re to try to get on terms with some of the
swell men. I wouldn't take him over there to please her if I were
you."

"That's where you and I differ. I would just like to please them, and
I'm sure it will do Ernest good to be in the company of such a
pleasant and sensible girl as Ada Grosvenor."

"Yes, he'd want something to do him good, if I'm any judge."

Dawn's pretty mouth and chin were so querulous that I had to turn away
to smile.

"So you won't come to tea?"

"I can't; I'd like to please you," she said somewhat softening, "but
I've promised 'Dora' Eweword I'll go out rowing with him again
to-morrow. He says he has something to say to me."

"He's been going to say this something a long time."

"Yes, but I stave him off. I know what it is right enough, and I don't
want to hear it; but I suppose I had better please grandma."

"So you like him?"

"No, I detest him, and feel like smacking him on the mouth just where
his underlip sticks out farther than the top one, every time he
speaks; but what am I to do? I'd never be let go on the stage, and I
might as well marry him as any one."

"Why marry any one? At nineteen, or ninety for that matter, there is
no imperative hurry. To marry a man you dislike because you cannot
attain your ambition is surely very silly indeed. Would you not love
'Dora' if you could go on the stage?"

"I wouldn't be seen in a forty-acred paddock with him. I'd like some
man who had travelled, not an old Australian thing just living about
here. I'd like an Englishman who'd take me home to England."

"You mustn't disparage your countrymen while I'm listening, as you'll
find no better in any country or clime. Always remember they were
among the first to enfranchise their women, and thus raise them above
the status of chatteldom and merchandise."

"They only gave us the vote because they had to. Women have had to
crawl to them for it, and pretend it was a great privilege the sweet
darling almighties were allowing us, when all the time it has been our
right, and they were selfish cowards who deserve no thanks for
withholding it so long. And they gave it that grudgingly and are that
narked about it, it makes me sick."

"Of course, when the matter is stripped to bare facts, the truth of
your remarks is irrefutable, but we must gauge things comparatively,
and remember how many other nations won't even grudgingly free their
women. If you don't like Eweword I can't see any pressing necessity