had from Mr. Bryan any acknowledgment of this original cablegram or of
the other and even more insistently appealing telegrams I filed in rapid
sequence; nor, so far as I have been able to ascertain, did he in the
least bestir himself on behalf of Fernbridge Seminary for Young Ladies.

Regarding this callous indifference, this official slothfulness, this
inability to rise to the needs of a most pressing emergency, I refrain
absolutely from comment, leaving it for you, sir, to judge. It would be
of no avail for Mr. Bryan to deny having received my messages, because
in each and every instance I insisted on leaving the money to pay for
transmission.

I shall not harrow your sensibilities by a complete and detailed recital
of the nerve-racking adventures that immediately succeeded. I may only
liken my state of mind to that so graphically described in the
well-known and popular story of the uxoricide, Bluebeard, wherein it is
told how the vigilant Anne stood on the outer ramparts straining her
eyes in the direction whither succour might reasonably be expected to
materialise, being deceived at least once by the dust cloud created by a
flock of sheep, and tortured meantime by the melancholy accents of her
sister, the present wife of the monster, who continually entreated to be
told whether she, Anne, saw any one coming.

The tale is probably imaginary in character to a very considerable
degree, though based, I believe, on fact; but assuredly the author
depicted my own emotions in this interim. One moment I felt as one of
the sisters must have felt, the next as the other sister must have felt;
and, again, I shared the composite emotions of both at once, not to
mention the feelings probably inherent in the shepherd of the flock,
since my wards might well be likened, I thought, to helpless young
sheep. By this comparison I mean no disrespect; the simile is employed
because of its aptness and for no other reason. It would ill become me,
of all men, to refer slightingly to any of our student-body, we at
Fernbridge making it our policy ever to receive only the daughters of
families having undoubted social standing in their respective
communities. I trust this explanation is entirely satisfactory to all
concerned.

Let us go forward, Mister President, to the moment when, after many
false alarms, many alternations of hope, of doubt, of despair, then hope
again, we finally found ourselves aboard a train ostensibly destined
for Boul