d
congratulations and promised to be present the next week. When the
time came she again rose and spoke in glowing language of the rights
and privileges which should be given to women as well as to men. As
soon as she sat down a tall, nervous man, with an air of proud
assurance that the world was made for his sex, rose and spoke firmly
against Anna's arguments, voicing his belief that men were by right
the lords and masters of creation. While he spoke he fixed his eyes on
Anna, as if enchanted by the sight of her rapidly crimsoning cheeks
and flashing eyes, which showed emotions at white heat. The moment he
finished she stood again, and this time, young and inexperienced
though she was, with little education and less knowledge of the great
world, she held her audience spellbound by the clear ideas which she
poured out in almost flawless English, and by her air of conviction
which carried belief in her arguments with it. She spoke clearly,
steadily, as she summed up all the wrongs she had been obliged to
suffer through a struggling girlhood, as well as all she had seen and
read about and felt in her soul to be true, although she had no
tangible proofs. On flowed the tide of her oratory in such an outburst
of real feeling that her hearers were electrified, amazed, by the rare
magnetism of this young and unknown girl. As she spoke she drew nearer
to the man, whose eyes refused now to meet her keen dark ones, and who
seemed deeply confused as she scored point after point in defense,
saying, "_You_, sir! said so and so," ... with each statement sweeping
away his arguments one by one until he had no ground left to stand on.
When her last word had been said and she took her seat amid a storm of
applause, he swiftly and silently rose and left the hall, to the great
amusement of the audience, whose sympathies were entirely with the
young girl who had stated her case so brilliantly.

"Who is she?" was the question asked on every side as the eager crowd
pushed its way out of the building, all curious to get a nearer view
of the youthful speaker. Doctor Longshore, who had opened the meeting,
as on the previous Sunday, was now determined to become acquainted
with Anna and find out what had gone into the making of such a
remarkable personality, and at the close of the meeting he lost no
time in introducing himself to her and making an engagement to go to
the Dickinson home to meet her family.

Before the time of his promised call--