She looked hard at us, and, "I donno if you know what I'm talkin' about----" she doubted; but, at our answer,
"Well," she added, "they's somethin' else. It's somethin' almost like what you've got--you two--an' like what Delia an' Abel have got. Lately, I don't _need_ to hear the Bell any more. I know 'bout it without. It's almost like I _am_ the Bell. Don't you see, it's come to be my power, just like love will be your power, if you rilly understand. An' here--here I know how. I've grown to Friendship, an' here I know what's what. An' if I went away now, where things is gentle an' like in books, I wouldn't know how to be any rill use. I can _be_ the Bell here--here I can have my power. In town I expect I couldn't be anything but just cake again--bakin' myself rill good, or even gettin' frosted; but mebbe not helpin'. An' I couldn't risk that--I couldn't risk it. It looks to me like helpin' is what I'm for."
I think, as she said, Calliope was become the Bell; and at that moment she rang to us the call of sovereign clearness. This was the life that she and Abel followed, and followed before all else, and there lay the hiding of their power. "Just like love will be your power," she had said.
When she had gone before us into the house--that was to have been her house--we two stood looking along the sunny Plank Road toward Daphne Street. And in the light lifting of the bonfire smoke it seemed to me that there moved a spirit--not Daphne, but another; one who walks less in beauty than in service; not our lady of the laurels, but our lady of the thorns.
MARY JANE'S PA. By Norman Way. Illustrated with scenes from the play.
Delightful, irresponsible "Mary Jane's Pa" awakes one morning to find himself famous, and, genius being ill adapted to domestic joys, he wanders from home to work out his own unique destiny. One of the most humorous bits of recent fiction.
"Cherub," a good hearted but not over refined young man is brought in touch with the aristocracy. Of sprightly wit, he is sometimes a merciless analyst, but he proves in the end that manhood counts for more than ancient lineage by winning the love of the fairest girl in the flock.
A WOMAN'S WAY. By Charles Somerville. Illustrated with scenes from the play.