to work, and the now common custom of competing outside one's own bailiwick was still in embryo. Mr. Pierce's design was bold and sumptuous. His brother-in-law stated oracular

dently hoping thereby to be both picturesque and traditional. The result, even on paper, was too bold for some of his admirers. The chairman w

ious. It was graceful, appropriate, and artistic; entirely in harmony with religious associations, yet agreeably different from every day sanctuaries. The choice lay between his and that presented by

have to ask what it is. It'll speak for itself. Mr. Cass is a solid busine

emed a dandy. He was a slim young man with a delicate, sensitive face and intelligent brown eyes. He looked eager and interesting. In his case the almost gaunt American physiognomy was softened by a suggestion of poetic impulses. Yet the heritage of nervous energy was apparent. His appearance conveyed the impression of q

tset his eyes seemed to be fastened on her as though his words were intended for

be happy with a g

nscious that she had been starving for lack of intellectual companionship, and that he was the sort

of the decision, and then elaborately introduced to the members. In shaking hands with him, Selma experienced a shade of embarrassment. It was plain that his words to her, spoken with a low bow-"I am very much gratified that my work pleases you" conveyed a more spiritual significance than was contained in his thanks to the others. Still he seemed more at his ease

tter acquainted with this young man whose attitude toward her was that of respectful admiration. To have a strange young man to dine off-hand struck her as novel. She had a general conviction that it would seem to Lewis closely allied to light conduct, and that only foreigners or frivolous people let

new church is completed, so I shall hope to have the opportunity to meet you occasionally. It will be necessa

o away im

by the arrangements which I must m

like to see me, I liv

refully noted the address. "Mrs. Babcock, 25 Onslow Avenue. I shall make

enunciation sympathetically fluent. She said to herself that she would give him afterno

as a pause in their sympathetic interchange of soci

whom we were speaking, who seem to be ashamed of their own institutions, and who ape foreign manners and customs. I fancy she would illustrate what I was saying just now as to the

answering your inquiry; it is in the nature of a soliloquy; it is an airing of thoughts and doubts which have been harassing me for a fortnight-ever since I knew Mrs. Babcock. Really, Mr. Littleton, I can tell you very little about her. She is a new-comer on the horizon of Benham; she has been married very recently; I believe she has taught school and that she was brought up not far from here. She is as proud as Lucifer and sometimes as beautiful; she is profoundly serious and-and apparently very ignorant.

ch a complex subject. She sounds interesting, and my cu

education, I should judge. He is manifestly her inferior in half a do

al on the part of each. Wilbur had determined to become an architect. Pauline, early interested in the dogma that woman must no longer be barred from intellectual companionship with man, had sought to cultivate herself intelligently without sacrificing her brother's domestic comfort. She had succeeded. Their home in New York, despite its small dimensions and frugal hospitality, was already a favorite resort of a little group of professional people with busy brains and light purses. Wilbur was in the throes of early progress. He had no relatives or influential friends to give him busin

aspirations-often their guide. So pure and exacting was his ideal that while alive to the value of coyness and coquetry as elements of feminine attraction for others, Wilbur had chosen to regard the maiden of his faith as too serious a spirit to condescend to such vanities; and from a similar vein of appreciation he was prone to think of her as unadorned, or rather untarnished, by the gewgaws of fashionable dressmaking and millinery. His first sight of Selma had made him conscious that here was a face not unlike what he had hoped to encounter some day, and he had instinctively felt her to be sympathetic. He was even conscious of disappointment when he heard her addressed as Mrs. Babcock. Evidently she was a fr

which the soul must lose its fineness. He himself was seeking to show that beauty, in external material expression, was not merely consistent with strong ideals but requisite to their fit presentment. He recognized too that the various and variegated departures from the monotonous homely pattern of the every-day American house, which were evident in each live town, were but so many indicators that the nation was beginning to realize the truth of this. His battle was with the designers and builders who were guiding falsely and flamboyantly, not with the deceived victims, nor with those who were still satisfied merely to look inwardly, and ignored form and color. Hence he would have been able to behold the Babcocks' iron stag without rancor had the animal still o

ion came from what was left unsaid-from the silent recognition by him that she was worthy to share his best thoughts and was herself a serious worker in the struggle of life. No graceful but galling attitude of superiority, no polite indifference to her soul-hunger, no disposition to criticise. And yet he was no less voluble, clever, and spirited than Mrs. Taylor. She listened with wrapt interest to his easy talk, which was ever grave in tone, despite his pleasant sallies. He spoke of Benham wi

e guessed it. Duties even more interesting claim you now, but it is easy to perceive t

rilling with the import of all he had told her-with his allusions to the intellectual and ethical movemen

hool when you married

es

e that, if

ther. It is a small country town

wordless teachers. I envy you, for they give one time to think-to expand. I have known only city life mys

Some day I shall. Just now I hav

ead and whistle resounded in the hall and

errupted, but she divined tha

r voice to utter with a sugared dignity w

the parlo

ttleton blithely. "A happy home is preferabl

door, which stood ajar, st

n, Lewis. The archite

ening of his brow, Babcock added, "I set you down at first as one of those lightn

th a laugh. "In my business a man can't solicit orde

thinks a lot of your draw

ing to your wife, Mr. Babcock, that Benham has a fine future

When we moved into this house a year ago looking through that window we were at the jumping-off place; now you see houses cropping up in e

the greatness of Benham. There was a clumsy method too in this optimistic garrulity, for at the close he referred with some pride to his own business career

of our American life. That couple typifies the elements of greatness in our every-day people. At first blush the husband's rough and material, but he's shrewd and enterprising and vigorous-the bread winner. He's enormously proud of her, and he has reason to be, for she is a constant stimulus to higher things. Little by little, and without his knowing it, perhaps, she will s

e not fai

I how fa

flirt with a married woman savored to him of things un-American and unworthy, and Littleton had much too healthy a