An American Suffragette | Page 4

and consolidations of property that had meanwhile
taken place. The Kimballs had come from the Pacific coast, where the

same alchemist's result had been wrought with a block of Southern
Pacific Railway stock. The family tree of the Earls had rooted itself
into the subsoil of real culture, while that of the Kimballs was mostly
displayed above ground with only here and there a stray fibre that had
sunk to any depth.
Leonora Kimball, who at this time was slightly over twenty-three years
of age, possessed a most winning and gracious manner--a face that
might have served as a better model for a madonna than many of those
apparently used by the old masters; a lithe and graceful figure and an
abundance of vivacity when doing the things that pleased her. She had
so captivated John Earl from their first meeting that he had never tried
nor cared to analyze her. Indeed, had he so wished, he would have
found it a difficult undertaking, for he was too content with the
pleasure he felt in her presence to care to question it.
Dr. Earl had taken infinite pains to search the world for the sources of
disease and its prevention and cure. He had delved deeply into the
mysteries of mental and spiritual therapeutics, and had closely studied
the influences surrounding the origin of individual human beings. But
while he had harnessed many more or less occult forces into scientific
service in treating invalids, strangely enough, it never occurred to him
that similar elements might have an important mission in determining
the natural affinity of those attracted by the tenderest passion in the
world, and might do much, if properly regarded, to render stable that
one-time sacred bond of the sexes known as the marriage relation,
which at this time, everywhere, was resting upon such shifting
quicksands of mismating as to menace its existence.
"Love is of man's life a thing apart," applied with full force to Dr. Earl,
and he accepted his relations with Leonora Kimball with the same
confidence and light heart that might characterize the least thoughtful
man on Manhattan Island. While he had traveled many thousands of
miles and burned many a midnight lamp to ascertain if improvement
could not be made in the prevailing orthodox method of treating
disease, he blindly accepted, as millions of strong men before him had
done, the prevailing orthodox method of selecting a wife.

In any event, after the brother and sister had been left at the Ramsey
mansion on upper Fifth Avenue, he and Leonora proceeded to spend
the time from eleven to three o'clock very much as other lovers
similarly situated would have consumed those four hours. They
motored until one o'clock, when they went to her house, not far from
his sister's residence, where he had luncheon with her and her widowed
mother, and at three o'clock he arrived at the Hotel Gotham, where he
had engaged apartments.
When he stepped into his new sitting-room a large photograph of
Leonora confronted him on the dressing-case, his valet being a man of
rare sense and tact.
As he looked into the counterfeit impression of the large blue eyes and
reflected back her smile he declared to himself for the twentieth time
that day that she was the most fascinating creature in the world.
CHAPTER II
A MYSTICAL PARADE
When Dr. Earl arrived at his hotel he noticed crowds of people
gathering on the sidewalk, and lining up along the curbstone further
down the avenue, evidently expecting a parade of some sort. He had
dismissed the matter from his mind and was startled about an hour later
to hear the tap of a drum on the street, then a martial air by a band,
followed by the clatter of horses' hoofs and the shouts of policemen
clearing the way. Throwing open a window, he witnessed a sight that
dazed him for a moment, and he wondered whether or not he really was
in an American city.
As if by magic, the street was now filled with women, arranging
themselves in marching order, with the shout of command ringing clear
upon the air, and down Fifth Avenue as far as he could see, other
columns of women were forming to the strains of military music and to
the stirring echoes of fife and drum.
He grabbed his hat and stick, and joined the throng that packed the

sidewalk. His six feet of height and his athletic training rendered him
good service in ascertaining where to go and making it possible to get
there. He hurried along several blocks until he reached what he thought
must be the leading column of the march. Then he elbowed his way to
the curbstone and took up a position to witness this, as yet, mysterious
demonstration.
The