Mrs. Salisbury," said Justine, when her mistress came into the
kitchen one December morning, "I've had a note from Mrs. Sargent--"

"From Mrs. Sargent?" Mrs. Salisbury repeated, astonished. And to
herself she said: "She's trying to get Justine away from me!"

"She writes as Chairman of the Department of Civics of the Forum
Club," pursued Justine, referring to the letter she held in her
hand, "to ask me if I will address the club some Thursday on the
subject of the College of Domestic Science. I know that you expect
to give a card party some Thursday, and I thought I would make sure
just which one you meant."

Mrs. Salisbury, taken entirely unaware, was actually speechless for
a moment. The Forum was, of all her clubs, the one in which
membership was most prized by the women of River Falls. It was not a
large club, and she had longed for many years somehow to place her
name among the eighty on its roll. The richest and most exclusive
women of River Falls belonged to the Forum Club; its few rooms,
situated in the business part of town, and handsomely but plainly
furnished, were full of subtle reminders that here was no mere
social center; here responsible members of the recently enfranchised
sex met to discuss civic betterment, schools and municipal budgets,
commercialized vice and child labor, library appropriations, liquor
laws and sewer systems. Local politicians were beginning to respect
the Forum, local newspapers reported its conventions, printed its
communications.