conscious of loneliness, and in this mood she pitied herself as a victim
of untoward circumstances, one who had wasted the freshness of her young
life, and missed the happiness which the American wife is apt to find
waiting for her. Under the spell of this nostalgia she wrote a poem
entitled "The Bitter Sweets of Solitude," and disposed of it for five
dollars to the _Sentinel_. The price shocked her, for the verses seemed
flesh of her flesh. Still, five dollars was better than nothing, and she
discerned from the manner of the newspaper editor that he cared little
whether she left them or not. It was on that evening that she received a
letter from Littleton, stating that he was on the eve of leaving New
York for Benham. He was coming to consult concerning certain further
interior decorations which the committee had decided to add to the
church.

Selma's nerves vibrated blissfully as she read the news. For some
reason, which she had never seen fit definitely to define, she had
chosen not to acquaint Littleton with the fact of her divorce. Their
letters had been infrequent during the last six months, for this visit
had been impending, having been put off from time to time because the
committee had been dilatory and he otherwise engaged. Perhaps her secret
motive had been to surprise him, to let him find himself confronted with
an accomplished fact, which would obviate argument and reveal her
established in her new career, a happy, independent citizen, without
ties. At any rate she smiled now at the address on the envelope--Mrs.
Lewis Babcock. Obviously he was still in the dark as to the truth, and
it would be her privilege to enlighten him. She began to wonder what
would be the upshot of his coming, and tears came to her eyes, tears of
self-congratulation that the narrow tenor of her daily life was to be
irradiated by a sympathetic spirit.