eaving and put the thing before him. His
sister was with him.

He did not answer at first. He was walking to and fro; and, catching his
foot in the waste paper basket, he kicked it savagely out of his way, so
that the contents were scattered over the room.

"Yes, he's right," he said. "It was the Virgin above the altar that
popularized Christianity. Her face has always been woman's fortune. If
she's going to become a fighter, it will have to be her weapon."

He had used almost the same words that Carleton had used.

"I so want them to listen to me," she said. "After all, it's only like
having a very loud voice."

He looked at her and smiled. "Yes," he said, "it's a voice men will
listen to."

Mary Greyson was standing by the fire. She had not spoken hitherto.

"You won't give up 'Clorinda'?" she asked.

Joan had intended to do so, but something in Mary's voice caused her,
against her will, to change her mind.

"Of course not," she answered. "I shall run them both. It will be like
writing Jekyll and Hyde."

"What will you sign yourself?" he asked.

"My own name, I think," she said. "Joan Allway."

Miss Greyson suggested her coming home to dinner with them; but Joan
found an excuse. She wanted to be alone.

CHAPTER V

The twilight was fading as she left the office. She turned northward,
choosing a broad, ill-lighted road. It did not matter which way she
took. She wanted to think; or, rather, to dream.

It would all fall out as she had intended. She would commence by
becoming a power in journalism. She was reconciled now to the photograph
idea--was even keen on it herself. She would be taken full face so that
she would be looking straight into the eyes of her readers as she talked
to them. It would compel her to be herself; just a hopeful, loving
woman: a little better educated than the majority, having had greater
opportunity: a little further seeing, maybe, having had more leisure for
thought: but otherwise, no whit superior to any other young, eager woman
of the people. This absurd journalistic pose of omniscience, of
infallibility--this non-existent garment of supreme wisdom that, like the
King's clothes in the fairy story, was donned to hide his nakedness by
every strutting nonentity of Fleet Street! She would have no use for it.
It should be a friend, a comrade, a fellow-servant of the great Master,
taking counsel with them, asking their help. Government by the people