red to have her angry rather than oblivious of him.

But not for nothing did she belong to a world which dares to say
whatever it wants to say.

'We are civilized enough, at all events'--there was an ominous sparkle
in her eye--'to listen to men speakers clever or dull--we listen quietly
enough. But men!--a person must be of your own sex for you to be able
to regard him without distraction. If the woman is beautiful enough, you
are intoxicated. If she's plain enough, you are impatient. All you see
in any woman is her sex. You can't _listen_.'

'Whew!' remarked Borrodaile.

'But _I_ must listen--I haven't got over being ashamed to find how much
this girl can teach me.'

'I'm sorry for you that any of Miss Scammell's interesting speech was
lost,' the chairman was saying. 'She was telling you just the kind of
thing that you men ought to know, the kind of thing you get little
chance of knowing about from men. Yet those wretched girls who die young
of lead-poisoning, or live long enough to bring sickly babies into the
world, those poor working women look to you working men for help. Are
they wrong to look to you, or are they right? You working men represent
the majority of the electorate. _You_ can change things if you will. If
you don't, don't think the woman will suffer alone. We shall all suffer
together. More and more the masters are saying, "We'll get rid of these
men--they're too many for us with their unions and their political pull.
We'll get women. We'll get them for two-thirds of what we pay the men.
Good business!" say the masters. But it's bad business----'

'For all but the masters,' muttered the tramp.

'Bad for the masters, too,' said the girl, 'only they can't see it, or
else they don't care what sort of world they leave to their children. If
you men weren't so blind, you'd see the women will be in politics what
they are in the home--your best friends.'

'Haw! haw! Listen at 'er!'

'_With_ the women you would be strong. Without them you are--what you
are!'

The ringing contempt in her tone was more than one gentleman could put
up with.

'How do you think the world got on before you came to show it _how_?'

'It got on very badly. Not only in England--all over the world men have
insisted on governing alone. What's the result? Misery and degradation
to the masses, and to the few--the rich and high-placed--for them
corruption and decline.'

'That's it, always 'ammering away at the men--pore devils