s indignant at the day's doings. She had been indignant for
months, but she thanked God that she was still a lady, and she was
determined to remain one, to which end she had contributed that day
enough to make up for the deficit in the women's missionary collections
of her church. And she had dressed herself in purple and fine linen by
way of making out that she was a lady and nothing but a lady.

"Colonel Adams!" she exclaimed softly, as the Colonel approached.

"Madam, the sight of you is grateful after what I've been through this
day!" he said, kissing her hand, and depositing the flowers upon the
ground at her feet.

"Oh! Colonel, no one can have had more sympathy with you than I have
felt during these trying months," she sighed.

"I have felt it," he returned, parting his coat tails and seating
himself beside her.

"No one could have sympathized with you so keenly in your sorrow," she
murmured.

"I divined as much. I have suffered!"

"I know!" she breathed.

"My one pleasure has been the offering I have placed upon your doorstep
each evening," he sighed.

"So the flowers were from you, then?" she said, gazing at the bouquet so
significantly laid now at her feet.

"I trusted your woman's intuition to know that," he answered, with a
shade of offended dignity.

"I suspected, of course, but how could I know? You never confessed."

"Who else in this shameless town would have the sense, the feeling, to
approach a lady with flowers--they give 'em the ballot instead!"

"Don't speak of it!" she implored, lifting her hand tragically as if to
ward off a blow.

"But I _must_ speak of it, Lula," he exclaimed, seizing the despairing
hand. "As much as I hate to mention a matter so indelicate, I must,
because it concerns us." They looked at each other like two old doves.

"How should it matter to us?" she asked sadly.

"Because if we do not unite against this awful situation, we--well, we
are lost!"

She sighed, as if she saw no hope anywhere in the moonlight.

"Will you marry me, Lula?"

"Oh! Colonel Adams----"

"Under ordinary circumstances I'd never dare hope for such a boon. I'm
unworthy of you. No man can be--but consider what will happen if you
refuse?"

"What will happen?" she exclaimed.

"You must pass the remainder of your days, the sweetest, most beautiful
years of a woman's life, in intimate daily contact with a suffragist,
with a young woman who votes like a man!"

"God help me! What do y