ntion of a name.

The only thing clear was that she was neither going to give in, nor
going to turn over the meeting in a state of ferment to some less
practised hand.

'Yes, she did! She had a perfect right,' the chairman maintained against
a storm of noes--'more than a right, _a duty_, to perform in going with
that deputation on public business to the house of a public servant,
since, unlike the late Prime Minister, he had refused to women all
opportunity to treat with him through the usual channels always open to
citizens having a political grievance.'

'Citizens? Suffragettes!'

'Very well.' She set her mouth. 'Suffragettes if you like. To get an
abuse listened to is the first thing; to get it understood is the next.
Rather than not have our cause stand out clear and unmistakable before a
preoccupied, careless world, we accept the clumsy label; we wear it
proudly. And it won't be the first time in history that a name given in
derision has become a badge of honour!'

Why, the woman's eyes were suffused!--a flush had mounted up to her
hair!

How she cared!

'Yer ain't told us the reason ye _want_ the vote.'

'Reason? Why, she's a woman!'

'Haw! haw!'

The speaker had never paused an instant, but--it began to be clear that
she heard any interruption it suited her to hear.

'Some one asking, at this time of day, why women want the vote? Why, for
exactly the same reason that you men do. Because, not having any voice
in public affairs, our interests are neglected; and since woman's
interests are man's, all humanity suffers. We want the vote, because
taxation without representation is tyranny; because the laws as they
stand bear hardly on women; and because those unfair, man-made laws will
never be altered till women have a share in electing the men who control
legislation.'

'Yer ought ter leave politics to us----'

'We can't leave politics to the men, because politics have come into the
home, and if the higher interests of the home are to be served, women
must come into politics.'

'That's a bad argument!'

'Wot I always say is----'

'Can't change nature. Nature says----'

'Let 'er st'y at 'ome and mind 'er business!'

The interjections seemed to come all at once. The woman bent over the
crowd. Nothing misty in her eyes now--rather a keener light than before.

'Don't you see,' she appealed to them as equals--'don't you see that in
your improvement of the world you men have taken women's business