attended meetings alone, made calls alone, and grew weary of
apologizing for Vida.

She was willing to attire herself royally and make a round of
fashionable calls with him on the first families, but concerning
calls on the humbler of the flock she gaily remarked, that she did
not purpose turning city missionary. "When ladies called upon her,
she would return their calls, that is, if she wished to continue the
acquaintance; but as for running all about town hunting out obscure
people, that was out of the question."

There was a gay clique in the church who eagerly welcomed the
pastor's wife to their circle. They organised a literary society and
gave Shakespearian entertainments.

Mrs. Eldred's fine literary taste and musical abilities made her a
valuable acquisition. She soon became the centre about which it
revolved. Was there a difficult part to be rendered, or a queen of
beauty to be represented, Mrs. Eldred was sure to be chosen, and she
gave herself with enthusiasm to the absorbing fascination.

Mr. Eldred had united with them in the beginning, but when he
discovered that the members of the society were much more interested
in getting up costumes than they were in their own mental
improvement, and that the whole thing was degenerating into private
theatricals, he withdrew, and urged his wife to do the same, but no
amount of persuasion could move her in the least; her own will had
been her law too long. And this was the being he had thought to
mould! It was all so different from the picture he had sketched of
these first months of their married life, the picture of sunny, happy