op at the "Disabilities;" and
it had become notorious that it was just a mile from King's Cross to
the "Disabilities." There had been serious thoughts among those who
were dominant in the Institute of taking down the big board and
dropping the word. But then a change of a name implies such a
confession of failure! It had on the whole been thought better to
maintain the courage of the opinion which had first made the mistake.
"So you're going to the Disabilities, are you?" Mrs. Houghton had said
to Lady George.

"I'm to be taken by old Miss Mildmay."

"Oh, yes; Aunt Ju is a sort of first-class priestess among them. Don't
let them bind you over to belong to them. Don't go in for it." Lady
George had declared it to be very improbable that she should go in for
it, but had adhered to her determination of visiting the Institute.

She called in Green Street fearing that she should see Guss Mildmay
whom she had determined to keep at arm's distance as well as her
friendship with Mrs. Houghton would permit; but Aunt Ju was ready for
her in the passage. "I forgot to tell you that we ought to be a little
early, as I have to take the chair. I daresay we shall do very well,"
she added, "if the man drives fast. But the thing is so important! One
doesn't like to be flurried when one gets up to make the preliminary
address." The only public meetings at which Mary had ever been present
had appertained to certain lectures at Brotherton, at which her father
or some other clerical dignity had presided, and she could not as yet
understand that such a duty should be performed by a woman. She
muttered something expressing a hope that all would go right. "I've got
to introduce the Baroness, you know."

"Introduce the Baroness?"

"The Baroness Banmann. Haven't you seen the bill of the evening? The
Baroness is going to address the meeting on the propriety of
patronising female artists,--especially in regard to architecture. A
combined college of female architects is to be established in Posen and
Chicago, and why should we not have a branch in London, which is the
centre of the world?"

"Would a woman have to build a house?" asked Lady George.

"She would draw the plans, and devise the proportions, and--and--do the
aesthetic part of it. An architect doesn't carry bricks on his back, my
dear."

"But he walks over planks, I suppose."

"And so could I walk over a plank; why not as well as a man? But you
will hear what the Baroness says.