It is to be
very select. Will meet at the different houses, you know, with a choice
little supper at the close. She says the one she belonged to in Atlanta
was a brilliant affair. She comes from one of Georgia's first families,
you remember."

"A Shakespearean Club!" and Judge Hildreth smiled incredulously. "Why,
my dear, I never knew you and the immortal Will had much affinity for
each other!"

"Oh, of course it is more for the prestige of the thing. Mrs. Leighton
said the General assured her you would never find leisure for it, but I
said I would promise for you. It is only one evening a week you know.
She thinks we Americans retire far too early from the enjoyments of
life in favor of our children, and I believe she is right. I certainly
do not feel myself in the sere and yellow," and Mrs. Judge Hildreth
regarded herself complacently in the long mirror before which she stood.
"You will manage to make the time, Lawrence?"

"What other answer but 'yes' can Petruchio make to 'the prettiest Kate
in Christendom'?" replied the Judge, bowing gallantly to the face in the
mirror as he came up and stood beside his wife. It was a handsome face
but there was a hardness about it, and the lines around the mouth which
bespoke an indomitable will, had deepened with the years.

"Only one evening a week, Kate, but you thought that too much of a tax
just now."

"How absurd you are, Lawrence! When shall I make you understand that
there are sacrifices that must be made. We owe a duty to society. We
cannot afford to let ourselves drop wholly out of the world."

A little later Judge Hildreth entered his library with a heavy sigh. He
had attained the ends he had striven for, he was respected alike in the
church and the world, he held a high and lucrative position, he had a
well appointed home, over which his handsome wife presided with dignity
and grace, and yet, as he took his seat before his desk in the lofty
room whose shelves were lined with gems of thought in fragrant, costly
bindings, life seemed to have missed its sweetness to Lawrence Hildreth.

Evadne's words haunted him, and, like an accusing angel, the letter
which still lay hidden under the mass of papers in the drawer which he
never opened, seemed to look at him reproachfully.

"A sister of Jesus Christ." Sisters and brothers lived together. Was it
possible that Jesus Christ could be in this house,--this very room? The
idea was appalling. He was familiar with the trui