ce. The low, degraded nature of the sex that had,
by physical force, usurped the rule of the universe was dramatically
exposed. Milly glowed with sympathy while she listened, though she could
not explain why, as her experience with men had not been with lechers,
drunkards, wife-beaters. The men she had known had been on the whole a
fairly clean, hard-working, kindly lot, yet she knew instinctively, as
she often said, that "All men are alike," by which she meant tyrannical
and corrupt in regard to women.... The audience listened closely to the
speaker. No doubt their interest was increased by the gossip every one
knew,--how her husband had struck her at a restaurant, how he had
dragged her by the hair, cut her with a bottle from her own
dressing-table, etc. Milly noticed that Hazel Fredericks and the
settlement worker kept their heads lowered disapprovingly. The man next
her twisted his quizzical face into a smile, and turning to Milly as the
speaker stopped, amid a burst of applause, said frankly and simply as to
an old friend,--

"Whew--what rot!"

Milly could not help smiling back at the engaging stranger, but she
protested stoutly,--

"I don't think so!"

Before they could extend their remarks, the next speaker, a rich widow
well-known for her large charities, was addressing the audience in low,
earnest tones. Her theme was taken from the poet's verses: she pleaded
for the full emancipation of Woman as man's equal comrade in the advance
of the race. It was a vague, poetic rhapsody, disconnected in thought,
and made slight impression on Milly. The last speaker was Hazel
Fredericks. Her subject was the intellectual equality of women with men
and their right to do their own thinking. Milly recognized many of the
pat phrases and all the ideas which were current in the magazine set
where she had lived,--woman's self-expression and self-development, etc.
It was the most carefully prepared of all the addresses and very well
delivered, and it made an excellent impression, though it contained
nothing original either in thought or in expression. Like Milly's famous
graduation essay on Plato it was a masterpiece of skilful quotation, but
in this case the theft was less obvious and the subject was certainly
fresher.

There was the usual movement of relieved humanity after it has been
talked to for two hours, and then the hostess rose again, and in her
languid drawl announced that all who felt interested in the Cause were