Mr. Carlton took her and laid her down, and telephoned for a doctor. As he came back into the room, his wife flung her arms on the table, weeping aloud. She was unmindful of the fact that one of her hands had struck a vase of roses and upset it. The flowers lay across her arm, and the vase lay in broken fragments across the table.
It was the morning after the party at the Carltons', and Rev. Howard Douglass was talking with his wife about the subject which now absorbed nearly all his thought.
"If we could only get the society people interested in the plan! O, if we could only get the money that is used simply for parties and entertainments, we could carry out the plan of redeeming Freetown with every prospect of success."
He spoke anxiously, and his wife listened sympathetically.
"Now imagine," he continued, "a woman like Mrs. Carlton ready to throw the weight of her social influence on the side of our attempt to uplift and change Freetown. She is a leader in social circles. She has money and friends and leisure and ability. And yet she spends her time and strength in the regular round of parties and receptions year after year. The money spent on her party last night might go a long way toward building the foundation of our social-settlement hall."
"That's true," Mrs. Douglass said thoughtfully. Then after a pause she went on. "Howard, somehow I have felt lately as if a change was to come over that woman's life. Have you thought that Inez Carlton was beginning to think a good deal of Claude Vernon before she went abroad?"
"No," replied Mr. Douglass, somewhat startled.
"I have. If the girl comes home to receive the news of his death, it will change her life and her mother's possibly."
"I have never thought of such a thing. The woman seems wholly given over to her social life. It seems to me like an awful waste of God's time and money to spend them as she does all these years. If we could in some way make her see the needs of Freetown! We need money and influence to do what ought to be done over there."
He was still talking when the bell rung. He was near the stairs, on his way to his morning's work in his study.