ctions with a foundation then? I feel so
helpless and ignorant with a really educated person now. Oh, dear, I
wish this movement had been begun when I was a baby, so I could have
profited by it! That woman said that when laws are equal for men and
women, _then_ advantages will be, and that every step we can make toward
equalization is a step in the direction toward a fairer deal for women.
Suffrage? Well, I should say I was for it! I think it's wonderful. I
went straight up to that woman and said I wanted to join the League; and
I did. It cost me a dollar."

"Good heavens, Ruth," exclaimed Will sleepily, from behind his paper.
"Don't you go and get rabid on suffrage----Ease up, old girl. Steady."

"I don't see how any one can help but get rabid, Will, as you say, any
more than a person could keep calm if he was a slave, when he first
heard what Abraham Lincoln was trying to do."

"Steady there, old girl," jibed Will. "Is Bob such a terrific master as
all that?"

"That's not the point, Will. Convention is the master--that's what the
woman said. It isn't free of men we're trying to be."

"We! we! Come, Ruth. You aren't one of them in an hour, are you? Better
wait and consult Bob first."

"Oh, Bob will agree with me. I know he will. It's such a progressive
idea. And I _am_ one of them. I'm proud to be. I'm going to march in the
parade next week."

I came to life at that. "Oh, Ruth, not really--not in Boston!"

"What? Up the center of Washington Street in French heels and a shadow
veil?" scoffed Will.

"Up the center of Washington Street in something," announced Ruth, "if
that's the line of march. Remember, Will, French heels and shadow veils
have been my stock in trade, and not through any choice of mine, either.
So don't throw them at me, please."

Will subsided. "Well, well, what next? A raring, tearing little
suffragette, in one afternoon, too!"

Ruth went upstairs.

"Poor old Bob," remarked Will to me when we were alone.

CHAPTER XV

ANOTHER CATASTROPHE

I didn't know whether it was more "poor old Bob" or "poor old Ruth."
Ruth was so arduous at first, so in earnest--like a child with a new and
engrossing plaything for a day or two, and then, I suppose, she showed
her new toy to Bob, and he took it away from her. Anyway, she put it by.
It seemed rather a shame to me. The new would have worn off after a
while.

"And after all, Will," I maintained to my husband, "Robert Jennings is
terribly o