Sargent had continued. "We've got enough widows
and single women in now; what we want are the real mothers, who need
shaking out of the groove!"

Mrs. Sargent happened to be President of the Club at that time, so Mrs.
Salisbury had only to ignore graciously the rather offensive phrasing
of the invitation, and to await the news of her election, which duly
and promptly arrived.

And now Justine had been asked to speak at the Forum! It was the most
distasteful bit of information that had come Mrs. Salisbury's way in a
long, long time! She felt in her heart a stinging resentment against
Mrs. Sargent, with her mad notions of equality, and against Justine,
who was so complacently and contentedly accepting this monstrous state
of affairs.

"That is very kind of Mrs. Sargent," said she, fighting for dignity;
"she is very much interested in working girls and their problems, and I
suppose she thinks this might be a good advertisement for the school,
too." This idea had just come to Mrs. Salisbury, and she found it
vaguely soothing. "But I don't like the idea," she ended firmly;
"it--it seems very odd, very--very conspicuous. I should prefer you not
to consider anything of the kind."

"I should prefer" was said in the tone that means "I command," yet
Justine was not satisfied.

"Oh, but why?" she asked.

"If you force me to discuss it," said Mrs. Salisbury, in sudden anger,
"because you are my maid! My gracious, YOU ARE MY MAID," she repeated,
pent-up irritation finding an outlet at last. "There is such a
relationship as mistress and maid, after all! While you are in my house
you will do as I say. It is the mistress's place to give orders, not to
take them, not to have to argue and defend herself--"

"Certainly, if it is a question about the work the maid is supposed to
do," Justine defended herself, with more spirit than the other woman
had seen her show before. "But what she does with her leisure--why it's
just the same as what a clerk does with his leisure, nobody questions
it, nobody--"

"I tell you that I will not stand here and argue with you," said Mrs.
Salisbury, with more dignity in her tone than in her words. "I say that
I don't care to have my maid exploited by a lot of fashionable women at
a club, and that ends it! And I must add," she went on, "that I am
extremely surprised that Mrs. Sargent should approach you in such a
matter, without consulting me!"

"The relationship of mistress and maid," Justine sai