"What are you going to do, Miss Bent?" "What do you mean, Mrs. Scott?" "I mean are you going to bury your talent in Waltonville or are you going into the great world? I hear that women are going into all the fields of men. Perhaps you will be a reporter and write us all up!" "I have no plans for anything of that kind." "You speak as though Waltonville were a cemetery, Mrs. Scott," said Thomasina. "Where did you get the idea for your little story?" persisted Mrs. Scott. It was clear now that Eleanor was being baited. Even Mrs. Lister felt sympathy. Eleanor's cheeks flamed; their color could be seen even in the dim light. Thomasina was about to answer, when Dr. Green interposed. "Out of her head, Mrs. Scott, where all authors that are worth while get theirs. That's where Shakespeare got his and where Basil Everman got his. Their heads are differently stocked from ours. You don't suppose they have to see everything they write about, do you? Mrs. Lister, I have been deeply interested in Basil Everman. I suppose it is too much to hope for--but is it possible that anything else will turn up?" "I'm afraid not," answered Dr. Lister. "There is a chance of something in other magazines of the time, but I fancy they have been pretty carefully gone over in that hope." Mrs. Scott, never long quiet, turned to Mrs. Lister. "Cora had a letter from Richard." "Did she?" said Mrs. Lister. "That was nice." She spoke smoothly, but a sudden pang of sympathy for Eleanor shot through her heart. Eleanor must love Richard, could not do otherwise. His caring for Cora became suddenly undesirable; his tragedy had lifted him above her. Mrs. Lister was glad now that he was going away, to win fame, to separate himself from Waltonville. He could never emancipate himself from Mrs. Scott if he were her son-in-law. That fate she could not wish any one, least of all her dear child. The occasion of his letter to Cora was the return of a book long since lent him and forgotten. "I told him he must write at once and explain why he had kept it so long," explained Mary Alcestis simply. Eleanor moved suddenly closer to Mrs. Lister. "I read about Basil Everman," said she hurriedly. "I was mortified to see my poor story published in the same magazine with his. I think he was wonderful. It makes Waltonville seem like a different place when one realizes that he lived here. It must have been wonderful to be with him, to help him. There is a poem about 'a brother, a sister, anything to thee!' My mother says she remembers him well. I think she knew him _quite_ well and admired him very much. I told her she ought to come to you and talk to you about him." "Yes," said Mrs. Lister faintly.