w that these eyes were preoccupied and
only half attending. "She has a hundred things on her mind, and she's
asking, 'Now let's try to see if there's really anything here worth
while.'" The preliminaries were already over. That part at least had
gone smoothly enough. "We're off!" thought Ethel excitedly.

"How will you have your tea?" she asked.

"Clear with lemon."

"One lump or two?"

"Three or four."

"Oh, how funny," Ethel laughed. And then she reddened. "You little
goose," she exclaimed to herself, "why did you say, 'how funny'?" She
poured the tea with a trembling hand and proffered it with a plate of
cakes and small toasted crumpets, dainties she had purchased with care
at a smart little shop in the neighbourhood. And meanwhile she was
answering the questions, pleasant but searching, though thrown out in a
casual voice.

"Yes, my home was in Ohio. Such a dear old town," she said. But the
next moment she bit her lips, for she had come so near to adding, "I
wish I were back this very minute!" What was her visitor saying? She
frowned and leaned forward attentively. Something about a small town in
Vermont and the funny local politics there. "Where is she leading by
that remark?" Oh, yes, suffrage! That was all right!

"Yes, indeed," declared Ethel eagerly, "I'm for suffrage heart and soul!
I marched in the parade last Fall! Wasn't it glorious? Were you
there?"

"Yes, I marched--"

"With the gardeners?" Ethel blushed again. "Landscape, I mean!" And her
visitor smiled.

"Yes, with the gardeners," she said. "There were only four of us, but
we felt like the Four Hundred." Ethel giggled excitedly.

"Wasn't it glorious?" she exclaimed. "You ninny!" she thought. "You
said that once!" And she hastened to add, "And isn't it perfectly silly
for men to try to keep us from marching?"

"You mean your husband doesn't approve?"

"Approve!" Ethel echoed with a sniff. "I'd like to see him disapprove.
I have him in fair control, I think." And she knitted her brows in an
eager way, for this was a chance to tell how she had done it.

"How long have you been married!" her visitor was asking.

"Let me see. Four years? No, two," she replied, with a quick smile.
"Time does so fly along in this town!"

"It does indeed. It seems hardly any time at all since the days when
your husband and I were friends."

"Oh, yes, he has often told me about you!" And Ethel shot a swift
anxious look. "I know you don't like him," she wan