is an impossible
thing, though, and the sooner he can be cured of it the better,"
said Lady Tyrrell. "I am sorry that walk took place yesterday.--Did
he mention it at home, Cecil?"

"You are a very inconsistent woman, Lady Tyrrell," broke in Mrs.
Duncombe in her abrupt way. "Here you are come to uphold the
emancipation of woman, and yet, when we come to your own sister
taking one poor walk--"

"I beg your pardon, Bessie," said Lady Tyrrell, with her most
courteous manner. "I never said I was come to uphold the
emancipation of woman; only to subject myself to Mrs. Tallboys'
influence--she has to make a convert of me."

For, of course, Lady Tyrrell was only drawn into the controversy as
a matter of amusement, and possibly as something specially
distasteful to the house of Charnock Poynsett; and Cecil was a good
deal influenced by the fascination of her example, as well as by the
eagerness of Mrs. Duncombe and the charms of the Americans; and
above all, they conspired in making her feel herself important, and
assuming that she must be foremost in all that was done. She did
not controvert the doctrines of Dunstone so entirely as to embrace
the doctrines of emancipation, but she thought that free ventilation
was due to every subject, most especially when the Member's wife was
the leading lady in bringing about such discussion. The opposition
made in the town to Mrs. Duncombe's sanitary plans, and the contempt
with which they had been treated as ladies' fancies, had given a
positive field of battle, with that admixture of right and wrong on
either side which is essential to championship. And in truth Cecil
was so much more under the influence of Camilla Tyrrell and Bessie
Duncombe than under that of any other person, that she was ready to
espouse any cause that they did.

How to arrange for the intended instruction was the difficulty,
since Wil'sbro' was without a town-hall, and, moreover, the
inhabitants were averse to all varieties of change, either as to the
claims of women, the inequality of social laws, the improvement of
education, or the comprehension of social science--the regular
course which Mrs. Clio W. Tallboys was wont to lecture.

The matter could only be managed by arranging a series of soirees at
different houses. Mrs. Duncombe's rooms were far too small; but if
some person of more note--'some swell' as she said--would make the
beginning, there would be no difficulty in bringing others to follow