was proved to be right in her supposition at the very next meeting.
Mrs. Jameson came, and she not only read selections from Browning,
but she started us in that mad problem of Shakespeare and Bacon. Most
of the ladies in our society had not an intimate acquaintance with
either, having had, if the truth were told, their minds too fully
occupied with such humble domestic questions of identity as whether
Johnny or Tommy stole the sugar.

However, when we were once fairly started there was no end to our
interest; we all agonized over it, and poor Mrs. Sim White was so
exercised over the probable deception of either Bacon or Shakespeare,
in any case, that she told me privately that she was tempted to leave
the literary society and confine herself to her Bible.

There was actual animosity between some members of our society in
consequence. Mrs. Charles Root and Rebecca Snow did not speak to each
other for weeks because Mrs. Root believed that Shakespeare was
Bacon, and Rebecca believed he was himself. Rebecca even stayed away
from church and the society on that account.

Mrs. Jameson expressed herself as very much edified at our interest,
and said she considered it a proof that our spheres were widening.

Louisa and I agreed that if we could only arrive at a satisfactory
conclusion in the matter we should feel that ours were wider;
and Flora Clark said it did not seem of much use to her, since
Shakespeare and Bacon were both dead and gone, and we were too much
concerned with those plays which were written anyhow, and no question
about it, to bother about anything else. It did not seem to her that
the opinion of our literary society would make much difference to