Angela's Business

flared in newspaper

r session," wrote the kindly youth on the "Post," "none created such amazement as the demotion of Miss Wing, she having for long been conceded to be possibly the most valued teacher in the city school system. Members of the Board, however, refused to explain th

al opinions and stick like mucilage to the bare facts. But which

ggle upward had collapsed in sudden disgrace: this was bare fact enough to possess him completely throughout the tutorial day. Here fell a Modern principle from which he had never wavered, the great principle that a woman should have a fair field to work, and fair judgment, without prejudice of sex. All Mary Wing's success had been entwined with that pri

ciology. And he snapped his watch at Miss Grace Chorister five minutes ahead of

Through all this unimagined disturbance about Mary, the young man had not lost sight of his last night's resolve, formed in the Green Park, as to Mary's so different cousin. Cad

ivined that she was reserving her resignation, to discharge it, like a bomb, upon her expected election as Secretary of the Education Reform League. That prospect in the Career blurred the situation considerably, without doubt. Still, the secretaryship was three months away, at the w

to the great building and up the two tall stairways, there sat the late assistant principal in her little office, hard at work be

! The notice to move caught me a little unaw

ry Wing had put them all down to front the world to-day. Neither did she seem embarrassed by any memories of recent conversat

was slightly upsetting to Charles,

Board, had preferred the charges, she said, recommending her outright dismissal from the schools. The train had been carefully laid; it appeared that Mary had received an official warning from the Superintendent-an obliging man, elderly and weak, whom Mysinger meant to succ

ot a suitable person to have authority ov

aid about So

t want a monumen

amazed I wasn't electrocuted on the spot. Of course it isn't as if I were a man, you see, with a right to have ideas. That's my real fault, from the beginning-a

astily if there had been much talk about the building t

the children are the best, of course. All afternoon my boys and girls have bee

looking face, and the author struck

e, you sh

I've got to,

you'll come right

the power of overriding all acts of local school boards. Chalmers Brown, the young Attorney-General of the State and Charles's good friend, was an ex-officio member of this august body. Brown w

her head, and before Charles had got his plan fairly set out she inte

here before I begin. I'd only be playing into his hand, don't you see-givin

singer's not the whole

's true. And yet, if Mysinger let either Board know that he wanted me bac

siasm, he broached his second plan; and it too was summarily thrown out of court. That plan had called for an investigation of the "due cause" by the City Council-an intention attributed by the generous "Post" reporter to the well-known citizen, unnamed. Finding his supporting should

stic and tame, as to indicate a certain indifference in her. He sat ey

poses, I suppose. But-you're thinking o

?" said Mary, continuing h

p your sleeve all the time. What'll you care for little pigs li

rowing both arms above her head and saying, passio

fixed. "But you're g

nother voice: "No, I don't think

, I thought you wer

was, for a few wild weeks.

what's h

a week, at least. But he's never referred at all to the talk we had-about my being Secretary-from the first. Of course, I've wondered. And then yest

e was a side of him which could not lament at all. Publicly speaking, he had not honestly viewed the secretaryship as a "revenge"; since to get Mary out of the schools, by hook or crook, was the exact object in life of her

t this way-that you we

months now

u've never said anyt

ember your asking

upposed it was v

st a mad dream for me, of course! I'll

cations now, the young man flung out with unwonted exuberance: "You trust

ed in this atmosphere. Mary tied a package of papers, gave him a look

e gods as yet. Meanwhile-there's

k shan't stay spilt! I'm not going to

n either of his others, but yet, given time, his personal favorite from the beginning. However, Mary's little laugh checked him. The laugh may h

ou must, thou

me, I say. I inten

ne syllable, at last, what her manner ha

, you can't hel

ry your head about it any more, please. Whatever,

young man. It was as if she had suddenly blo

nd a friend. It seemed to him suddenly that ever since he had known this girl he had been going to her and saying, "Look he

Was it true, exactly as Old Tories said, that a woman could not grapple long with actuality without rubbing away that natural sweetness and charm of hers which, it might be, the grim world needed more than duplicate Careers? Certainly there was no charm for him in this slip of a girl's self-assertion: "I'm a better man than you, don't you know it?"

ch earlier in the afternoons,"

ridge-party; and he saw that there was something subtly fitting, engaging on the whole, in a woman's weeping over her troubles. But Mary, of course, could not we

ear the door,-a fellow named Hartwell it was, who had long seemed rath

me you were

r up a little more of th

uldn't help you w

p HER, even to tear up old papers.) "Nobody could un

could not get his thought back to the concrete; the sting of defeat possessed him, the bitterness that is the portion of the friend of women. And

ilight street. Her head turned at the sound of Charles's feet; recognition came hesitatingly into her glance, and she bowed, smiling remotely in t

whether Miss Wing is

aid that Miss Wing was. "You'll find her in her

nk y

end. She stood as he had found her, waiting, aside: a solitary and withdra

ary alone, even on this day? But no-of course she couldn't! She who had claimed her Happiness over her mother's heart would see nothing amiss in seeking to scramble back to good repute by the same general route. It was her Higher Law to throw her bligh

ch she should be "free," while everyone else, going on as usual, sacrificed and denied to uphold her comfort and support her illimitable selfishness. In her goings out and comings in, she would take no thought but for her Self. And there she

ightly, and glanced up and down. A brief anxiousness

ck out. Charles's legs seemed to thirst for exercise. But it was clear to him that it would not do to run any superfluous risks; especially just now

hallenge of Mary's full in the face, as it were. She had said, as if in final summary of their relations, that he was in

of a thoroughgoing eulogistic "write-up" of Mary, to begin with, in some national magazine of the highest standing. Only now his soaring ambition was to "plant" three such write-ups at least-cunningly differentiated in matter and manner, and signed with different names. Nor did this seem by any means a dream. From the periodicals themselves, he saw that there was a demand for just such "stuff" nowadays, just such little smartly-writ

ame swinging just then, rapidly drawing near. And all small plottings were catap

r and not ill-looking. Ten steps away, his eye fell on Charles, and, while his lips assumed a gracious smile, the eye in question seemed to lighten with a f

tt! How goes

principal through and through. And his head grew hotter, and the pit of his stomach icier, as he saw Mysinger's smile become fixed, saw it wa

beat up that rasc

of Charles than all the rest of him leapt upon and seized them, as one recognizing a long-felt want, an

ysinger would crawl around to Olive Street, hat in hand. "Miss Wing, I'm petitioning the Board to invite you back to the High School at once," he would say. "I humbly beg you to come, and try to forgive me for my contemptible conduct in the past. I don't know why I've always acted like such a dirty dog" (Mysinger would say). "It's

rstand a little better whether

er his retiring enemy. By an odd coincidence, Principal Mysinger had been moved by

civilized being. For the moment, the reminder seemed to accomplish little. The blood continued to pound in the sedentary temples, redly. Cha

riend, Hartwell, read, sign, and father it. Every precaution must be taken, of course, to give the whole thing a spontaneous air, avoiding the appearance of a concerted boo

g glance fell pre

residence of her parents, Dr. and Mrs. Oscar P. Flower. Miss

e that day. But as he continued to gaze at that small hopeful item, his mirth fade