a poor frail woman had crept out in the
dead of night to pay alone the penalty of a crime incurred by two--one
foolish and weak, the other murderously selfishly a coward.

I addressed Ernest Breslaw regarding the painful effect this tragedy
had produced on the mind of Dawn, and how it had been further
overstrung by the later one, and concluded--

"Had I expressed my inward feelings in outward actions at Dawn's age,
and being armed with a dish of water, to have thrown it on the nearest
individual would have been a very mild ebullition; but I set my teeth
against outward expression and let it fester in my heart, while the
beauty of Dawn's disposition is that her feelings all come out. She
has disgraced herself by making outward demonstration of what many
inwardly feel; but understanding what I have put before you, you must
not hold the girl responsible for her action."

With masculine simplicity he was unable to comprehend the complexity
of feminine emotions engendered by the exigencies of the more
artificial and suppressed conditions of life as forced upon women.

"I understand about old Rooney; I feel as disgusted with him as any
one does, but _I_ am not going to emulate him. I'd jolly well cut my
throat first; and if I could lay my hand on the snake at the root of
the drowning case, I'd make one to roast him alive! What made Miss
Dawn confound me with that sort?"

"She doesn't for an instant do so. On the contrary, she would be the
first to repudiate such a suggestion."

"Good Lord! then why did she throw that stuff on me? It was only fit
for a criminal."

"Can you not grasp that she was irritated beyond endurance with the
unwholesomeness of the whole system of life in relation to women, and
that for the moment you appeared as one of the army of oppressors?"

"But that isn't fair! _I_ know enough of women--some women--to make
one shudder with repulsion; but there would be no sense or justice in
venting my disgust on you or the other good ones," he contended.

"Quite so; but our moral laws are such that some issues are more
repulsive to a woman than a man, and you must admit there are heavy
arguments could be brought in extenuation of Dawn's attitude of mind
when the water slipped out of her hand."

"There's no doubt women do have to swallow a lot," he said.

"You don't feel so angry on account of the impetuous Dawn's act now,
do you?"

"It doesn't look so bad in the teeth of your argument, and if she
wou