ighly respectable young mother
when she should come to realize how near she and the precious daughter
were to the rostrum of the Shrieking Sisterhood. It might be worth
prolonging the discussion upon health and education for the amusement
there would be in seeing what form condemnation of the Suffragettes took
among people of this kind. By turning her head to one side, out of the
tail of her eye the lady could see that an excitement of some sort was
agitating the crowd. The voices rose more shrill. People craned and
pushed. A derisive cheer went up as a woman appeared on the cart. The
wearer of the tam-o'-shanter! Three others followed--all women. Miss
Levering saw without seeming to look, still listening while the
practical-minded mother talked on about her child, and what 'was good
for it.' All life had resolved itself into pursuit of that.

An air of semi-abstraction came over the lady. It was as if in the
presence of this excellent bourgeoise she felt an absurd constraint in
showing an interest in the proceedings of these unsexed creatures behind
them.

To her obvious astonishment the mother of the child was the first to
jump up.

'Now they're going to begin!' she said briskly.

'Who?' asked Miss Levering.

'Why, the Suffrage people.'

'Oh! Are _you_ going to listen to them?'

'Yes; that's what I've come all this way for.' And she and her
bare-legged offspring melted into the growing crowd.

Vida turned to the maid and met her superior smile. 'That woman says she
has come a long way to hear these people advocating Woman's Suffrage,'
and slowly with an air of complete detachment she approached the edge of
the crowd, followed by the supercilious maid. They were quickly hemmed
in by people who seemed to spring up out of the ground. It was curious
to look back over the vivid green expanse and see the dotted humanity
running like ants from all directions to listen to this handful of dowdy
women in a cart!

In finding her way through the crowd it would appear that the lady was
not much sustained by the presence of a servant, however well-meaning.
Much out of place in such a gathering as Mrs. Fox-Moore or any
ultra-oldfashioned woman was, still more incongruous showed there the
relation of mistress and maid. The punctilious Gorringe was plainly
horrified at the proximity to her mistress of these canaille, and the
mistress was not so absorbed it would seem but what she felt the affront
to seemliness in a servant