Kitty Walton and Katie Mallard and all the rest--well, I
can't talk about it calmly. The thought of missing it is too grievous to
mention in public. Enough said. Only the lonely pillow and the midnight
hour shall hear my plaint.

"I couldn't possibly bear the disappointment if we were not so busy.
Mrs. Blythe is massing her forces like a major-general, and I am too
deeply interested in the fight to let my personal affairs stand in the
way. Three months ago, in my innocence and ignorance, I could not have
believed that any fight would be necessary. I would have taken it for
granted that all one had to do was to put the plain facts before the
public and show what a danger and disgrace such houses are to a
community, and it would rise up of its own accord to change conditions.
I was utterly amazed when I found that there are respectable men who not
only will do nothing to help, but will throw all their weight on the
other side, and spend hundreds of dollars to prevent the passage of such
a law.

"And I've learned a lot about politics, too. I've come to see that it's
just a great, greedy hand, reaching out to get the best of everything
for itself. You don't see how it _could_ want to interfere with anything
like giving people decenter houses to live in, and wiping the causes of
disease out of the world, but it does, and it dips in just where you'd
least expect it. That is why Mrs. Blythe is so anxiously watching the
results of the city election, which is to be held next week.

"Mr. Stoner, the owner of Diamond Row, is one of the candidates for
office, and if he gets in he'll have it in his power to pull lots of
wires against us in the Legislature. There is almost no hope of
defeating him. Don't think that Mrs. Blythe has gone in personally for
politics or anything like that, because she hasn't. But she has waked up
a lot of influential people to work for her cause, and induced one of
the foremost men in the senate to introduce the bill. Also she has
managed to get an invitation to explain it all to a big audience that
will be in the Opera House next week, before the election.

"We are so excited over that, for it is one of the Big Opportunities
that we hope will count for a great deal. She has a love of a new gown
to wear, and a big black hat with plumes, and her speech is certainly
soul-stirring. I wish you could hear her. It's nothing but 'the short
and simple annals of the poor,' but when she gets done there won't be