ade--like balloons!' She pulled out the loose alpaca
of her own while the workmen chuckled with appreciation.

'I bet on Ernestine any'ow', said a young man, with an air of admitting
himself a bold original fellow.

'Well, open laughter is less dangerous laughter. It's even a guide; it
helps us to find out things some of us wouldn't know otherwise. Lots of
women used to be taken in by that talk about feminine influence and
about men's immense respect for them! But any number of women have come
to see that underneath that old mask of chivalry was a broad grin.--We
are reminded of that every time the House of Commons talks about us.'
She flung it at the three supercilious strangers. 'The dullest gentleman
there can raise a laugh if he speaks of the "fair sex." Such
jokes!--even when they are clean such poor little feeble efforts that
even a member of Parliament couldn't laugh at them unless he had grown
up with the idea that woman was somehow essentially funny--and that
_he_, oh, no! there was nothing whatever to laugh at in man. Those
members of Parliament don't have the enlightenment that you men have--of
hearing what women _really_ think when we hear men laugh as you did just
now about our going to prison. They don't know that we find it just a
little strange'--she bent over the scattering rabble and gathered it
into a sudden fellowship--'doesn't it strike you, too, as strange that
when a strong man goes to prison for his convictions it is thought to be
something rather fine (I don't say it is myself--though it's the general
impression). But when a weak woman goes for _her_ convictions, men find
it very humorous indeed. Our prisoners have to bear not only the
hardships of Holloway Gaol, but they have to bear the worse pains and
penalties inflicted by the general public. You, too, you laugh! and yet
I say'--she lifted her arms and spread them out above the people--'I say
it was not until women were found ready to go to prison--not till then
was the success of the cause assured.' Her bright eyes were shining
brighter still with tears.

'If prison's so good fur the cause, why didn't _you_ go?'

'Here's a gentleman who asks why I didn't go to prison. The answer to
that is, I did go.'

She tossed the information down among the cheers and groans as lightly
as though it had no more personal significance for her than a dropped
leaflet setting forth some minor fact.

'That delicate little girl!' breathed Vida.

'You nev