on the quick sunlit river of her mind,
for she was very happy and excited at these Suffrage meetings. She had
taken seven shillings and sixpence for pamphlets, the hall was filling
up nicely, and Miss Traquair and Dr. Katherine Kennedy and Miss
Mackenzie and several members of the local militant suffrage society had
spoken to her as they went to their places just as if they counted her
grown-up and one of themselves. And she was flushed with the sense of
love and power that comes of comradeship. She looked back into the
hideous square hall, with its rows of chattering anticipant people, and
up to the gallery packed with faces dyed yellowish drab by the near
unmitigated gas sunburst, and she smiled brilliantly. All these people
were directing their attention and enthusiasm to the same end as
herself: would feel no doubt the same tightness of throat as the heroic
women came on the platform, and would sanctify the emotion as sane by
sharing it; and by their willingness to co-operate in rebellion were
making her individual rebellious will seem less like a schoolgirl's
penknife and more like a soldier's sword. "I'm being a politikon Zoon!"
she boasted to herself. She had always liked the expression when she
read it in _The Scotsman_ Leaders.

And here they were! The audience made a tumult that was half applause
and half exclamation at a prodigy, and the three women who made their
way on the platform seemed to be moving through the noise as through a
viscid element. The woman doctor, who was to be the chairman, lowered
her curly grey head against it buttingly; Mrs. Ormiston, the mother of
the famous rebels Brynhild, Melissa, and Guendolen, and herself a
heroine, lifted a pale face where defiance dwelt among the remains of
dark loveliness like a beacon lit on a grey castle keep; and Mrs. Mark
Lyle, a white and golden wonder in a beautiful bright dress, moved
swimmingly about and placed herself on a chair like a fastidious lily
choosing its vase. Oh! it was going to be lovely! Wasn't it ridiculous
of that man Yaverland to have stayed away and missed all this glory, to
say nothing of wasting a good half-crown and a ticket which someone
might have been glad of? It just showed that men were hopeless and there
was no doing anything for them.

But then suddenly she saw him. He was standing at one of the entrances
on the other side of the hall, looking tremendous and strange in a
peaked cap and raindashed oilskins, as though he had