Jewel Weed

It was with joy that Lena stood, on Saturday night, with Mrs. Lenox and

Miss Elton on the veranda, and hailed the advent of a large red

automobile, which disgorged, besides Mr. Lenox, two dress-suit cases and

two young men. Mr. Percival had liked her in her natural state and with

him she would not need to "put on style". He was to her the shadow of a

great rock in a desperately thirsty land. The only kind of pretense that

he demanded was that she should be a dear innocent little girl, and that

rôle came easily. She smiled and blushed and saw that there was a

difference in his eyes when he greeted her from the look he bent on the

other two ladies. It was balm to her spirit to think that this man, who

admired her, was himself admired by the people whom she suspected of

despising her; and that they did admire him was evident. They were

hardly seated at dinner before Mrs. Lenox began: "Dick, I have just been reading your last night's speech at the

Municipal Club and I'm quite effervescing with it. I want to put you up

on a pedestal and call the attention of Mr. Frank Lenox to you. He is

one of the innumerable excellent gentlemen, over the length and breadth

of the land, who are so busy running everything else that they let city

politics go to the place that I'm not allowed to mention. It does my

heart good to see you taking it up in earnest."

"It was a good speech, all right. I've read it, too," said Mr. Lenox.

"And I'm all the wretch my wife calls me. I wish I'd heard you in your

frenzy, Percival, though I have less faith in speeches and principles

than she has. Reform is only a seed, you know, and most seeds never come

to maturity or bear fruit. So most people justly doubt the reformer."

"Do you think we're thin sound-waves who do nothing but vibrate?" said

Dick.

"Not at all; but I mean there are no such things in the world as

abstractions. There are only men and women. Thoughts don't seethe; men

and women seethe. Principles don't reform or corrupt; men and women do

the reforming and corrupting. If you want to do things, don't begin by

making the air resound with denunciations of wickedness; but make people

believe in you and despise the other fellow. When they like you they'll

begin to think about your ideas."

"I don't know any better way to make people believe in me than to stand

up for what I think to be right," said Dick sharply.

"Stand up all you like," Lenox answered. "But the trouble with most good

people is that they are contented to stand up. To arrive anywhere you've

got to get right down and scrap."