lway
president. Even Giddings, to me, seemed to remain unduly intimate with
Cornish; but this did not affect the utterances of his paper, which
still maintained what he called the policy of boost.

The behavior of Josie, however, was enigmatical. Cornish's attentions to
her redoubled, while Jim seemed dropped out of the race--and therefore
my wife's relations with Miss Trescott were subjected to a severe
strain. Naturally, being a matron, and of the age of thirty-odd years,
she put on some airs with her younger friend, still in the chrysalis of
maidenhood. Sometimes, in a sweet sort of a way, she almost domineered
over her. On this Elkins-Cornish matter, however, Josie held her at
arms' length, and refused to make her position plain; and Alice nursed
that simulated resentment which one dear friend sometimes feels toward
another, because of a real or imagined breach of the obligations of
reciprocity.

One night, as we sat about the grate in the Trescott library, some
veiled insinuations on Alice's part caused a turning of the worm.

"If there is anything you want to say, Alice," said Josie, "there seems
to be no good reason why you shouldn't speak out. I have asked your
advice--yours and Albert's--frequently, having really no one else to
trust; and therefore I am willing to hear your reproof, if you have it
for me. What is it?"

"Oh, Josie," said I, seeking cover. "You are too sensitive. There isn't
anything, is there, Alice?"

Here I scowled violently, and shook my head at my wife; but all to no
effect.

"Yes, there is," said Alice. "We have a dear friend, the best in the
world, and he has an enemy. The whole town is divided in allegiance
between them, about nine on one side to one on the other--"

"Which proves nothing," said Josie.

"And now," Alice went on, "you, who have had every opportunity of
seeing, and ought to know, that one of them is, in every look, and
thought, and act, a _man_, while the other is--"

"A friend of mine and of my mother's," said Josie; "please omit the
character-sketch. And remember that I refuse even to consider these
business differences. Each claims to be right; and I shall judge them by
other things."

"Business differences, indeed!" scoffed Alice, albeit a little impressed
by the girl's dignity. "As if you did not know what these differences
came from! But it isn't because you remain neutral that we com--"

"_You_ complain, Alice," said I; "I am distinctly out of this."