nd has forfeited her
place in our set by her conduct; why, Jack, you don't know how she is
criticized by our friends or you would not suggest such a thing."

He arose with a shrug of his shoulders. Fortunately, Mrs. Kimball
appeared at this moment and they motored to the Plaza for luncheon,
which was a somewhat formal and unsatisfactory affair, in spite of all
his efforts to make it otherwise. The young man could not but feel that
Mrs. Kimball shared her daughter's views--was, in fact, their
author--and that in the eyes of his future mother-in-law he had been
guilty of a breach of etiquette far more serious than an infraction of
the moral law. He left them with the understanding that he would
accompany them to the theatre in the evening.

CHAPTER VII

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SURGERY

The days of a militant suffragette are full to overflowing, and Silvia
Holland was not able to see Mrs. Bell and her little daughter early the
following morning as she had planned. It must have been well toward the
middle of the afternoon when she entered the modest apartment, and going
to the bed, visible in the alcove, kissed the child and put a great,
dewy bunch of violets in her hand. She took them, and hugged them tight
in her thin little arms, while her eyes looked into Silvia's
wonderingly, and her mother turned away to hide the sudden tears.

The apartment was well though not expensively furnished, and both mother
and child had the unmistakable air of good birth and refinement. As
Silvia glanced at Mrs. Bell she was conscious of something in her face
at once baffling and appealing. She had the indefinable look of one who
dwells with a sorrow for which there is no cure.

"Are you quite sure there is nothing I can do for either of you to-day?"
Silvia asked, a trifle diffidently, for she did not want to offend by
overzeal.

"You and Dr. Earl have placed us under so many obligations that we can
never hope to repay them," Mrs. Bell said quietly. "If I do not speak
more freely of what I feel, it is because I have no words for its
expression."

"Don't speak or think of obligations," Silvia said lightly, "and here is
my card, so that if at any time I might be of service to you I hope you
will not hesitate to call on me. I live at the Whittier Studios." The
card which she gave Mrs. Bell read:

SILVIA HOLLAND,
Attorney and Counsellor-at-Law,
City Investm