CHAPTER VII. 



'< My dear Miss Badsworth, I have no doubt in my mind that 

 this is a step which we, in the position we occupy, are bound 

 to take ; it is part and parcel, I may say the very essence, of 

 the attitude which we have taken up in the world. We must 

 take the lead ; women have been followers long enough." 



The speaker, Mrs. Dickinson, a woman of austere appear- 

 ance, had forgotten that she was paying a private visit, and 

 had broken out into a phase of platform oratory upon which 

 she prided herself. *' I am not quite sure," uttered medita- 

 tively by Miss Badsworth, had drawn forth the winged words. 

 Miss Badsworth was an ally, but Miss Badsworth was, in 

 Mrs. Dickinson's heart, a rival at the shrine of popularity. 

 There was something persuasive in the tone of her voice 

 which Mrs. Dickinson's lacked, and moreover Miss Bads- 

 worth was a lady who lived in Portman Square, and in 

 consequence had adherents of some weight ; not that that 

 mattered in the joint cause — at least it ought not to have 

 mattered. 



The subject in hand was the Humanitarian Society, and 

 Mrs. Dickinson had set down the axiom that a Woman's 

 Branch was a necessity ; that if the matter were considered 

 at all the hand of Woman should be upon the helm, not 

 merely engaged in trimming the sails. 



*' Surely, Miss Badsworth, cruelty in any form must be 

 stamped out ; " a hand was laid upon the table with consider- 

 able force. " There must be a clean sweep of all those 

 things which savour of oppression if the world is to feel that 

 Woman has earned emancipation, even if it is temporarily, 

 and as we think unjustly, withheld from her as a right." 



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