for me is a joke to you. She can't join. What do you suppose
Annette and Mrs. Lake and the rest would say if I proposed my servant
girl as a member? Do stop being silly, if you can. What are you grinning
at now?"

Captain Dan, repressing his grin with difficulty, explained that he
was thinking of what they would say. Serena, giving him up in disgust,
turned to her daughter.

"Gertie," she begged, "why don't you say something? Azuba can't join
that Chapter and you know it."

Gertrude shook her head.

"I suppose, she can't," she replied. "And yet, I'm afraid, Mother, that
you will find that fact rather hard to explain to her. Azuba doesn't
consider herself a servant, in the ordinary sense, at all. She feels,
I think, that she is a friend of the family. And she has a right, of
course, to improve and advance in every way. I am very much pleased to
know she is so ambitious."

"Ambitious! Azuba Ginn! What does she know about progress or
advancement? Who put such ridiculous ideas in her head?"

"Perhaps I did. She and I have had some long talks on the subject. She
asked questions and it was duty--and my privilege--to answer them. I am
very hopeful of Azuba. She is my first convert. I shall help her all I
can."

"Help her! Help her to what? To be too high and mighty for her place?
Help her to be dissatisfied with her station in life?"

"Yes; why not? None of us should be satisfied, short of the very
highest. Why, Mother, if you had been satisfied we might all be
stagnating in Trumet."

Serena abandoned the argument. She refused to mention Azuba's desire
for advancement again. Several times during the day Captain Dan saw her
regarding her daughter with the same odd, doubtful look that she had
worn when Mr. Holway made his first call.

After dinner that evening Gertrude and Serena hastened upstairs to dress
for the Chapter meeting. Mr. Hungerford, after expressing his regret
that the gathering was not to be an "open" one and he, therefore, would
not be permitted to see Miss Dott become one of the elect, went out.
When he first became a member of the household it was his custom,
on occasions of this kind, to remain in the library as "company" for
Captain Dan. Now, however, he seldom did this. The captain did not mind;
he preferred his own society to that of Cousin Percy.

Just as the ladies descended the stairs the doorbell rang. Hapgood
answered the ring, and the voice which replied to his polite query
concerning