er on Gladys Wells' complexion, and wondered why
Thad West's mother didn't try anti-fat.

As the clock struck two, Mrs. Warren rose with a Jack-in-the-box effect
from behind the table where she had ensconced herself after welcoming
the last arrival. Mrs. Warren had taught school before her marriage
and under the stimulus of her present responsibility, her voice and
manner reverted to their earlier pedagogical precision. As she rapped
the assembly to order, she had every appearance of a teacher calling on
the A-class to recite.

"Ladies, I am glad to see so many of you punctual. Miss Persis Dale
has sent word that she will be detained for a little by the pressure of
Saturday's work, but that she will join us later, and undoubtedly other
tardy arrivals will have excuses equally good. And now, ladies, the
first business of the afternoon will be the election of a chairman."

"Oh, you've got to be chairman," observed Mrs. West conversationally
from the largest armchair. "None of the rest of us know enough."
Corroborative nods and murmurs approved the suggestion, and Mrs. Warren
acknowledged the compliment by a prim little bow.

"Do I understand you to make this in the form of a motion, Mrs. West?"

"Why, ye-es, I s'pose so," returned Mrs. West, visibly startled by the
suggestion that she had performed that feat without a realizing sense
of its momentous character.

"Is there a second to this motion?"

The chilling silence, which the first hint of parliamentary procedure
imposes on the most voluble gathering, unaccustomed to its
technicalities, was broken at length, by the voice of Susan Fitzgerald,
who said faintly, "I do," and blushed to the roots of her hair.

"You have heard the motion, ladies. All in favor signify it, by saying
_aye_."

Twenty voices in unison gave an effect at once businesslike and
harmonious; and the representative women of Clematis looked vaguely
pleased to find their end so easily attained.

"Contrary-minded, the same sign." A breathless pause while the
assembly waited for the daring opposition to manifest itself. "The
motion appears to be carried, carried unanimously, ladies. I thank you
for your confidence. We shall now proceed to consider the best method
of organizing ourselves so as to expand the horizon of the individual
members"--Mrs. Warren was quoting, unabashed, from her own
post-card--"in addition to uplifting the community as a whole."

The chairman went into tempora