s the
carriage. No, you get in first."

"But does Mrs. Orton Beg want me?" Beth asked when they were seated.

"We all want you," said Mrs. Kilroy, "if you will forgive our first
mistake with regard to you, and come out of yourself and be one of us.
And you'll be specially fond of Mrs. Orton Beg when you know her, I
fancy. She's just sweet! She used to hate our works and ways, and be
very conventional; but Edith Beale's marriage opened her eyes. She
would never have believed that men countenanced such an iniquity had
she not seen it herself. The first effect of the shock was to narrow
her judgment and make her severe on men generally; but she will get
over that in time. Man, like woman, is too big a subject to generalise
about. He has his faults, you know, but he must be educated; that is
all he wants. He must be taught to have a better opinion of himself.
At present, he wallows because he thinks he can't keep out of the
mire; but of course he can when he learns how. He's not a bit worse
than woman naturally, only he has a lower opinion of himself, and that
keeps him down. With his training we shouldn't be a bit better than he
is. In all things that concern men and women, you dear, you will find
that, when they start fair, one is not a bit better or worse than the
other. Here we are."

Mrs. Orton Beg came into the hall to greet her guest. She was a
slender, elegant, middle-aged woman, in graceful black draperies, with
hair prematurely grey, and a face that had always been interesting,
but never handsome--a refined, intellectual, but not strong face; the
face of a patient, self-contained, long-enduring person, of settled
purpose, slowly arrived at, and then not easily shaken. She welcomed
Beth cordially, and placed her at table so that she might look out at
the old grey Cathedral. It was the first time Beth had seen it, and
she could have lost herself in the sensation of realising its
traditions, its beauty, and its age; but the conversation went on
briskly, and she had to take her part. Lady Fulda Guthrie, an aunt of
Mrs. Kilroy's, was the only other guest. She was a beautiful saint,
with a soul which had already progressed as far as the most spiritual
part of Catholicism could take it, and she could get no farther in
this incarnation.

"I hope you are prepared to discuss any and every thing, Mrs.
Maclure," Mrs. Orton Beg warned Beth; "for that is what you will find
yourself called upon to do among us. The peculiari