ait--even if it took days--for the first bullying
word from Le ffacase and then I would magnificently fling my resignation
in his face.

_34._ When the grass was thought to be invincible, Miss Francis, as the
discoverer of the compound which started it on its course, was the
recipient of a universal if grudging respect. Those whom the grass had
made homeless hated her and would have overcome their natural feeling of
protection toward a woman sufficiently to lynch her if they could. Men
like Senator Jones instinctively disliked her; others, like Dr Johnson,
detested her, but no one thought of her lightly, even when they glibly
coupled the word nut with her name.

When it was found the saltband worked Miss Francis immediately became
the butt of all the ridicule and contumely which could be heaped upon
her head. What could you expect of a woman who meddled with things
outside her province? Since she had asserted the grass would absorb
everything, its failure to absorb the salt proved beyond all doubt she
was an ignoramus, a dangerous charlatan, and a crazy woman, better
locked up, who had destroyed Southern California to her own obscure
benefit. The victory over the grass became a victory over Miss Francis;
of the ordinary gumchewing moviegoing maninthestreet over the
pretentious highbrow. She was ignominiously ejected from her
chickenhouse-laboratory on the ground that it was more needed for its
original use, and she was jeered at in every vehicle of public
expression. In spite of my natural chivalry, I cannot say I pitied her
in her fall, which she took with an unbecoming humility amounting to
arrogance.

_35._ It was amazing how quickly viewpoints returned to an apparent
normality as soon as the grass stopped at the saltband. That it still
existed, in undisputed possession of nearly all Southern California
after dispersing and scattering millions of people all over the country,
disturbing by its very being a large part of the national economy, was
only something read in newspapers, an accepted fact to be pushed into
the farthest background of awareness, now the immediate threat was gone.
The salt patrol, vigilant for erosions or leachings, a select corps, was
alert night and day to keep the saline wall intact. The general
attitude, if it concerned itself at all with the events of the past half
year, looked upon it merely as one of those setbacks periodically
afflicting the country like depressions, epidemics, flo