A Little Journey in the World

were so accustomed to her; we had known her so long, we had known her always. We had never analyzed our admiration of her. She had so many qualit

ng maturing, suddenly glow in an effect which we call beauty. It cannot be that women do not have a consciousness of it, perhaps of the instant of it

note of limit, and presently recession. In the rounded, exquisite lines of her figure there was the promise of that ineffable fullness and delicacy of womanhood which all the world raves about and destroys and mourns

forehead in the fashion of the time. She had a way of carrying her head, of throwing it back at times, that was not exactly imperious, and conveyed the impression of spirit rather than of mere vivacity. These details seem to me all inadequate and misleading, for the attraction of the face that made it interesting is still undefined. I hesitate to say that there was a dimple near the corner of her mouth that revealed itself when she smiled lest this shall seem mere prettiness, but it may have been the keynote of her face. I only knew there was something about it that won the heart, as a too conscious or asserti

ways swore that Washington coveted-a miniature painted by a wandering artist of the day, which entirely justifies the French officer in his abandonment of the trade of a soldier. Such is man in his best estate. A charming face can make him campaign and fight and slay like a demon, can make a coward of him, can fill him with ambition to win the world, and can tame him into the domesticity of a drawing-room cat. There is this noble capacity in man to respond to the divinest thing visible to him in this world. Etienne Debree became

been reared by a maiden aunt, with whom she still lived. The combined fortunes of both required economy, and after Margaret had passed her school course she added to their resources by teaching in a public school. I remember that she taught history, following, I suppose, the

effect which women have, slightly changed the lights. Perhaps Margaret's complexion or her black dress made this readjus

hink of her as sitting in the glare of disenchanting sunlight as indifferent to the exposure as a man would be. I know in a general way that a sunset light induces one kind of talk and noonday light another, and I have learned that talk always brightens up with the addition of a fresh crackling stick to the fire. I shouldn't have known how to change the lights for Margaret, although I think I h

d Margaret, as she took a chair near him. "Were you trying

Fairchild, in his

ston, and the first thing I went to see was the Monument. It struck me as so odd,

sing. He who loses his life shall find it. If the red slayer thinks he slays he is mistaken. You know

w o

"that we have inherited from the English

is more serious, Miss Debree. What I wanted to ask you was whether you think th

don't any more understand you than I comprehend the w

of worship, making the churches sort of good-will charitable

ing Christian

, now they have got hold of it, or are getting hold of it, and are discontented with being women,

e it any worse t

clubs of Christian Endeavor if that is the name, associations of young boys and girls who go about visiting other like clubs in a sufficiently hilarious m

w taking the vigor out of affairs, making even the church a soft, purring af

emini

utal enough; it had better t

l not be more

I fancy you are altogether skeptical abo

or rather, I should say,

my doubts about education as a panacea. I've noticed that girls with only a smattering-an

he giving of information without training, as

the imagination without a heavy bal

n entirely. Only I cannot see how teaching women what men know is going to give them any less principle than men have. It has seemed

ou want, Marga

go to Congress, or be a sheriff, or a lawyer, or a locomotive engineer. I want the freedom of my own being, to be interested in everything i

treated as a woman?"

nk I want to banish ro

akes society any better than an industrial ant-hill is the lov

rising to go, "having got

our husband home before he deni

ill alert and eager for information, regarded her with growing interest. It came into my mind as odd that, being s

d you mind telling me whether the movemen

weariness. "I'm tired of all the talk about it. I wish men and women, every soul

y vote about schools, a

any kind of conventio

No.

ht to, you know. I should like to ask you one q

be most

few English women

ammered, reddening. "Perhaps-perha

"It's very nice of you to say that. I can begin to s

d still more, and Mar

ret had made an impression on our visitor, a

asked my wife, "that Miss Debree

e of our schools. I don't th

ding alway

definite intentions, but I ne

nd interesting, don't y

ree is one of

all American women were

Mr. Lyon looked as if he couldn

able raggedness of deciduous vines, it had an air of refinement, a promise which the cheerful interior more than fulfilled. Margaret's parting word to my wife the night before had been that she thought her

ou looked the interlacing branches and twigs of the trees made a delicate lace-work, the sky was gray-blue, and the low-sailing sun had just enough heat to evoke moisture from the frosty ground and suffuse the at

r, like Margaret, but taller, with soft brown eyes and hair streaked with gray, which, sweeping plainly aside from her forehead in a fashion then antiquated, contrasted finely with the flush of pink in her cheeks. This flush did not suggest youth, but rather ripeness, the tone that comes with the lines made in the face by gentle acceptance of the inevitable in life. In her quiet and self-possessed manner there was a little note of graceful timidity, not perhaps noticeable in itself, but in contrast with that unmistaka

she was always friendly and sympathetic to the trouble of others, and helpful in an undemonstrative way. If she herself had a secret feeling that her life was a failure, it never impressed her friends so, it was so even, and full of good offices and quiet enjoyment. Heaven only knows, however, the pathos of this apparently undisturbed life. For did a woman ever live

read without injury to herself the passionate and the pantheistic novels of the young women who have come forward in these days of emancipation to teach their grandmothers a new basis of morality, and to render meaningless all the consoling epi

h," she said, in answer to Mr.

vesp

ur evening meetings, you know,

not belong t

onial times," she replied, with a little smile of a

ligion founded o

faith of her fathers," replied Miss Forsythe, l

out that; I mean about the posi

ancy an Englishman would have to be born again,

m that women should lead and not follow in conversation. At any rate, it was an experience that put him at his ease. Miss Forsythe was a great

ladstone's conduct with regard to E

have been better for Gordon if he had tru

dstone's humanity tha

a?" asked Mr. Lyon, w

ot of Mr. Gladstone, who seems always seeking the b

e. He is broad enough. You know we consider him a rhetorical ph

moment, "that party spirit ran as high in En

omparison of English and American politics, mainly with reference to th

ned her color, and given her a glowing expression which her face had not the night before,

y comes

d steppi

tening

st eyes

itan undemonstrativeness, and as if

spers if I had known," said Mr. L

ld seems in a vesper mood," she added, looking out

lk was an impertinence. The callers rose to go, with an

n, as they walked homeward, "