suffer greater hardships before he learns his
lesson. But God help the poor wives while he learns! But he _must_
learn," she ended firmly. "He must come some day to see that to stand
by his fellow-man is to stand by himself. That's what civilization
means, to stand by each other."

Bradley did not reply. He was looking upon her, with eyes filled with
adoration. He had never heard such words from the lips of anyone. He
had never seen a woman sit lost in philosophic thought like this. Her
bent head seemed incredibly beautiful to him, and her simple flowing
dress, royal purple. Her presence destroyed his power of thought. He
simply waited for her to go on.

"The farmer lacks comparative ideas," she went on. "He don't know how
poor he is. If he once finds it out, let the politicians and their
masters, the money-changers, beware! But while he's finding it out, his
children will grow up in ignorance, and his wife die of overwork. Oh,
sometimes I lose heart." Her voice betrayed how strongly she perceived
the almost hopeless immensity of the task. "The farmer must learn that
to help himself, he must help others. That is the great lesson of
modern society. Don't you think so?"

"I don't know. I'm losing my hold on things that I used to believe in.
I've come to believe the system of protection is wrong." He said this
in a tone absurdly solemn as if he had somehow questioned the law of
gravity.

"Of course it is wrong," she said. "The moment I got East, I found
free-trade in the air, and my uncle, who is a manufacturer, admitted it
was all right in theory, but it wouldn't do as a practical measure.
That finished me. I'm a woman, you know, and when a thing appears right
in theory, I believe it'll be right in practice. Expediency don't count
with me, you see. But tell me, do you still live in Rock River?"

"Yes, I'm only studying law down here."

"Oh, I see. I suppose you know many of the people at Rock River." She
asked about Milton, whom she remembered, and about Mr. Deering. Then
she returned again to the subject of the grange. "Yes, it has been
already a great force, but I begin to suspect that the time is coming
when it must include more or fail. I don't know just what--I aint quite
clear upon it--but as it stands now, it seems inadequate."

She ended very slowly, her chin in her palm, her eyes on the floor. She
made a grand picture of thought, something more active than meditation.
Her dress trailed in long, sweeping