ck would look
like the Brooklyn Bridge by comparison."

"Hear, hear!" cried Jack. "Miss Holland has certainly made an impression
upon you; not that I see what difference it makes, since women already
vote where you hail from."

"That just goes to show how foolish a smart man can be," replied his
brother cheerfully. "You think because you may have a vote on the
enfranchisement of women that it is very important what you think, but
is it? Not at all. But with me it is different. I've paid office rent in
Denver for two years, and spent a third of the time here or in
Washington. I've looked in on two State conventions, and forgot to
register at the last election, but because I come from Colorado I am
considered an authority on woman suffrage, and when I say it's no good,
and swell out my chest and look gloomy, it has great weight, great
weight!" He leaned back in his chair and gave way to unseemly mirth as
he recalled some occasion on which he had evidently hoaxed some trusting
reporter.

"Nonsense, Frank," his brother-in-law answered. "I don't believe you
know the first thing about politics or suffrage, or what the women have
done or haven't done."

"There you wrong me," the young man answered gravely. "The first thing
to know in politics is when to come into the game and when to keep out.
Personally, I can't make my firm believe that it is cheaper to buy the
other fellows' men after they are elected than it is to try to elect our
own, and have them raise the ante on us, but they'll come to it after a
while. As to the women, bless you, voting doesn't change their nature,
and so long as women are willing to believe what men tell them, it's
mighty unsafe to trust them with the ballot. Before you know it, they'll
find us out, and then you'll see the first result of the suffragist
dream of heaven on earth--there'll be no more marrying or giving in
marriage. Oh, I'm dead against it!"

They all joined in the laughter that followed this sally, and Hilda
said thoughtfully, "If you boys are intent on this meeting, I'll hurry
dinner, for they probably begin early." As she rose to go, Frank caught
her hand with the piteous entreaty, "Oh, please make my big brother take
his marbles and go home. He wasn't asked to this party. Miss Holland
didn't say a thing to him. I don't see why he has to have first show
with all the pretty girls in New York!"

"When Miss Holland knows you, and all your native charm, she will never
smile agai