g elegantly in her place, she spoke:

"Madam Chairman, I rise to a point of order."

"Very well, then, Mrs. Carrington," Cicily rejoined, with her most
official manner, "please rise."

The outraged member bounced to her feet with an alacrity that was not
her habit. It was evident that the lady was angry.

"Really," she declared in an acid voice, "I never in my whole life--"

"What was your point of order?" Cicily interrupted, blandly.

"Why, well--well--that is, I've forgotten it now. But it was very big!"

The presiding officer's sense of humor ran away with her discretion.

"The chair," she announced gravely, "regrets exceedingly that the member
found her point of order too big to raise."

[Illustration]

It was Mrs. Delancy who, after her usual fashion, strove to restore
peace, as Mrs. Carrington indignantly settled back into her chair:

"Madam Chairman, if this meeting is called to consider the election of
new members, I would like to nominate Mrs. McMahon, Mrs. Schmidt and
Miss Ferguson."

Ruth now made display of her customary need for information. She turned
her large eyes on the presiding officer, and inquired plaintively:

"How do you elect new members?"

Cicily explained with an air of patient toleration.

"They must first be nominated, my dear, and then be seconded. You have a
chance of performing a valuable service to the club now, Ruth, by
seconding the nominations already made."

"Oh, have I?" the girl demanded, animatedly, evidently pleased by this
unexpected opportunity of fulfilling her ideals. "Well, then, I second
them--yes, every one of them!"

"It is moved and seconded," Cicily stated briskly, "that Mrs. McMahon,
Mrs. Schmidt and Miss Sadie Ferguson be elected as members of the
Civitas Society for the Uplift of Women and the Spread of Social
Equality among the Masses."

The militant suffragette was on her feet before the presiding officer
had finished speaking.

"Madam Chairman," she announced in her resonant voice, "I rise on a
question of rules."

"But there is a question before the house," Cicily protested.

"I am exceedingly sorry to antagonize the chair," Mrs. Flynn maintained
resolutely, "but, since my late lamentable experience in this club, I
have made it a point to look up the matter of parliamentary law as
exercised in America." By way of verification, she held aloft a
formidable-appearing, fat volume. "Now, I would like to know whether
members are elected to this