The Daughters of Danaus

In the debate just recorded, that took place on Algitha's twenty-second birthday, Ernest had been Hadria's principal opponent, but the others had also taken the field against her.

"You have the easier cause to champion," she said, when there was a momentary lull, "for all your evidences can be pointed to and counted; whereas mine, poor things--pale hypotheses, nameless peradventures--lie in forgotten churchyards--unthought of, unthanked, untrumpeted, and all their tragedy is lost in the everlasting silence."

"You will never make people believe in what might have been," said Algitha.

"I don't expect to." Hadria was standing by the window looking out over the glimmering fields and the shrouded white hills. "Life is as white and as unsympathetic as this," she said dreamily. "We just dance our reel in our garret, and then it is all over; and whether we do the steps as our fancy would have them, or a little otherwise, because of the u