king about one's position. In excess it may
be very disagreeable, but when it is combined with genuine good-nature
and no self-assertion, it is attractive. And although American women
like a man who is aggressive towards the world and combative, there is
the delight of novelty in one who has leisure to be agreeable, leisure
for them, and who seems to their imagination to have a larger range in
life than those who are driven by business--one able to offer the peace
and security of something attained.

There had been several little neighborhood entertainments, dinners at
the Morgans' and at Mrs. Fletcher's, and an evening cup of tea at Miss
Forsythe's. In fact Margaret and Mr. Lyon had been thrown much together.
He had accompanied her to vespers, and they had taken a wintry walk
or two together before the snow came. My wife had not managed it--she
assured me of that; but she had not felt authorized to interfere; and
she had visited the public library and looked into the British Peerage.
Men were so suspicious. Margaret was quite able to take care of herself.
I admitted that, but I suggested that the Englishman was a stranger in
a strange land, that he was far from home, and had perhaps a weakened
sense of those powerful social influences which must, after all, control
him in the end. The only response to this was, "I think, dear, you'd
better wrap him up in cotton and send him back to his family."

Among her other activities Margaret was interested in a mission school
in the city, to which she devoted an occasional evening and Sunday
afternoons. This was a new surprise for Mr. Lyon. Was this also a part
of the restlessness of American life? At Mrs. Howe's german the other
evening the girl had seemed wholly absorbed in dress, and the gayety of
the serious formality of the occasion, feeling the responsibility of
it scarcely less than the "leader." Yet her mind was evidently much
occupied with the "condition of women," and she taught in a public
school. He could not at all make it out. Was she any more serious about
the german than about the mission school? It seemed odd at her age
to take life so seriously. And was she serious in all her various
occupations, or only experimenting? There was a certain mocking humor in
the girl that puzzled the Englishman still more.

"I have not seen much of your life," he said one night to Mr.
Morgan; "but aren't most American women a little restless, seeking an
occupation?"

"Perhaps t