mely dull and
decided against asking him to dinner with his sister. The wife of the
thin banker, who was in his charge at the theater, got the benefit of
his effort to rouse himself and grace the occasion creditably, and
found him delightful. By the time the evening was over he had decided
that Beulah should be pulled out of whatever dim world of dismay and
delusion she might be wandering in, at whatever cost. It was
unthinkable that she should be wasted, or that her youth and splendid
vitality should go for naught.

He found her eager to talk to him the next night when he went to see
her.

"Peter," she said, "I want you to go to my aunt and my mother, and
tell them that I've got to go on with my work,--that I can't be
stopped and interrupted by this foolishness of doctors and nurses. I
never felt better in my life, except for not being able to sleep, and
I think that is due to the way they have worried me. I live in a world
they don't know anything about, that's all. Even if they were right,
if I am wearing myself out soul and body for the sake of the cause,
what business is it of theirs to interfere? I'm working for the souls
and bodies of women for ages to come. What difference does it make if
my soul and body suffer? Why shouldn't they?" Her eyes narrowed. Peter
observed the unnatural light in them, the apparent dryness of her
lips, the two bright spots burning below her cheek-bones.

"Because," he answered her slowly, "I don't think it was the original
intention of Him who put us here that we should sacrifice everything
we are to the business of emphasizing the superiority of a sex."

"That isn't the point at all, Peter. No man understands, no man can
understand. It's woman's equality we want emphasized, just literally
that and nothing more. You've pauperized and degraded us long
enough--"

"Thou canst not say I--" Peter began.

"Yes, you and every other man, every man in the world is a party to
it."

"I had to get her going," Peter apologized to himself, "in order to
get a point of departure. Not if I vote for women, Beulah, dear," he
added aloud.

"If you throw your influence with us instead of against us," she
conceded, "you're helping to right the wrong that you have permitted
for so long."

"Well, granting your premise, granting all your premises, Beulah--and
I admit that most of them have sound reasoning behind them--your
battle now is all over but the shouting. There's no reason that you
person