‚ÄúIn Tooms County, Alabama‚ÅÝ‚Äîin‚ÅÝ‚Äî‚Äù Mr. ¬ÝTaylor consulted a remote mental pocket‚ÅÝ‚Äî‚Äúin Miss Sara Smith‚Äôs school.‚Äù
“Why, how fortunate! I’m so glad I mentioned the matter. You see, Miss Smith is a sister of a friend of ours, Congressman Smith of New Jersey, and she has just written to me for help; a very touching letter, too, about the poor blacks. My father set great store by blacks and was a leading abolitionist before he died.”
Mr. ¬ÝTaylor was thinking fast. Yes, the name of Congressman Peter Smith was quite familiar. Mr. ¬ÝEasterly, as chairman of the Republican State Committee of New Jersey, had been compelled to discipline Mr. ¬ÝSmith pretty severely for certain socialistic votes in the House, and consequently his future career was uncertain. It was important that such a man should not have too much to do with Mrs. ¬ÝGrey‚Äôs philanthropies‚ÅÝ‚Äîat least, in his present position.
‚ÄúShould like to have you meet and talk with my sister, Mrs. ¬ÝGrey; she‚Äôs a Wellesley graduate,‚Äù said Taylor, finally.
Mrs. ¬ÝGrey was delighted. It was a combination which she felt she needed. Here was a college-girl who could direct her philanthropies and her etiquette during the summer. Forthwith Mary Taylor received an intimation from her brother that vast interests depended on her summer vacation.
Thus it had happened that Miss Taylor came to Lake George for her vacation after the first year at the Smith School, and she and Miss Smith had silently agreed as she left that it would be better for her not to return. But the gods of lower Broadway thought otherwise. Not that Mary Taylor did not believe in Miss Smith’s work, she was too honest not to believe in education; but she was sure that this was not her work, and she had not as yet perfected in her own mind any theory of the world