ment one or two of us have met'--she
pulled out the words slowly--'it's sometimes worse.' They both waited in
a curious chill embarrassment. 'Not the police, but the stewards at
political meetings, and the men who volunteer to "keep the women in
order," they'--she raised her fierce eyes and the colour rose in her
cheeks--'as they're turning us out they punish us in ways the public
don't know.' She saw the shrinking wonder in the woman opposite, and she
did not spare her. 'They punish us by underhand maltreatment--of the
kind most intolerable to a decent woman.'

'Oh, no, no!' The other face was a flame to match.

'Yes!' She flung it out like a poisoned arrow.

'How _dare_ they!' said Vida in a whisper.

'They know we dare not complain.'

'Why not?'

A duller red overspread the face as the woman muttered, 'Nobody, no
woman, wants to talk about it. And if we did they'd only say, "See!
you're killing chivalry." _Chivalry!_' She laughed. It was not good to
hear a laugh like that.

The figure on the sofa winced. 'I assure you people don't know,' said
Vida.

'It's known well enough to those who've had to suffer it, and it's known
to the brutes of men who----'

'Ah, but you _must_ realize'--Miss Levering jumped to her feet--'you
must admit that the great mass of men would be indignant if they knew.'

'You think so?' The question was insulting in its air of forbearance
with a fairy-tale view of life.

'Think so? I _know_ it. I should be sorry for my own powers of judgment
if I believed the majority of men were like the worst specimens--like
those you----'

'Oh, well, we don't dwell on that side. It's enough to remember that
women without our incentive have to bear worse. It's part of a whole
system.'

'I shall never believe that!' exclaimed Vida, thinking what was meant
was an organized conspiracy against the Suffragettes.

'Yes, it's all part of the system we are in the world to overturn. Why
should we suppose we'd gain anything by complaining? Don't hundreds,
thousands of meek creatures who have never defied anybody, don't they
have to bear worse ignominies? Every man knows that's true. Who troubles
himself? What is the use, we say, of crying about individual pains and
penalties? No. The thing is to work day and night to root out the system
that makes such things possible.'

'I still don't understand--why you thought it would be a protection to
carry----'

'A man's fear of ridicule will restrain him when