"Fools and cowards!" exclaimed the boarding-house keeper, contemptuously; "they do not know their own minds." "I thought it would be so; and what do they say? Tell me all!" "The Sisters are in a very discontented mood; they grumble at everything. Many have for the first time discovered that our whole project is ridiculous in the extreme. They say that they have wasted time and money for nothing." "And whose fault is it that it has been for nothing?" "Those who supplied the treasury of the Society with considerable sums of money, notably Sister Jane, are clamouring for its restitution or a full account of how it has been spent." "They shall have neither," cried Catherine, indignantly. "Some of the Sisters even hint that you have put by a pretty purse for yourself out of the funds--those were the very words of one." "They dare say that!--they dare accuse me of that!" exclaimed the Chief, rising to her feet and walking impatiently up and down the room, her eyes blazing with wrath and her fists clenched. "Cowardly wretches! are these the earnest martyrs with whose assistance I hoped to forward the emancipation of humanity?--and what more do they say?" "One fool--it was Sister Jane, by-the-bye--even spoke of suing you for the money she advanced, until I explained to her that Justice will only listen to a plaintiff who comes into court with clean hands, and reminded her that there were slight objections to her revealing in court the objects for which she had advanced the money." "Do you mean that she actually proposed to betray us?" "No! she spoke wildly, not thinking of what she was saying. She dare not be a traitor." "And what does Susan Riley and the others of the Inner Circle say?" "They, of course, dare not desert the Cause; but they hint that it would be as well to dissolve the Society, now that the object of it has been indefinitely postponed by this unfortunate election. They say it cannot hold together much longer." "And Sister Susan says this, too?" "She has virtually left us; at any rate she keeps away now, and seems to take no interest whatever in the Society," replied Sister Eliza in scornful tones. "And it has come to this, then!" said Catherine, musingly; then she turned and asked abruptly, "and what do you think about it?" "I don't know what to think. I should like to make an example of a few of the wretches, curse them!" muttered Eliza between her teeth, feeling a bitter indignation as she thought of the meanness of her associates. "Ah! they are unworthy to follow you, Sister Catherine."