business--the sooner the better."

Mrs. Weatherstone nodded her head firmly. "She will. She's planning.
This was really an interruption--her coming here, but I think it will
be a help--she's not had experience in large management before, but
she takes hold splendidly. She's found a dozen 'leaks' in our household
already."

"Mrs. Thaddler's simply furious, I hear," said the visitor. "Mrs. Ree
was in this morning and told me all about it. Poor Mrs. Ree! The home is
church and state to her; that paper of Miss Bell's she regards as simple
blasphemy."

They both laughed as that stormy meeting rose before them.

"I was so proud of you, Viva, standing up for her as you did. How did
you ever dare?"

"Why I got my courage from the girl herself. She was--superb! Talk
of blasphemy! Why I've committed _lese majeste_ and regicide and the
Unpardonable Sin since that meeting!" And she told her friend of her
brief passage at arms with Mrs. Halsey. "I never liked the woman," she
continued; "and some of the things Miss Bell said set me thinking. I
don't believe we half know what's going on in our houses."

"Well, Mrs. Thaddler's so outraged by 'this scandalous attack upon
the sanctities of the home' that she's going about saying all sorts of
things about Miss Bell. O look--I do believe that's her car!"

Even as they spoke a toneless voice announced, "Mr. and Mrs. Thaddler,"
and Madam Weatherstone presently appeared to greet these visitors.

"I think you are trying a dangerous experiment!" said Mrs. Thaddler to
her young hostess. "A very dangerous experiment! Bringing that young
iconoclast into your home!"

Mr. Thaddler, stout and sulky, sat as far away as he could and talked
to Mrs. Porne. "I'd like to try that same experiment myself," said he to
her. "You tried it some time, I understand?"

"Indeed we did--and would still if we had the chance," she replied. "We
think her a very exceptional young woman."

Mr. Thaddler chuckled. "She is that!" he agreed. "Gad! How she did set
things humming! They're humming yet--at our house!"

He glanced rather rancorously at his wife, and Mrs. Porne wished, as she
often had before, that Mr. Thaddler wore more clothing over his domestic
afflictions.

"Scandalous!" Mrs. Thaddler was saying to Madam Weatherstone.
"Simply scandalous! Never in my life did I hear such absurd--such
outrageous--charges against the sanctities of the home!"

"There you have it!" said Mr. Thaddler, under his breat