ure to be defeated. He doesn't
care to be the figure-head of Defeat."

"That's the way they all feel," said Gertrude Van Deusen. "I wish I
were a man. I'd run for mayor! I wouldn't let the figure of Defeat worry
me. I'd make a fight, I would, and we'd see if the demagogues had
everything their own way."

"Why not run, then?" asked Mrs. Bateman, smiling across the table.

"I'd get every decent man roused up, for once," said Gertrude,
enthusiastically, "I'd go into every ward and organize--as they do. I'd
work among the poor, the illiterate, the unfortunate; and I'd rouse the
rich and educated, too. That's the class that need awakening in this
town."

"Then you're the right candidate," said Mrs. Bateman. "Why don't you
take it? Really, now, why not?"

"O, Mrs. Bateman, I was only imagining a case." Miss Van Deusen was
blushing and confused now. "Of course I couldn't run for office, not
really."

"Why not?" asked the elder woman in the calm, judicial way which made
her a leader among women. "Why not? The town is going to the dogs--or
rather, to the demagogues. We need a complete revolution in Roma. We
women have the vote in this state; why not take matters into our own
hands? Why not have a woman for mayor?"

"O-o-oh!" gasped several of her hearers in the slight pause.

"Think of the field of activities that would open up before a good
woman," she went on. "The condition of our paupers, of our children's
institutions, of our schools. Think of the intemperance and the vagrancy
and the immorality that flourish under our very noses. Yes, and the
machine-politics that keep them flourishing. Oh, there is so much to be
done, and our good men too busy, or--as they claim--too high-minded to
meddle with it."

"Then what would, what could a decent woman do with it?" demanded Mrs.
Jewett.

"Walk through it like an angel of light," answered Mrs. Bateman.
"Ladies, we as the 'Progressive Workers' have labored ten years to
effect reforms in this town, to further the interests of the schools,
the poor, the dependent. What have we accomplished?"

"Why, why, a little," replied Mrs. Jewett. "Enough to have made our
names respected and--yes, a little to be feared."

"But not enough," resumed Mrs. Bateman. "Not so much as we ought to have
done. Not so much as we might have done had the City Council been with,
instead of against us, or at best, merely tolerant of us. Now here is
our opportunity. The lower element has put up a ma