fluency. 
 But general conversation upon matters arising at the 
 moment was somewhat beyond her, and as to small- talk, 
 she had not yet acquired the facility for saying bright 
 things about nothing. 
 
 The next morning the whole party, with the exception 
 of the dowager, took the limited express train for "Wash- 
 ington. As the Moultrie residence was not quite pre- 
 pared for their occupation, they went, with the exception 
 of Tyscovus, to the Arlington, where suites of apart- 
 ments had been engaged, and where they expected to 
 remain for a week or ten days. Tyscovus, with a degree 
 'of delicacy rarely seen in these degenerate days, and 
 which perhaps was carrying refinement in such matters 
 a little too far, went to another hotel, the Ebbitt House, 
 where he soon made the acquaintance of the Hon. Tom 
 Burton, who had been twenty-four hours installed in 
 that hostelry. 
 
 At first Tyscovus was inclined to think he should 
 never become an admirer of the Hon. Tom. He was so 
 
478 A STEONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 unlike all the men that he had yet seen that he was un- 
 prepared for the developments that burst upon him every 
 few minutes. During his residence of over a year in 
 Colorado he had encountered many types of humanity 
 that were new to him ; but Burton was at the same time 
 the most original and the most intellectual of all that had 
 hitherto come in his way. There appeared to be a won- 
 derful aptitude for grasping the salient points of a sub- 
 ject, but yet it seemed to Tyscovus that he seldom went 
 to the depths of anything. He took off the foarn and 
 the light fluid that floated at the top of the beaker, but 
 the heavier liquid at the bottom he did not reach. 
 
 But in a little while he perceived that when Burton 
 took a personal interest in a subject he left no parts of 
 it unexplored. It was only those topics for which he 
 cared nothing, or at least very little, that he did not attempt 
 to investigate deeply, and that he discussed more out of 
 compliment to the persons with whom he was conversing 
 than from other motives. He thought it simple polite- 
 ness to endeavor to show that no subject that was intro- 
 duced was indifferent to him, and hence it was that he 
 had something to say that, if not deep, was at least sen- 
 sible in regard to matters that most others would have 
 treated with silence. Tyscovus thought he had never 
 met with a more versatile man, or one with greater 
 facilities of expression. 
 
 Congress was to meet on the next day but one, and 
 already the city was filling up with the members and 
 their constituents. There were many speculations as to 
 with which party Moultrie would affiliate. The Repub- 
 licans and Democrats were very nearly of equal force, 
 and each was desirous of securing Moultrie. Prominent 
 members of each of these organizations suggested to him 
 

 A MEETING. 479 
 
 the propriety of uniting witli their side and of going into 
 their caucus, but he had long since decided that he would 
 not formally unite with either party. On all questions 
 that came up he should vote in accordance with his own 
 views, which he believed agreed with those of the 
 majority of his constituents. He was specially elected 
 for the purpose of procuring important modifications of 
 the tariff. The point that he should endeavor to secure 
 was that of the free importation of all raw materials used 
 in our manufacturing industries. Beyond that he was 
 not at present prepared to go, though strongly inclined 
 to abolish protective duties where protection by the solid 
 establishment of home industries was no longer required. 
 
 At home, at all elections he had always been what is 
 called a " scratcher" that is, he had voted for the men 
 that he thought were best fitted for the offices for which 
 they were nominated, and that he conceived represented 
 the principles that ought to prevail in the conduct of the 
 Government, no matter to what party they belonged. 
 It was his intention to act in precisely the same way in 
 the elections necessary to the organization of the House. 
 
 Tyscovus had a good deal of business on behalf of the 
 Territory he represented that he desired to bring before 
 Congress. Having only the right to speak, without that 
 of voting, it might have been thought by some that his 
 position was one without much influence. But, on the 
 contrary, being relieved from service on committees, 
 and having therefore nothing to do with general legisla- 
 tion, he was enabled to give his whole time and attention 
 to the wants of Colorado, a Territory which he was sure 
 would, in a few years, be knocking at the door for ad- 
 mission into the Union. Questions relative to mines, to 
 lands, and to the Indians were among the more impor- 
 
480 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 tant of those that he had to bring forward. He was 
 brimful of facts in regard to each of them, and he was 
 so apt in his ability to present his views clearly and pow- 
 erfully before an audience, that no one who knew him 
 doubted that he would make a strong impression upon 
 Congress. 
 
 And then he was at last about to be married to the 
 woman whose story has been told elsewhere, and whom 
 the better he knew the more he loved. Since his arrival 
 in New York he had had more thorough opportunities 
 for becoming acquainted with her than he had enjoyed 
 in Colorado, when his love had first been formed. He 
 had found that, while she had developed wonderfully in 
 all those points that gave additional graces to her lan- 
 guage and demeanor, she was unchanged in those quali- 
 ties of head and heart that had first so strikingly im- 
 pressed themselves upon him. In a few days she would 
 be his wife, and then, when the session was over, she 
 would go back with him to his home on the butte, a 
 different structure altogether from the humble log-cabin 
 in which he had first seen her ; and she a wonderfully 
 different woman from the uncouth, half -clad girl who, 
 as Jim Bosler's daughter, had endeavored to shield her 
 supposed father from the consequences of the crimes she 
 was confident he would commit. 
 
 As to the Hon. Tom, he had employed his time since 
 his arrival in Washington in taking long walks out over 
 the hills to the north, during which the Mexican mission 
 occupied a rather remote position in his mind, all the 
 advanced stations being filled with thoughts of persons 
 and things of greater and more immediate importance. 
 He had fully made up his mind that he would press for 
 an immediate marriage with Rachel. The idea of going 
 
A MEETING. 481 
 
 to Mexico alone, and of being separated from her for a 
 year and perhaps longer, was so repugnant to him that 
 he had determined that if he could not, through his own 
 efforts and those of Mrs. Moultrie who he felt was his 
 firm ally persuade Kachel into yielding to his wishes, 
 he would resign the appointment. 
 
 He had been dining with the Secretary of State, and 
 had returned to his hotel well satisfied with the favorable 
 impression he had made upon that functionary, when, 
 as he was going to his rooms, to which he had invited 
 Tyscovus to smoke a cigar, the clerk handed him a letter 
 which he said had arrived by the late evening mail. 
 Burton glanced at the direction, and seeing that it was 
 from Mr. Roman, whom he had left in charge of his 
 legal business, he put it into his pocket, intending to 
 read it at his leisure in his own apartment. Arrived 
 there, he sent for Tyscovus, and then making himself 
 comfortable in dress and attitude, he took out the letter 
 he had just received. But before he could begin to read 
 it Tyscovus entered the room, and the two continued to 
 talk and smoke late into the night. It was twelve 
 o'clock when he took his departure and Burton had an 
 opportunity to read his letter. 
 
 But the letter was not such pleasant reading as to make 
 him desirous of receiving more like it. On the con- 
 trary, it caused him anger, disgust, fear, and several 
 other disagreeable emotions. It was to the effect that 
 early that morning a lawyer whose reputation at the bar 
 was not of the best had called to say that his client, Miss 
 Billy Bremen, had instructed him to begin a suit for 
 damages to the extent of fifty thousand dollars against 
 Burton ; but that she was desirous to avoid the scandal 
 that such a suit would produce, and was not without the 
 21 
 
482 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 hope that an arrangement could be made by wliicli the 
 necessity for its initiation could be obviated. 
 
 " Of course," wrote Mr. Roman, "I could say 
 nothing. I simply allowed the man to talk, which he 
 did, and in the course of a few minutes he announced 
 that Miss Bremen was sincerely attached to you, and was 
 willing to abandon all intention of a suit for damages, 
 provided you would renew your promise of marriage, 
 and make her your wife. But that in the event of a re- 
 fusal, the matter would be brought before the courts at 
 once, and vigorously conducted to what he had no doubt 
 would be a successful termination. Knowing nothing of 
 the circumstances, I could say nothing in regard to your 
 probable course of action, except to express the opinion 
 that you were not a man to be threatened into doing any- 
 thing, and that I would communicate with you at once. 
 Of course, you know that you cannot be served while 
 you are in Washington, and I am under the impression 
 that your diplomatic position protects you from civil 
 suits in any part of the country." 
 
 " There is but one thing for me to do," he said, after 
 thoroughly mastering the contents of the letter, " and 
 that is to see Rachel at once, and tell her of the whole 
 affair, from beginning to end. It is simply an attempt at 
 blackmail, and I shall immediately go back to New York 
 and confront the vulgar little wretch. ' ' 
 
 But he found it impossible to get rid of the matter so 
 easily. Do what he would in the way of trying to under- 
 rate it, or in keeping up his courage, the conviction 
 forced itself upon him that it would, if persisted in, 
 prove a very annoying piece of business. Of course the 
 woman had attempted a fraud upon him, but it was 
 nevertheless true that he had declared his readiness in a 
 
A MEETING. 483 
 
 certain contingency to marry her. True, she had de- 
 clined his proposition, but he had no evidence of this to 
 present beyond his own statement, and none on any point 
 he might advance in his behalf, except his own declara- 
 tion. And he knew enough of human nature, and espe- 
 cially of the nature of juries, to be aware that if Billy 
 chose to swear, regardless of the sanctity of an oath, to 
 anything she might think would help her case, the sym- 
 pathy of the public and of the twelve men in the box 
 would be with her, not him. And even in the event of 
 her losing the suit and that would be an exceedingly 
 probable result, the jury failing to agree the affair 
 would be exceedingly disagreeable? and must inevitably 
 result in the loss of a part of his prestige as a sensible 
 man. He would be made a laughing-stock of New York 
 and of the country at large, and the comic papers, always 
 on the lookout for incidents of the kind, would not fail 
 to make him the subject of caricature and would-be witty 
 remarks. Yes, certainly, the matter had its disagreeable 
 complications. 
 
 He passed a restless night, scarcely sleeping a wink, 
 tossing restlessly from one side of the bed to the other, 
 his mind filled with the thoughts excited by the scheme 
 of the horrible woman whom he had, in a moment of in- 
 fatuation, proposed to marry. For this act of weakness 
 he felt that he could never forgive himself ; and what, he 
 asked himself, must Bachel Meadows think when she 
 heard him make the humiliating confession that he had 
 asked the vulgar little butcheress to be his wife ? Gloss 
 it over as he might, he knew it would be a shock to her, 
 and that he must suffer in her estimation as a man of 
 sense, and, perhaps, even in her love. 
 
 He rose early, took a hasty breakfast, and then started 
 
484 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 out for a walk, hoping that the bracing morning air 
 might have the effect of cooling his brain and dissipating 
 the racking headache with which he had awakened. He 
 went out Connecticut Avenue as far as the street ex- 
 tended, and then across to Vermont Avenue, by which 
 he returned to Lafayette Square. Here he sat down on 
 one of the benches to rest, for he had walked briskly, 
 and felt a little healthy fatigue. All the time during his 
 walk he had been formulating in his mind the course of 
 procedure he should adopt relative to communicating 
 with Rachel. He felt that every moment of delay now 
 was agony to him, and that it was dangerous to allow 
 any time to be lost in meeting the attack that had been 
 made. Finally he had determined that he would go back 
 to his hotel and send a note to Mrs. Moultrie, requesting 
 her permission to call immediately on Rachel, and that 
 after he had arranged matters with her he would at once 
 return to New York and face the horrid woman who was 
 endeavoring to force him into marrying her. He rose 
 from the bench, and turned to retrace his steps toward 
 Vermont Avenue, when, face to face with him, and not 
 live feet from where he stood, was Rachel Meadows ! Her 
 first impulse seemed to be to turn and run away as fast as 
 she could ; but he had seen her and caught her eye, and es- 
 cape was impossible. She therefore continued her course, 
 and he, advancing, raised his hat and held out his hand. 
 " Good-morning, Tom !" she said, as she laid her 
 hand in his, while a smile and a blush appeared on her 
 face. " You are very kind to forgive me for my con- 
 duct toward you the other night. It was not because I 
 did not love you ; for I did, Tom, and I do now ; but 
 you were so impetuous and I was so taken by surprise 
 that I thought I thought" 
 
A MEETING. 485 
 
 "My darling!" interrupted the ecstatically bewil- 
 dered Burton, raising her little gloved hand to his lips. 
 " Forgive you ! It is I who need forgiveness. I acted 
 like a brute. When I received your letter I ought to 
 have gone at once to you, and then there would have been 
 no further trouble. Oh, my beauty ! My darling ! how 
 happy your honest, frank, and gracious speech makes me ! " 
 
 1 ' Then you love me as much as you did when you 
 told me that your gondola was waiting below ?" 
 
 " A thousand times more. But come ! Take a few 
 turns around the square with me. There isn't a soul in 
 it, and we can talk as much as we please." 
 
 Rachel readily acceded ; and when they had discoursed 
 sufficiently of their feelings for each other at least suffi- 
 ciently to get rid of the superabundance of sentiment 
 that crowded to their hearts and mouths Burton, in his 
 most diplomatic manner, but without sparing himself 
 and, indeed, he felt that he should appeal more strongly 
 to Rachel's tenderness for him if he did not spare him- 
 self began the story of his affair with Billy Bremen. 
 He told it so well, and so feelingly, and with so many 
 self-reproaches, that before he was half through Rachel 
 laid her hand on his arm. He gave her a look of love 
 and thankfulness, for he felt that the victory was won, 
 and that now he had Rachel as an ally in his crusade 
 against Billy. 
 
 " What a horrid woman !" said Rachel, when he had 
 finished. " Oh, Tom, don't think that I love you any 
 the less on her account ! I love you more, for it all 
 shows that you have a heart. It was music that first 
 brought you to me, dear." 
 
 u No, darling ; I loved you when I first saw you. It 
 wasn't that awful woman I loved, but her music, and 
 
486 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 that, for the moment, bewildered me. You're an angel !" 
 he continued, as he thought of her continued love for 
 him, notwithstanding his escapade with Billy. " And 
 now I've got to leave you and go back to New York to 
 fight that woman ! I think when she finds that I would 
 rather be thrown into the bottomless pit, ' where shall be 
 weeping and gnashing of teeth,' than marry her, she will 
 give up the attack." 
 
 " But you won't have to go back to New York !" ex- 
 claimed Rachel, as she thought of the knowledge of 
 Billy she had obtained on the beach at Fire Island. 
 " She's married, and I've seen her husband !" 
 
 " Married !" 
 
 " Yes ; there's no doubt of it ; I heard the conversation 
 between her and her husband about her designs on you." 
 Then Rachel told all she knew of Billy and her male 
 companion, who was doubtless her husband. 
 
 The whole matter was a revelation and a relief to the 
 Hon. Tom, who, of course, had nothing to fear from a 
 suit for breach of promise of marriage brought by a mar- 
 ried woman. 
 
 " Still," he said, " I think I had better return imme- 
 diately, armed with the information you have given me. 
 It will be sufficient to crush her at once, and all her 
 blackmailing operations with her." 
 
 " It would be bigamy, wouldn't it," said Rachel, " if 
 she was to marry you 2" 
 
 " Yes ; and that's a penitentiary offence. She won't 
 want to risk the State's prison when she is made aware 
 that I know she has a husband living." 
 
 " And such a horrid-looking man, too !" exclaimed 
 Rachel, surveying her Tom, with admiration depicted in 
 her pretty, soft brown eyes. 
 
A MEETING. 487 
 
 " Don't you think I'd better go home with you now, 
 and then we can sit and talk together, and I'll not leave 
 till the night train ?" 
 
 " How surprised Mrs. Moultrie will be !" exclaimed 
 Rachel. " She was going to write a note to you to-day 
 asking you to come round this evening, but I think this 
 is much better. It's so much less formal." 
 
 " I don't know about the less formality," said Burton, 
 ruefully. " It seems to me that there's more here than 
 there would have been if we had had Mrs. Moultrie's 
 parlor to ourselves. Still, it is delightful to meet you 
 here or anywhere, and to look at your sweet face and 
 hear your loving words. I was in the depths of misery 
 till 1 looked up and saw the sun that was to dispel all my 
 clouds." 
 
 So they talked as lovers have talked before since the 
 creation of the world, and as they will talk to its end. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 "ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL." 
 
 BURTON had never yet had an opportunity of kissing 
 Rachel, and the first thing he did on entering Mrs. 
 Moultrie's snug little parlor was to clasp her in his arms, 
 while he imprinted kiss after kiss on her lips, accom- 
 panied with many exclamations of her being his " dar- 
 ling," his " dear love," " the sweetest girl that ever was 
 born," and so on through the gamut of endearments that 
 all lovers know so well. Finally Rachel released herself. 
 
 " Now, sir," she said, with a smile that showed that 
 Burton's proceedings had not been displeasing to her, 
 u please to behave yourself for the rest of the morning, 
 at any rate. See how you've ruined iny hat ! This 
 feather is crushed into all kinds of shapes, and there isn't 
 a place in Washington where I can get another like it. " 
 
 " I'll send you a bird of paradise from New York as 
 soon as I get there, and in the mean time, as things about 
 the hat can't apparently be any worse than they are now, 
 I'll" 
 
 He did not finish the speech. Actions sometimes 
 speak louder than words. 
 
 " Oh, Tom !" exclaimed Rachel, as soon as she could 
 get a chance to speak, and throwing her arms around his 
 neck, " I think I am the happiest woman in all the 
 world, and you do love me, don't you ?" 
 
 " Love you !" exclaimed the love-intoxicated Tom, 
 
"ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL." 489 
 
 si I adore you ; I think you the sweetest, the prettiest, 
 the brightest little woman God ever made !" 
 
 " But 1 am not so little, Tom ; I am five feet five. 
 And you ? You're a splendid-looking man." 
 
 " I'm six feet two," said the Hon. Tom, self-com- 
 placently, "and," he added, " stout in proportion. " 
 
 "Did you ever fight?" inquired Rachel, looking at 
 him admiringly, and with the consciousness of possession 
 that a child has when it critically examines a new toy. 
 "I don't mean in battle. That I know you've done; 
 but I mean a fight with a man about anything." 
 
 " I knocked a man down once." 
 
 Did did it kill him ?" 
 
 "Well, no," said the Hon. Tom, stroking his mus- 
 tache, " it didn't exactly kill him, but it hurt him a good 
 deal." 
 
 " The horrid wretch ! What had he done ?' ' 
 
 " Well," answered the honorable gentleman, with 
 some little hesitation, " he was making a speech against 
 me when I ran for Congress, and he said I was a ' hum- 
 bug.' When he had finished I asked him what he 
 meant, and as his answer was not so satisfactory as I 
 thought it ought to have been, I knocked him down." 
 
 " I wonder you didn't kill him !" said Rachel, indig- 
 nantly. " Oh, Tom," she continued, somewhat illogi- 
 cally, but burying her face in his shirt-front, l i suppose 
 he had killed you ! What a miserable woman I should 
 have been !" 
 
 Of course Tom consoled her after his fashion, which 
 was a very pleasant fashion to both of them. 
 
 " Now I really must take off my things," said Rachel, 
 again releasing herself. " Good gracious !" she con- 
 tinued, as she picked up a letter from the table, 
 
490 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 ' ' here has this been lying all the time, and I never saw 
 it !" 
 
 " No, but you've seen something a good deal better. 
 You've seen the inside of my heart." 
 
 " Yes, dear ; but stop one moment," said Rachel, 
 who had begun to read her letter. " This is very won- 
 derful ! Shall I read it to you ? Oh, Tom, it looks as 
 if everything was coming right ! The horrid woman !" 
 
 " Yes, sit here on the sofa by me and read it. Then 
 perhaps I shall be able to understand it better than I do 
 from what you have let fall." 
 
 " It is from my friend, Miss Richardson, " said Rachel, 
 complying with Burton's request. " And perhaps you 
 won't have to go to New York, after all. The horrid, 
 horrid woman !" Then she read as follows : 
 
 " BABYLON, November 30, 1874. 
 
 " MY DEAR RACHEL : 1 write because I have impor- 
 tant matters to communicate to you, and which I think 
 will give you great satisfaction. "When I can do any- 
 thing to make you happy, my Beauty, I am always anx- 
 ious to do it at once. 
 
 " This morning, while I was busy on my letter to the 
 Woman's Journal, the servant brought me a card on 
 which was inscribed the name of ' Miss Billy Bremen. ' I 
 sent back word to say that I was engaged and couldn't 
 see the lady, but to my surprise she came up and entered 
 my room before 1 had time to lock the door in her face. 
 
 " 'I have come, Miss Richardson,' began the artful 
 little Beast, ' knowing that you are a friend of Miss 
 Meadows, to ask you to use your influence with her to 
 warn her against receiving the attentions of Mr. Tom 
 Burton. He is engaged to me, and if he does not fulfil 
 
" ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL." 491 
 
 his promise of marriage, I shall bring a suit against him 
 for damages. ' 
 
 " I listened, as you may suppose, knowing what I did, 
 with perfect astonishment to this declaration of the 
 brazen little huzzy. She must have perceived the look 
 of surprise on my face, for she said : 
 
 " * You seem to be overwhelmed, Miss Richardson. 1 
 have stated nothing to you but facts, and I have come 
 in the interest of Miss Meadows, whom I desire to spare 
 the shame of being mixed up in the affair. ' 
 
 " Then 1 broke out on her. 
 
 " i Yes, madam,' I said, ' I am astounded at your 
 effrontery in daring to come to me with such false pre- 
 tences in your heart. You bring a suit for breach of 
 promise ! You, a married woman ! Why didn't you 
 bring your husband, the Cuban, with you ? ' 
 
 " ' I'm not married ! ' she exclaimed. ' It's a false- 
 hood.' 
 
 " ' You are married,' I said, with as much calmness as 
 I could command, though I was dying to take the little 
 Beast by the shoulders and put her out of the room, 
 6 for I saw you at Fire Island walking with him, and 
 heard him call you his wife, and you trying to get him 
 to promise to go away. How much did you give him to 
 go in order that you might carry out more effectually 
 your schemes against Mr. Burton ? Was it ten thousand 
 dollars ? It was not enough. Give him more, and try 
 your low wiles on some other man. Him you will never 
 get, for lie's going to marry Miss Meadows. ' 
 
 " I thought 1 might safely venture to make this last 
 statement." 
 
 The reading of the letter was interrupted for a moment 
 by the Hon. Tom after his usual method. 
 
492 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " i Well,' continued Rachel, reading, ' I wish you 
 could have seen the effect produced by my words. She 
 collapsed at once. Her face became as purple as a piece 
 of pickled cabbage, and I thought she was going to have 
 a fit. She didn't, however, but she broke down into a 
 paroxysm of hysterical sobbing part of which I am sure 
 was intentional exaggeration and then declared that she 
 would give up all her horrid plots provided I would 
 keep quiet about my information. ' 
 
 " I insisted, however, that you and Mr. Burton should 
 be told, and that as after putting you on your guard 
 it was none of my business, the affair, so far as I was con- 
 cerned, should go no farther. I added, however, that as to 
 the giving up of her nefarious designs, she might do as she 
 pleased, and that I supposed she was not going to endeavor 
 to force a marriage which, if she succeeded in obtaining, 
 would lead to her incarceration in Sing Sing for bigamy. 
 
 u Then she left me ; but in the afternoon, on her way 
 back to New York, she stopped at the "Watson House 
 to get dinner, and took the occasion to introduce me to 
 her husband. He is bad enough, but he is better than 
 she is, as I said when I first saw them together. She 
 has concluded, so she said, to live with her husband, and 
 to have him take charge of her abattoir. He doesn't 
 keep a cigar-shop in the Bowery, neither is he the door- 
 keeper of a gambling-saloon. He is something between 
 both that is, he is a billiard-marker, but not such a 
 bad fellow as you might take him to be from what you 
 know of him. He has better manners than she has, and 
 fully as much, if not more, principle. So, my dear child, 
 the Senora Billy Mendez it ought to be Mendax passes 
 out of your life, and the story of ' Beauty and the Beast ' 
 conies to its end. 
 
" ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL." 493 
 
 " Doubtless you are happy now, as you deserve to be. 
 1 shall soon be an old woman, as I am now an old maid, 
 but 1 hope to live long enough to see you grow in happi- 
 ness and in every good and perfect gift. Oh, my dar- 
 ling, if but 1 am wandering from my subject. Good- 
 by. Give my love to 1 scarcely know yet what to call 
 him, and I shall therefore give him the name you gave 
 him, ' dear Tom ! ' 
 
 (" You angel !" exclaimed the honorable gentleman, 
 kissing the tears from Rachel's eyes. " Wiiat a brute 
 I've been.") 
 
 " And think of me always," read Rachel, sobbing 
 now with the excess of her emotion, " as your 
 " Devoted friend, 
 
 ' ' AMELIA RICHARDSON. ' ' 
 
 " Oh, how good she is !' ' exclaimed, Rachel. " When 
 she's a friend she is wholly one. And now," she added, 
 " you won't have to go to New York." 
 
 " No, dear ; I shall stay here, if only to beg you to fix 
 the day for our marriage, and to make it as early as 
 possible." 
 
 " Oh, but 1 anr not ready, and mamma isn't here, 
 and she doesn't even know anything about you. Be- 
 sides, I ought to be married at home. It isn't respect- 
 able for a girl to be married at a place she's only visiting." 
 
 " Be married wherever you please, my angel, only so 
 that it's before the 20th of December. Surely, three 
 weeks are enough for preparations, and you can write to 
 your mother to-night." 
 
 " 1 don't know," rejoined Rachel. " I shall have to 
 talk it over with Mrs. Moultrie ; you know I'm under 
 her care now. She's responsible for me." 
 
494 A STRONG -MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 " Oh, I am ?" exclaimed Theodora, who, entering the 
 room at the moment, had heard these last words. i c And 
 this is the way you impose burdens on me. Well, sir," 
 turning to Burton, with an assumed air of severity, 
 " what do you mean by coming here before you were 
 invited?" 
 
 " If you please, ma'am," said Burton, affecting great 
 alarm, " 1 didn't come ; I was fetched." 
 
 " Oh, you were ' fotched ! ' By which barbarous ex- 
 pression I suppose you mean that some one brought 
 you?" 
 
 " Yes, ma'am, please ma'am," said Burton, trem- 
 bling like an aspen leaf, as though frightened out of his 
 wits. 
 
 " And so, like another man, when accused of a crime, 
 you lay it on some one else ? A woman, I suppose, as 
 he did ? And may I ask," as Burton nodded his head in 
 assent, " who was the woman that brought you here ?" 
 
 Burton pointed his finger at Rachel, who was nearly 
 exploding with the effort to keep from laughing, and at 
 this gesture of her lover, accompanied as it was with the 
 most ludicrous expression of terror on his face, could con- 
 tain herself no longer, but made the room ring with her 
 merry peals. 
 
 li I found him, Mrs. Moultrie," she managed at last 
 to say, " sitting on a bench in Lafayette Square, and 
 looking such a pitiable object, that for common human- 
 ity's sake I took compassion on him." 
 
 " So I suppose you have made up all your differ- 
 ences," said Theodora, smiling, " and that my services 
 are no longer needed ?" 
 
 66 But, most gracious lady, they are needed now more 
 than ever," said Burton. " That young woman, with 
 
"ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL." 495 
 
 the natural perversity of young women, wants to marry 
 me." 
 
 "Oh, Tom," cried Rachel, laughingly, "what an 
 awfully vain fellow you are ! Do all young women want 
 to marry you ?' ' 
 
 " Don't interrupt the court, please. As I was saying, 
 that young woman, although she wants to marry me, yet, 
 with the natural perversity of young women, declares 
 that she requires time, and talks about mothers in New 
 York, and not being ready, and all that sort of thing, as 
 if any one of them, or all put together, could be set up 
 against the awful fact that I'm going to Mexico on the 
 twentieth of next month. Now, most inestimable and 
 highly magnificent sovereign, won't you, in the exercise 
 of your high mightiness, do what Providence, perhaps 
 from oversight, seems to have neglected, put a little of 
 the milk of common-sense into her noddle, and tell her 
 that she must be ready by the nineteenth at farthest, for 
 that otherwise an ambassador will be spoiled ? For I 
 do most solemnly declare that unless she marries me be- 
 fore the twentieth I will never set foot out of this coun- 
 try, and then the Mexican affair will all go to pot." 
 
 " It has been determined to-day," answered Theodora, 
 " that Lalage and Mr. Tyscovus are to be married on 
 the eighteenth. Now, Mr. Burton, if you will kindly 
 take yourself off and allow Miss Meadows and myself to 
 talk the matter over, I'll see what I can do for you." 
 
 " I will go instantly. I leave my cause in your hands, 
 conscious that I have an advocate capable of softening 
 the most obdurate heart. Good-by," he continued, 
 shaking them each by the hand. " I'll look in again in 
 half an hour. ' ' 
 
 " Half an hour !" exclaimed Theodora. " Was there 
 
496 A STKONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 ever such a man ! Do you think that such an important 
 matter can be settled in half an hour ? Come back to 
 dinner at seven, and then, as the advertisements say, 
 ' you may hear of something to your advantage.' " 
 
 He laughed and left the room. Need it be said that 
 Theodora argued his cause so eloquently that the " ob- 
 durate heart " was mollified, and that when he came to 
 dinner it was settled that there should be a double mar- 
 riage in old St. John's Church on the eighteenth, and a 
 quiet wedding-breakfast afterward at Mrs. Moul trie's 
 Washington home. In other respects it was decided, as 
 more in accordance with the wishes of the parties most 
 concerned, that there should be no magnificence. 
 
 Congress had met, Moultrie had been placed on sev- 
 eral important committees, chief among them being that 
 on " Ways and Means." He soon found, however, that 
 it was impossible to effect any important modification of 
 the tariff, even in the one matter of reducing the duties 
 on raw materials. He prepared a bill, however, provid- 
 ing for such reductions, but it went to the committee, 
 and then it was killed, only one member besides himself 
 voting in its favor. The Hon. Tom was, however, more 
 successful with his bill. He had succeeded in getting a 
 prominent member to adopt a draft, which he had sub- 
 mitted, providing for a restoration of the duty on plate- 
 glass to its previous rate. Moultrie did not oppose this 
 measure, for he was intelligent enough to perceive that 
 in the present condition of the industry it was wise to 
 afford it protection. The bill was reported favorably by 
 the committee, and passed the House among the first 
 measures acted upon by that body. 
 
 The Moultries had moved into their house. Rachel 
 had made a trip to New York, escorted by the Hon. 
 
" ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL." 497 
 
 Tom, and had returned, bringing her mother with her, 
 at Theodora's request, and all the paraphernalia she con- 
 sidered necessary for her wedding and for use during 
 her anticipated absence in Mexico. Miss Richardson 
 had announced her intention of being present, and had 
 been invited to stay with the Moultries. Burton had 
 given his lecture in Boston with great eclat. 
 
 Tyscovus had made one speech in the House, and it 
 had attracted attention as containing the most practical 
 suggestions relative to the Indian question that had yet 
 been made. He advocated the domiciliation and educa- 
 tion of the Indians, and the prohibition of the alienation 
 of the land that each head of a family was to receive in 
 fee-simple, and in an amount large enough in any case 
 proportioned to the number of his children. They 
 were also to be taught trades, so that they would not be 
 altogether an agricultural population. 
 
 After the wedding he and his wife were to reside 
 with the Moultries till his return, some time in the sum- 
 mer, to the elegant home he had built on the butte, which 
 had become so dear to them both. His political pros- 
 pects were excellent. It was quite certain that Colorado 
 would be admitted into the Union in the course of a 
 couple of years, and that he would be one of the first 
 senators from the new State. 
 
 Lai's entrance into "Washington society had caused 
 such a flutter among young army and navy officers and 
 diplomatic functionaries, that the like of it had never 
 before been witnessed in the Capital. Some points in 
 her personal history had gotten out, and thus served to 
 make her still further the object of attention. Her 
 beauty was considered to be somewhat phenomenal, even 
 in that city of beautiful women, and when she visited 
 
498 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 the Houses of Congress, as she did with Theodora nearly 
 every day, she was at once surrounded by a circle of 
 young and old honorable senators and representatives, 
 with a sprinkling of diplomatists, who seemed to be 
 spellbound by her beauty and vivacity. Not even the 
 knowledge of the fact that she was engaged to be mar- 
 ried served to keep them away. It was an education in 
 aesthetics to look at her. 
 
 Tyscovus found that his position in Washington society 
 was well assured, mainly by the knowledge which several 
 high representatives of European governments had of 
 him and of his antecedents. Thus the Russian, the Ger- 
 man, the Austrian, and the British ministers were well 
 acquainted with his name and with the important place 
 that his family had occupied in the history of Poland. 
 Although he was well known to be in favor of the 
 nationalization of Poland, the relations between him and 
 the Russian Government were friendly enough, and they 
 were put upon a still better footing when it became 
 known that he was about to wed a daughter of an old 
 and distinguished Polish house. 
 
 Theodora had made her mark in Washington life. 
 She had had several dinners and receptions. At the 
 former some of the most remarkable men and women 
 of the day persons distinguished for their cleverness in 
 some one or more directions and the latter were crowded 
 by the best of those people living at the Capital who 
 delight in such affairs. 
 
 Miss Richardson arrived from New York the day be- 
 fore the double wedding was to take place. Her play 
 had had several rehearsals, and it was announced for pro- 
 duction early in January. Her views relative to woman's 
 rights had not undergone any change, but she was be- 
 
" ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL." 499 
 
 ginning to lose faith in her sex, so far as their desire for 
 additional rights was concerned. She had heen much 
 struck by a little speech that Moultrie had made at din- 
 ner, when the subject had been introduced by her, in the 
 course of which she had made the remark that she was 
 beginning, to despair of her sex. 
 
 " Depend upon it," he said, " that the woman 's-rights 
 movement is all wrong, so far as it places any blame on 
 man for the lack of facilities for educating women that 
 undoubtedly exists. The reproach rests with women. 
 They do not want superior education as a sex. When 
 they do they will get it, for then they will take sufficient 
 interest in the matter to do something more than talk 
 about being oppressed by man. There are plenty of 
 rich women in the world. There are women in New 
 York wealthy enough to found a complete university, 
 and scarcely miss the money. Why don't they do it ? 
 Because they don't care whether women have higher 
 education or not. There have been many female sover- 
 eigns in all parts of the civilized world. Did any one 
 ever hear of a university for women being founded by 
 them ? Now, it seems to me that instead of denouncing 
 men for not changing the system of education that they 
 have found by experience is best for men, so as to take 
 women into their colleges and universities, they should 
 try to lead the rich women up to the proper point. 
 Providence helps those who help themselves. When 
 women are in earnest in this matter, they will have all 
 the educational facilities they need, just as when they 
 want to vote and hold public offices they will do so. As 
 a matter of fact, they don't want higher education, and 
 they don't want to vote." 
 
 " I am really afraid you are right," said Miss Richard- 
 
500 A STRONG-MINDED WOMAN. 
 
 son. " It seems impossible to arouse sufficient enthu- 
 siasm in the sex to inaugurate a determined contest. 
 The great mass of women are indifferent. And then 
 even the best workers, like Mrs. Moultrie and Rachel, 
 desert the cause when " 
 
 " Oh, Miss Richardson," exclaimed Theodora, " don't 
 place me, please, among those who have proved faith- 
 less." She exchanged glances with Moultrie as she 
 spoke. 
 
 " Certainly, my dear," he said, as though in answer 
 to an inquiring look. 
 
 " Tell Mary," said Theodora, addressing Francois, 
 " to go to my boudoir and bring me a letter that she will 
 find on the desk." 
 
 In a few moments the letter was placed in Theodora's 
 hands. 
 
 " It is addressed to you, Miss Richardson," said Theo- 
 dora. " I had intended to give it to you to-morrow, 
 when our two girls are to be married, and I am afraid 
 you will find it dated the eighteenth. That is a little 
 fiction excusable under the circumstances, for the letter 
 was written several days ago." 
 
 Miss Richardson took it. " Shall I read it ?" she said. 
 
 " Yes ; there are no strangers among us ; and perhaps 
 our' friends will excuse you." 
 
 It was very short. It merely announced that Theo- 
 dora Moultrie intended to give to a university for the 
 education of women the sum of two hundred and fifty 
 thousand dollars, whenever an act of incorporation was 
 obtained ; and in five years to give a like sum additional 
 thereto, provided if within that period five hundred 
 thousand dollars should have been subscribed by others. 
 
 " You will have something to do," said Theodora, as 
 
" ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL." 501 
 
 the letter dropped from Miss Richardson's hands and 
 that lady looked the picture of surprised delight " in 
 getting the half million. I think we shall find out now 
 whether women care for higher education or not." 
 
 " I am unable to thank you," murmured Miss Rich- 
 ardson, scarcely above her breath. " My heart is too 
 full, but you know all I would say. Oh, if there were 
 more like you, how different the position of women would 
 be!" 
 
 " Yes, it might be different, but I am not sure that it 
 would be better. There is such a thing as over-education 
 for women as well as for men, and the point is sooner 
 reached with us than with the other sex. However, 1 
 should like to try the experiment on a small scale. I 
 make, as you see, but two conditions, and that is that 
 the instruction shall be free, and that the university shall 
 not bear the name of any living person." 
 
 And then the 18th of December came. The little 
 church was crowded. There were no bridesmaids. The 
 two grooms, each with his best man Count Stephen 
 Niemcewicz, who had come to Washington to pass the 
 winter, and who was an old friend, with Tyscovus ; and 
 Brevet Major- General James Madison Rowley, of the 
 United States Army, with Burton. The bridal party en- 
 tered the church at eleven o'clock precisely to the strains 
 of the wedding march of Lohengrin Lai, the loveliest 
 woman so every one said that had ever been inside of 
 that church, leaning on the arm of her father, and followed 
 by her mother and Dr. Willis, who had come all the way 
 from Hellbender to be present. Then came Rachel, 
 scarcely less beautiful than Lai, escorted by her uncle, 
 Professor Meadows, of the Naval Academy, who was to 
 give the bride away, and followed by her mother and 
 
502 A STRONG-MIKDED WOMAN. 
 
 Miss Richardson. The two grooms advanced to meet the 
 procession, and then the party stood in front of the chan- 
 cel, and the impressive service that was to unite them 
 began. 
 
 A more distinguished assemblage it would have been 
 difficult to get together. The President, and most of the 
 members of the Cabinet ; senators, representatives, nearly 
 the whole of the diplomatic corps, army and navy offi- 
 cers, men and women distinguished in social, scientific, 
 literary, and artistic life, were there. Every one within 
 hearing wished to see how Eachel would reply to the 
 question in regard to her obedience to her future hus- 
 band ; but there was no evasion, no shunning of the 
 words "I will." Her freedom had gone, her slavery 
 had begun ; she had become the bond- woman of a man. 
 So thought two or three advanced agitators. As to 
 Rachel, she was quite sure that the happiness of her life 
 was linked with that of the man who stood by her side, 
 and who had promised to love, to cherish, and to cleave 
 unto her so long as they both should live. She had all 
 the rights she wanted. 
 
 And Lai. You may be sure, reader, that there was no 
 faltering on her part. Her lover to her was almost a 
 god. What she was she owed to him more than to any 
 one else in all the world, and yet the greater part of his 
 influence had been of that quiet, passive, though not less 
 powerful kind that every good man exerts upon those 
 with whom he is thrown into association. 
 
 The double ceremony was over ; the organ pealed 
 forth a gorgeous melody ; friends rushed forward with 
 their congratulations, eager to be among the first to say 
 " Mrs. Tyscovus" and u Mrs. Burton." The eyes of 
 both brides as are the eyes of most brides upon such 
 
" ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL." 503 
 
 occasions were filled with tears, and as they walked out 
 of the church, leaning on the arms of their respective 
 husbands, the curiously impertinent pressed forward to 
 catch a glimpse of their faces. Then they entered the 
 two carriages that were to take them to Moultrie's to 
 breakfast, to which a goodly company had been invited. 
 After that they were going to New York in a special 
 train. 
 
 As the first carriage, containing Tyscovus and his wife, 
 was driven rapidly out of the crowd that had assembled 
 about the church, their eyes met. Neither spoke a word, 
 but she took her husband's hand and raised it to her lips. 
 
 " God bless you, my darling !" said the Hon. Tom, 
 as his carriage got out of the crowd. " May you never 
 regret this day. You're not sorry you married me, are 
 you, my Beauty ?" 
 
 " Not yet, Tom, dear," said Mrs. Burton, as she laid 
 her head on his shoulder, " and I don't believe 1 ever 
 shall be, even if I live a thousand years. But my lec- 
 tures ' On the Position of Woman Outside Christianity,' 
 they will never be begun, will they ?" 
 
 " Well, not in that form exactly, my dear little wife, 
 but doubtless you'll lecture me sometimes." 
 
 THE END. / 
 
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