44 MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 



Miss Badsworth glanced round at the heaped-up papers 

 on the table, and from them her eyes roved to pigeon-holes 

 filled with neatly docketed bundles of documents, 



*' Our hands are full," she said, as if thinking aloud. 

 "That Society for taking over the Responsibility of Parents 

 requires all our energies if it is to be successful. Already 

 there are ten sets of parents ready to hand over the upbring- 

 ing of their offspring — for a consideration — (they are not very 

 desirable people, but we must begin somewhere), there may 

 be a hundred to-morrow, and we are not very well prepared ; 

 it is difficult to foresee the complications which arise in each 

 case. Don't you think if these children are brought up and 

 educated to abhor the various items which the Humanitarian 

 Society seeks to abolish, it would be better than stirring up 

 a crusade of opposition ? " 



" My dear Miss Badsworth, you surprise me ! Is all this 

 cruelty and suffering to go on for a generation without our 

 protest ? Are men, and I regret to say women on occasion, 

 to go on unchecked ? Take the case of the thousands of 

 birds — pheasants, partridges and grouse — which are annually 

 fattened for the gratification of the blood-thirstiness of so- 

 called sportsmen ; think of the amount of suffering inflicted, 

 think " 



" I don't fancy partridges to any extent, and certainly 

 grouse are fattened for slaughter ; the pheasants perhaps are 

 so, but " 



Mrs. Dickinson in her turn interrupted. 



*' There surely can be no * buts '. Take the case of poor 

 hunted animals ; think of the horror when men and dogs 

 with savage cries are terrifying the life out of them ; think 

 of the agony when cruel fangs ' break up/ as it is, I believe, 

 called, the quivering carcase, and men, human beings, gloat 

 in the gore with which the dumb creation is encouraged — 

 'blooded,' I think they called it. How can you smile ?" 



" I beg your pardon," Miss Badsworth said, composing 

 her face, upon which had inadvertently appeared traces of 

 amusement. " It's as well not to overdo the horrors ; I am 



