in her usual charming and gracious manner, took a seat beside
me on the platform, and showed a deep interest in the programme and the
great gathering before us.

As the meeting went on I saw that she was growing more and more
enthusiastic, and toward the end of the evening I quietly asked her if
she did not wish to say a few words. She said she would say a very few.
I had put myself at the end of the programme, intending to talk
about twenty minutes; but before beginning my speech I introduced the
countess, and by this time she was so enthusiastic that, to my great
delight, she used up my twenty minutes in a capital speech in which
she came out vigorously for woman suffrage. It gave us the best and
timeliest help we could have had, and was a great impetus to the
movement.

In London, at the Alliance Council of 1911, we were entertained for
the first time by a suffrage organization of men, and by the organized
actresses of the nation, as well as by the authors.

In Stockholm, the following year, we listened to several of the most
interesting women speakers in the world--Selma Lagerlof, who had just
received the Nobel prize, Rosica Schwimmer of Hungary, Dr. Augsburg
of Munich, and Mrs. Philip Snowden of England. Miss Schwimmer and Mrs.
Snowden have since become familiar to American audiences, but until that
time I had not heard either of them, and I was immensely impressed by
their ability and their different methods--Miss Schwimmer being all
force and fire, alive from her feet to her finger-tips, Mrs. Snowden all
quiet reserve and dignity. Dr. Augsburg wore her hair short and dressed
in a most eccentric manner; but we forgot her appearance as we listened
to her, for she was an inspired speaker.

Selma Lagerlof's speech made the great audience weep. Men as well
as women openly wiped their eyes as she described the sacrifice and
suffering of Swedish women whose men had gone to America to make a home
there, and who, when they were left behind, struggled alone, waiting
and hoping for the message to join their husbands, which too often never
came. The speech made so great an impression that we had it translated
and distributed among the Swedes of the United States wherever we held
meetings in Swedish localities.

Miss Lagerlof interested me extremely, and I was delighted by an
invitation to breakfast with her one morning. At our first meeting she
had seemed rather cold and shy--a little "difficult," as we say; but
when