to you."

"Thanks, Harry! It is likely we may voluntarily take them into
consideration. This is an age of majorities. If we accomplish the
suffrage, women will have a majority on all questions; and the
reduction of man becomes a mere matter of time. I was going to
remark, that another of my clubs occupies itself with the criticism of
the highest poets of the age."

"Who are they?" asked Adriana.

"That is the point we have been arguing all last winter. We have had
difficulties. Mrs. Johnstone Miller raised objections to the
consideration of any but American poets; and it took two months'
sittings to settle that question. You would be astonished at the
strength of some people's prejudices!" ejaculated Rose, holding up her
pretty hands to emphasize her own astonishment.

"Not at all," answered Harry. "They call their prejudices 'principles,'
and then, of course, they cannot be decently relinquished."

"Mrs. Johnstone Miller is a very superior woman. It is a great thing
to hear her criticise Longfellow, Whittier, Eugene Field, Will
Carlton, and the rest. I am sure she believes that she could easily
excel each in their own department, if she were not prevented by her
high-bred exclusiveness."

"Not unlikely, Rose; there is no impertinence like the impertinence of
mediocrity."

"_Mediocrity!_ Why, Harry, Mrs. Johnstone Miller is worth all of three
million dollars, and it is very good of her to interest herself about
literature at all." And with these words Mrs. Filmer rose, and Harry
gave her his arm, and the little party strolled slowly round the
piazzas, and so through the blue _portieres_ into the drawing-room.
And as Adriana did so, she had a vivid memory of Harry Filmer as she
first saw him, standing between the pale draperies. They had
emphasized his black hair and eyes and garments very distinctly; for
the young man was physically "dark," even the vivid coloring of his
face being laid upon a skin more brown than white.

Mrs. Filmer made herself comfortable in the easiest of easy chairs,
and began mechanically to turn and change the many rings upon her
fingers; the act being evidently a habit, conducive to reflection or
rest. She told Harry to "go away and smoke his cigar"; but the young
man said he "was saving the pleasure until the moon rose; and in the
meantime," he added, "he should expect the ladies to amuse him. Rose
was talking of the greatest poets of the age," he said, "but I am
wondering what pos