constraint settled upon the gathering so fluent a moment
before, and psychologically considered, there was food for reflection
in the sudden embarrassed silence. These good women were far from
being vulgar gossips with one or two possible exceptions. They were
shocked at this unanticipated revelation of human perfidy. The young
wife, humiliated and heart-broken before the morning glow of romance
had faded from her marriage, had their profoundest sympathy. Yet when
the curtain rises on a human drama, however tragic its development, the
little thrill that runs over the audience is not altogether unpleasant.
Regrettable as it is that Othello should smother his wife, there seems
a certain gratification in making ourselves familiar with the details
of the operation. It was the consciousness of this unacknowledged
satisfaction which rendered Mrs. Warren's guests abashed at Persis'
advent, like children discovered in some forbidden pastime. They
avoided one another's eyes, assuming an expression of grave absorption,
whose obvious implication was that the uplifting of the community was
the matter most in their thought.

With all her interest in other people's affairs, the personality of
Persis Dale was as a killing frost to many a flourishing scandal. She
had a readiness to believe the best, a reluctance to condemn her fellow
men on anything short of convincing proof, fatal to calumny. Although
perhaps justified in thinking the worst of young Mr. Thompson, no one
present felt disposed to enlighten Persis as to the character of the
discussion which had engrossed a gathering convened for the high moral
purposes outlined on Mrs. Warren's post-card.

"I--we--well, we have not reached any conclusion as yet," explained the
chairman of the meeting, with a notable accession of color. "Several
suggestions have been made, however, and we hope you will have
something to add."

Persis would not have been Persis had she failed to have something to
suggest. Whether her businesslike methods aided in bringing matters to
a focus, or whether the change was due to a conscience-stricken
reaction on the part of the representative women of Clematis, it is
certain that the deliberations of the body were not again side-tracked
by the intrusion of personal matters. The business of the afternoon
was transacted with a rapidity putting to shame some more pretentious
conventions, the women wisely refusing to be hampered or restricted by
the t