d the over-indulgent mother that spoil our men--"

"Undoubtedly; it is they who keep them from their best development,"
answered Gertrude. "But I'm rather glad on the whole, to have an
opponent like Mr. Allingham--a foeman worthy of my steel, so to speak.
If I win over him it will count for something, whereas to beat a man
like Barnaby Burke--" She made a wry face.

"Yes--I grant that," said Bailey. "And you'll come near beating, too.
We shall have to work harder than ever, but I'll beat Jack
Allingham--or bust! Excuse the slang, Gertie, but I've got to relieve my
feelings."

"You always were a great boy," laughed Miss Van Deusen, "and you always
will be. Here's Jessie with letters. Get her to play to you while I read
mine."

He went into the music-room and left her by the open fire. One of the
letters bore the emblem of the Municipal League. She tore it open and
read:

"My Dear Miss Van Deusen:

As the daughter of your respected and beloved father and as the
hereditary flower of womanhood of Roma, I owe you both allegiance
and admiration. But holding, as I do, the sincere conviction that
women belittle themselves and lower the standards of all humanity
when they enter the public arena, I feel justified in announcing
myself your opposition candidate. I have just consented to allow my
name to be used, and I feel that I wish you to know it at once.

Yours respectfully,
John Allingham."

And having read it, she placed it on the glowing coals, smiling softly
to herself the while.

CHAPTER VI

A Political Trick

The campaign was a furious one after that. The women, instead of leaving
the management of things to men, were stirred to wonderful activity.
They worked, not only among the men of their own acquaintance, but among
the working-people; they held meetings in factories at noon, or in
school-rooms or cheap halls at night in the districts where the
factory-hands lived. They spoke at mass-meetings and rallies, and if
they did not appear in torchlight processions, they saw that many
banners were carried in them, bearing the women's motto and legend. It
was a hard fight, but a good one, and the cause of womanhood as well as
of good government was advanced by it.

When Sam Watts, for instance, with his pockets well-lined, went down
into the district where lived the emp