For days the idea possessed her mind. She kept it to herself, and, her suspicious eyes sweeping in all directions, she studied as best she could to find some evidence or clue to evidence, that would corroborate her conjecture. In her excited hope, she strove, while she thought and worked, to be indifferent to what the town might think about her. But she was well aware that Old Hosie's prophecy was swift in coming true--that a storm was raging, a storm of her own sex. It should be explained, however, in justice to them, that they forgot the fact, or never really knew it, that she had been forced to take her father's case. To be sure, there was no open insult, no direct attack, no face-to-face denunciation; but piazzas buzzed indignantly with her name, and at the meeting of the Ladies' Aid the poor were forgotten, as at the Missionary Society were the unbibled heathen upon the foreign shore. Fragments of her sisters' pronouncements were wafted to Katherine's ears. "No self-respecting, womanly woman would ever think of wanting to be a lawyer"--"A forward, brazen, unwomanly young person"--"A disgrace to the town, a disgrace to our sex"--"Think of the example she sets to impressionable young girls; they'll want to break away and do all sorts of unwomanly things"--"Everybody knows her reason for being a lawyer is only that it gives her a greater chance to be with the men." Katherine heard, her mouth hardened, a certain defiance came into her manner. But she went straight ahead seeking evidence to support her suspicion. Every day made her feel more keenly her need of intimate knowledge about the city's political affairs; then, unexpectedly, and from an unexpected quarter, an informant stepped out upon her stage. Several times Old Hosie Hollingsworth had spoken casually when they had chanced to pass in the building or on the street. One day his lean, stooped figure appeared in her office and helped itself to a chair. "I see you haven't exactly made what Charlie Horn, in his dramatic criticisms, calls an uproarious and unprecedented success," he remarked, after a few preliminaries. "I have not been sufficiently interested to notice," was her crisp response. "That's right; keep your back up," said he. "I've been agin about everything that's popular, and for everything that's unpopular, that ever happened in this town. I've been an 'agin-er' for fifty years. They'd have tarred and feathered me long ago if there'd been any leading citizen unstingy enough to have donated the tar. Then, too, I've had a little money, and going through the needle's eye is easy business compared to losing the respect of Westville so long as you've got money--unless, of course," he added, "you're a female lawyer. I tell you, there's no more fun than stirring up the animals in this old town. Any one unpopular in Westville is worth being friends with, and so if you're willing----"