peatedly tried to reach the
chairman who was to preside at the entertainment, but failed. At last
I went to the hall at the hour appointed, and found the local committee
there, graciously waiting to receive me. Without wasting precious
minutes in preliminaries, I asked why they had advertised me as the
woman who had "whistled before Queen Victoria."

"Why, didn't you whistle before her?" they exclaimed in grieved
surprise.

"I certainly did not," I explained. "Moreover, I was never called 'The
American Nightingale,' and I have never lectured on 'The Missing Link.'
Where DID you get that subject? It was not on the list I sent you."

The members of the committee seemed dazed. They withdrew to a corner and
consulted in whispers. Then, with clearing brow, the spokesman returned.

"Why," he said, cheerfully, "it's simple enough! We mixed you up with a
Shaw lady that whistles; and we've been discussing the missing link in
our debating society, so our citizens want to hear your views."

"But I don't know anything about the missing link," I protested, "and I
can't speak on it."

"Now, come," they begged. "Why, you'll have to! We've sold all our
tickets for that lecture. The whole town has turned out to hear it."

Then, as I maintained a depressed silence, one of them had a bright
idea.

"I'll tell you how to fix it!" he cried. "Speak on any subject you
please, but bring in something about the missing link every few minutes.
That will satisfy 'em."

"Very well," I agreed, reluctantly. "Open the meeting with a song. Get
the audience to sing 'America' or 'The Star-spangled Banner.' That will
give me a few minutes to think, and I will see what can be done."

Led by a very nervous chairman, the big audience began to sing, and
under the inspiration of the music the solution of our problem flashed
into my mind.

"It is easy," I told myself. "Woman is the missing link in our
government. I'll give them a suffrage speech along that line."

When the song ended I began my part of the entertainment with a portion
of my lecture on "The Fate of Republics," tracing their growth and
decay, and pointing out that what our republic needed to give it a
stable government was the missing link of woman suffrage. I got along
admirably, for every five minutes I mentioned "the missing link," and
the audience sat content and apparently interested, while the members of
the committee burst into bloom on the platform.

VIII. DRAMA IN TH