Selma’s nerves vibrated blissfully as she read the news.  For some reason, which she had never seen fit definitely to define, she had chosen not to acquaint Littleton with the fact of her divorce.  Their letters had been infrequent during the last six months, for this visit had been impending, having been put off from time to time because the committee had been dilatory and he otherwise engaged.  Perhaps her secret motive had been to surprise him, to let him find himself confronted with an accomplished fact, which would obviate argument and reveal her established in her new career, a happy, independent citizen, without ties.  At any rate she smiled now at the address on the envelope—­Mrs. Lewis Babcock.  Obviously he was still in the dark as to the truth, and it would be her privilege to enlighten him.  She began to wonder what would be the upshot of his coming, and tears came to her eyes, tears of self-congratulation that the narrow tenor of her daily life was to be irradiated by a sympathetic spirit.

When Littleton duly appeared at the committee meeting on the following day, Selma saw at a glance that he was unaware of what had happened.  He looked slightly puzzled when one of the members addressed her as Mrs. White, but evidently he regarded this as a slip of the tongue.  Selma looked, as she felt, contented and vivacious.  She had dressed herself simply, but with effective trigness.  To those who knew her experience, her appearance indicated courage and becoming self-respect.  Public opinion, even as embodied in the church committee, while deploring the necessity, was not disposed to question the propriety of her action.  That is, all except Mrs. Taylor.  In her, Selma thought she had detected signs of coldness, a sort of suspicious reservation of judgment, which contrasted itself unpleasantly with the sympathetic attitude of the others, who were fain to refer to her, in not altogether muffled whispers, as a plucky, independent, little woman.  Hence, she was glad that Mrs. Taylor happened to be detained at home by illness on this afternoon, and that, accordingly, she was free to enjoy unreservedly the dramatic nature of the situation.  Her heart beat a little faster as the chairman, turning to her to ask a question, addressed her unmistakably as Mrs. White.  She could not refrain from casting half-amused, half-pathetic sheep’s eyes at Littleton.  He started visibly, regarded her for, a moment in obvious amazement, then flushed to the roots of his hair.  She felt the blood rising to her own cheeks, and a sensation of mild triumph.  The meeting was over and the members were merely lingering to tie up the loose threads of the matter arranged for.  In a few moments Selma found herself with the architect sufficiently apart from the others for him to ask: 

“Two persons have addressed you this afternoon as Mrs. White.  I do not understand.”

She cast down her eyes, as a woman will when a question of modesty is involved, then she raised them and said:  “You did not know, then, that I had left my husband?”