interest in her. So the weeks slipped away and she was reasonably happy.
She was absorbed and there was nothing new to mar the tenor of her life,
though she was vaguely conscious that the loss of their little girl had
widened the breach between her and her husband--widened it for the
reason that now, for the first time, he perceived how lonely he was. The
baby had furnished him with constant delight and preoccupation. He had
looked forward all day to seeing it at night, and questions relating to
it had supplied a never-ceasing small change of conversation between him
and her. He had let her go her way with a smile on his face. Selma did
not choose to dwell on the situation, but it was obvious that Lewis
continued to look glum, and that there were apt to be long silences
between them at meals. Now and again he would show some impatience at
the continuous recurrence of the Institute classes as a bar to some
project of domesticity or recreation, as though she had not been an
active member of the Institute before baby was born.

One of the plans in which Mrs. Earle was most interested was a Congress
of Women's Clubs, and in the early summer of the same year--some four
months subsequent to the death of Muriel Grace--a small beginning toward
this end was arranged to take place in Chicago. There were to be six
delegates from each club, and Selma was unanimously selected as one of
the delegation from the Benham Women's Institute. The opinion was
generally expressed that a change would do her good, and there was no
question that she was admirably fitted to represent the club. Selma, who
had not travelled a hundred miles beyond Benham in her life, was elated
at the prospect of the expedition; so much so that she proudly recounted
to Lewis the same evening the news of her appointment. It never occurred
to her that he would wish to accompany her, and when he presently
informed her that he had been wishing to go to Chicago on business for
some time, and that the date proposed would suit him admirably, she was