Several plans were suggested and discussed and discarded before Mrs. Westfall considered that the psychological moment had arrived to spring on the meeting an idea that had come to her in the night, undoubtedly in answer to her earnest prayer for guidance, but at last she stood before her dear sisters, faintly flushed with enthusiasm and holding in her hand a pink folder with which she gesticulated from time to time as she made a few introductory remarks. Finally she opened the folder and read from beginning to end the descriptive matter concerning the Inter-State Correspondence School course in Philanthropy—the Science of Giving. She read selected quotations from the world's most cheerful givers: from Andrew Carnegie's essay on Gainful Giving, from Hettie Green's monograph on Making Every Cent Count and from other of the authorities.
"My idea," she went on to explain as she laid aside the pink folder, "is to have the Coral Strand Missionary Circle as a body, take this course, so that hereafter we shall be known as a society of Graduate Philanthropists!"
A storm of discussion followed, but above its raging the nasal tones of Mrs. Electa Mandeville could be heard distinctly.
"They're fakes! They're all alike! They're fakes! They're fakes!" she repeated over and over.
Gradually the others subsided and at last Mrs. Mandeville had the floor all to herself, whereupon she shook a long bony index-finger at the president and cried shrilly:
"I tell you they're fakes! All fakes! I've had experience with 'em and I know! Look at my son-in-law! He answered an ad in a magazine that said 'Be a Civil Engineer,' and he took a course that cost me sixty dollars! And look at him! Why, he ain't even civil, to say nothing of being an engineer!"
"I will personally vouch for the reliability of the Inter-State Correspondence School," replied Mrs. Westfall tartly. "And besides, they give an iron-bound guarantee of satisfaction or all money refunded."
"I wouldn't trust any of 'em!" cried Mrs. Mandeville excitedly. "They take your money and then all they do is send you a lot of rubbish through the mail and try to sell you text books and equipment or get you to take some other course—!"
"Some of the inferior schools might do such things," interrupted Mrs. Westfall icily; "but not the Inter-State! As I said, I will personally vouch for—"
"Personally? Did you say?" snapped Mrs. Mandeville. "Personally? How could you vouch for them personally unless you have had dealings with them?"