omfortable room next his wife's, and a
capacious chair in the firelit hall in wet weather, or on the shaded
piazza in dry. The excellent library was a resource to him; he found
some congenial souls to talk with; and under the new stimulus succeeded
at last in patenting a small device that really worked. With this, and
his rent, he felt inclined to establish a "home of his own," and the
soul of Mrs. Bell sank within her. Without allowing it to come to an
issue between them, she kept the question open for endless discussion;
and Mr. Bell lived on in great contentment under the impression that
he was about to move at almost any time. To his friends and cronies he
dilated with pride on his daughter's wonderful achievements.

"She's as good as a boy!" he would declare. "Women nowadays seem to
do anything they want to!" And he rigidly paid his board bill with a
flourish.

Meanwhile the impressive gatherings at Mrs. Thaddler's, and the
humbler tea and card parties of Diantha's friends, had a new topic as a
shuttlecock.

A New York company had bought one of the largest and finest blocks in
town--the old Para place--and was developing it in a manner hitherto
unseen. The big, shabby, neglected estate began to turn into such
a fairyland as only southern lands can know. The old live-oaks were
untouched; the towering eucalyptus trees remained in ragged majesty; but
an army of workmen was busy under guidance of a master of beauty.

One large and lovely building rose, promptly dubbed a hotel by the
unwilling neighbors; others, smaller, showed here and there among the
trees; and then a rose-gray wall of concrete ran around the whole, high,
tantalizing, with green boughs and sweet odors coming over it. Those who
went in reported many buildings, and much activity. But, when the wall
was done, and each gate said "No admittance except on business," then
the work of genii was imagined, and there was none to contradict.

It was a School of Theosophy; it was a Christian Science College; it was
a Free-Love Colony; it was a Secret Society; it was a thousand wonders.

"Lot of little houses and one big one," the employees said when
questioned.

"Hotel and cottages," the employers said when questioned.

They made no secret of it, they were too busy; but the town was
unsatisfied. Why a wall? What did any honest person want of a wall? Yet
the wall cast a pleasant shadow; there were seats here and there between
buttresses, and, as the swift