ave had any other name, for its purpose was
to realize the idea of the nation with a grandeur and completeness
never before conceived, not as an association of men for certain merely
political functions affecting their happiness only remotely and
superficially, but as a family, a vital union, a common life, a mighty
heaven-touching tree whose leaves are its people, fed from its veins,
and feeding it in turn. The most patriotic of all possible parties, it
sought to justify patriotism and raise it from an instinct to a
rational devotion, by making the native land truly a father land, a
father who kept the people alive and was not merely an idol for which
they were expected to die."

[1] I fully admit the difficulty of accounting for the course of the
anarchists on any other theory than that they were subsidized by the
capitalists, but at the same time, there is no doubt that the theory is
wholly erroneous. It certainly was not held at the time by any one,
though it may seem so obvious in the retrospect.

Chapter 25

The personality of Edith Leete had naturally impressed me strongly ever
since I had come, in so strange a manner, to be an inmate of her
father's house, and it was to be expected that after what had happened
the night previous, I should be more than ever preoccupied with
thoughts of her. From the first I had been struck with the air of
serene frankness and ingenuous directness, more like that of a noble
and innocent boy than any girl I had ever known, which characterized
her. I was curious to know how far this charming quality might be
peculiar to herself, and how far possibly a result of alterations in
the social position of women which might have taken place since my
time. Finding an opportunity that day, when alone with Dr. Leete, I
turned the conversation in that direction.

"I suppose," I said, "that women nowadays, having been relieved of the
burden of housework, have no employment but the cultivation of their
charms and graces."

"So far as we men are concerned," replied Dr. Leete, "we should
consider that they amply paid their way, to use one of your forms of
expression, if they confined themselves to that occupation, but you may
be very sure that they have quite too much spirit to consent to be mere
beneficiaries of society, even as a return for ornamenting it. They
did, indeed, welcome their riddance from housework, because that was
not only exceptionally wearing in itself, but also waste