to help all other women to take such a fearless and honest attitude--if
Glendale blows up in consequence. I will seek and claim marriage in
exactly the same fearless way a man does, and when I have found what I
want I shall expect you to put one hundred thousand dollars, twenty to
each, at the disposal of five other suitable young women, to follow my
example, as noted down in this book--if it has been successful. Shall I
give you some sort of written agreement?"

"Just record the agreement as a note in the book, and I will sign it,"
answered Jane, in her crispest and most business-like tone of voice,
though I could see she was trembling with excitement, and poor Mary
Elizabeth was both awe-struck and hopeful.

I'll invite Mary Elizabeth down to Glendale, as soon as I stake out my
own claim, poor dear!

And here I sit alone at midnight, with a huge, steel-bound,
lock-and-keyed book that Jane has had made for me, with my name and the
inscription, "In case of death, send unopened to Jane Mathers, Boston,
Massachusetts," on the back, committed to a cause as crazy and as
serious as anything since the Pilgrimages, or the Quest of the Knights
for the Grail. It also looks slightly like trying to produce a modern
Don Quixote, feminine edition, and my cheeks are flaming so that I
wouldn't look at them for worlds. And to write it all, too! I have
always had my opinion of women who spill their souls out of an
ink-bottle, but I ought to pardon a nihilist, that in the dead of night,
cold with terror, confides some awful appointment he has had made him,
to his nearest friend. I am the worst nihilist that ever existed, and
the bomb I am throwing may explode and destroy the human race. But, on
the other hand, the explosion might be of another kind. Suppose that