and make inquiries for you. A
proposition from an elderly lady of such high position in the community
would have a much better effect than if it came from a gentleman."

Walkirk's plan amused me very much, and I told him I would talk to my
grandmother about it. When I did so, I was much surprised to find that
she received the idea with favor.

"That Mr. Walkirk," she said, "is a man of a good deal of penetration
and judgment, and if you could get one of those sisters to come here and
write for you I should like it very much; and if the first one did not
suit, you could try another without trouble or expense. The fact that
you had a good many strings to your bow would give you ease of mind and
prevent your getting discouraged. I don't want you to give up the idea
of having a secretary."

Then, with some hesitation, my good grandmother confided to me that
there was another reason why this idea of employing a sister pleased
her. She had been a little afraid that some lady secretary, especially
like that very pleasant and exemplary person with the invalid husband,
might put the notion into my head that it would be a good thing for me
to have a wife to do my writing. Now, of course she expected me to get
married some day. That was all right, but there was no need of my being
in any hurry about it; and as to my wife doing my writing, that was not
to be counted upon positively. Some wives might not be willing to do it,
and others might not do it well; so, as far as that matter was
concerned, nothing would be gained. But one of those sisters would never
suggest matrimony. They were women apart from all that sort of thing.
They had certain work to do in this world, and they did it for the good
of the cause in which they were enlisted, without giving any thought to
those outside matters which so often occupy the minds of women who have
not, in a manner, separated themselves from the world. She would go that
very afternoon to the House of Martha and make inquiries.

X.

THE PLAN OF SECLUSION.

My grandmother returned from the House of Martha disappointed and
annoyed. Life had always flowed very smoothly for her, and I had rarely
seen her in her present mental condition.

"I do not believe," she said, "that that institution will succeed. Those
women are too narrow-minded. If they were in a regular stone-walled
convent, it would be another thing, but they are only a sisterhood. They
are not shut up there; it's their