hers have told him, just as I am,
that this poor American woman is languishing in prison as the result of
a cruel miscarriage of justice, and that she never committed the crime
of which she has been found guilty. My husband has had considerable
legal experience."

Pauline's questions were nettling, and Selma intended by her response to
suggest the presumptuousness of her sister-in-law's doubts in the face
of competent authority.

"I realize that your husband ought to understand about such matters, but
may one suppose that the English authorities would deliberately allow an
innocent woman to remain in prison? They must know that the friends of
Mrs. Hamilton believe her innocent. Why should we on this side of the
water meddle simply because she was born an American?"

"Why?" Selma drew herself up proudly. "In the first place I believe--we
believe--that the English are capable of keeping her in prison on a
technicality merely because she is there already. They are worshippers
of legal form and red tape, my husband says. And as to meddling, why is
it not our duty as an earnest and Christian people to remonstrate
against the continued incarceration of a woman born under our flag and
accustomed to American ideas of justice? Meddling? In my opinion, we
should be cowards and derelict in our duty if we did not protest."

Pauline shook her head. "I cannot see it so. It seems to me an
interference which may make us seem ridiculous in the eyes of the
English, as well as offensive to them. I am sorry, Selma, not to be able
to do as you wish."

Selma rose with burning cheeks, but a stately air. "If that is your
decision, I must do without your name. Already we have many signatures,
and shall obtain hundreds more without difficulty. We look at things
differently, Pauline. Our point of view has never been the same.
Ridiculous? I should be proud of the ridicule of people too selfish or
too unenlightened to heed the outcry of aspiring humanity. If we had to
depend on your little set to strike the note of progress, I fear we
should sit with folded hands most of the time."

"I do not know what you mean by my little set," said Pauline with a
smile. "I am too busy with my college duties to belong to any set. I see
my friends occasionally just as you see yours; and as to progress--well,
I fear that you are right in your statement that we shall never look at
things alike. To me progress presupposes in the individual or the
community att