“Yes, we were to have been married on Monday, the very day when the ballots are to be cast that will decide the fate of the human race. But when the Strike came, she said she could not allow her personal pleasure to stand between her and the obtaining for woman of rights that were so plainly hers. She is a noble enthusiast in the cause of woman, and though she was in the midst of preparing her bridal outfit when the Strike was proposed, she brushed it aside as if it were cobwebs. She said that she felt that the supreme hour of woman’s destiny had come, and to miss it were to be a renegade from everything noble. “She is beautiful,” continued Mr. Lister, glancing fondly toward the portrait, “but her irresistible charm is in what she says and in her manner of saying it. Although she is simple and pure as a lily, she is continually saying unexpected things, things that give you a start of surprise, upset your conventionalism and put you into a stimulating glow in spite of yourself. “It was a genuine case of love at first sight, or rather of love at the first meeting, for it was really so dark when I first met her that I could not distinguish her features clearly. She does not belong to the wealthy class, and she gave music lessons in order to support herself and her two little brothers. She called here at this house at twilight one evening with an acquaintance of my mother to see if she could obtain a pupil in my sister. It was dusk when I casually entered the parlour where they sat. The lamps had not been lighted. I was feeling rather dull and listless from the fatigues of the day, and scarcely noticed Miss Alliston after the formal introduction. I sat down rather indifferently, preoccupied with my own thoughts, while she continued conversation with my mother. Suddenly I remember hearing her say in answer to some inquiry of my mother, that she was a ‘Yankee through and through.’ It was a simple thing to say, but, good Heavens! what subtle power there was in her! That speech aroused me as if I had been suddenly shaken from sleep! Two or three minutes later she said something in her bright, bracing, dashing way, that made me feel as one feels who has had a mirth-provoking tumble. Before I had been in her society ten minutes, I was talking to her, and was like a man who was recklessly swallowing wine, glass after glass! When, at last, I followed her to the carriage in which her friend had brought her, I loved her as madly as a man ever loved a woman. I could have kissed her from head to foot. The touch of my hand on her waist as I helped her into the carriage that evening!--it thrills me now. I can never forget that, if the Strike should be continued and I should never see her again.