The vote was unanimous in favor of the Ruby Seal. Isabel Harrington opposed it for a while, it is true; but this may possibly have been because she was not the very first one consulted. "Now," said Grace, when she saw that, as usual, Cassy expected her to manage affairs, "here I sit with pencil and paper; and now we'll pass resolutions, if you please. I'm secretary." "First place," said Isabel Harrington, with a toss of the head, "I'd like to ask what's the good of a society, any way?" "What's the good?" repeated Grace; "ahem! it's to-- to-- make us better, of course." "Then mightn't we pass one resolution to read the Bible?" asked gentle Mahla Linck, the lame girl, whom everybody loved. "Yes, we will, we will!" cried every voice. "It's a vote," said Grace, writing down: "We hereby solemnly pledge ourselves to read two chapters in the Bible daily." "And say our prayers," suggested Mahla again. "O, that's all understood," replied Grace. "I'd be ashamed to put that down. It looks like we could ever forget our prayers!" "Now," said Judith Pitcher, "I move we forbid the use of all unladylike words." This vote was passed. The next was against falsehoods of every hue, from little white lies up to the big black ones. "We mustn't talk about 'oceans of tears,' and 'biting our tongues out,' I suppose," said Isabel, demurely, but with a sly glance at the secretary. "That means me," said Grace, blushing. "And now," continued she, pausing and looking at Cassy, who would not speak for her, "--now let's all agree never-- never to be married. If that be your minds, please to manifest it." The girls looked astonished. "I've been reading Mythology," pursued Grace, "and some of the nicest goddesses and nymphs didn't marry -- Diana, and Minerva, and Clytie, and Sappho." "We're not goddesses and nymphs, I hope," said Diademia Jones, shaking her head. "Nor heathens," added Isa, with spirit. "O, no; but if ladies want to be very great, and do oceans of good, and write poems and everything, why, they mustn't be married. You see how it is, girls; there's so much housekeeping and sewing to attend to." "But, then," added Lucy Lane, mournfully, "if we're not married, we'll be--old maids!" "O, no, indeed," said Grace, positively. "Why, if you're great and splendid, you never will--no such a thing! Maria Edgeworth was splendid, and she never was an old maid that ever I heard of. And there was--" "Grace Greenwood," suggested Cassy, in the tone of one who has added the finishing stroke to an argument. But the girls exclaimed,--"Why, Grace Greenwood is married; what are you talking about? There, there, people can be married, and be splendid, too." Grace felt that her cause had received a blow.