terms you're about to use, to wait till we get home." Under
the spell of this admonition, the Irishman contented himself with
subterranean mutterings, to which his wife discreetly paid no attention.

"But what's it all about?" Ferguson inquired sharply, of his daughter.

"Ah, forget it!" came the unfilial retort. Then, recalling the Vere De
Vere, she amended her statement: "I mean, father dear, do not make a
scene, I beg of you."

"A scene!" Ferguson exclaimed, savagely. "Why, I'll--"

What the irate Yankee might have done was never revealed, for he was
interrupted by Cicily, who had now recovered her poise, so that she
spoke pleasantly, favoring the tumultuous parent with her sweetest
smile.

"Sadie and the other ladies came to call on me, Mr. Ferguson," she
exclaimed, well aware that this announcement left the mystery of the
women's presence as it had been before.

Mrs. McMahon, however, shed a ray of light on the puzzle.

"Faith, and 'tis that," she agreed, glibly. "We just dropped in for a
cup of tea with a member of our club."

It was Hamilton who now interrupted further questions by the three
husbands. He had been nervously fidgeting where he stood, and at last
his impatience found vent in words.

"I'm not interested in these domestic affairs," he snapped. "If you men
have anything to say to your wives and daughters, take them home, and
say it to them there. This is not the place for it. There's only one
thing that I have time to listen to from you."

Schmidt waddled forward a pace beyond his fellows, and addressed his
former employer with the dignity born of constituted authority.

"Well, Mr. Hamilton," he said ponderously, with his accent more
pronounced than usual by reason of the emotion under which he labored,
"I speak as the chairman of the committee. So, sir, you will listen to
us right here and now." He paused for a moment to wipe the perspiration
from his forehead with an adequately huge handkerchief.

Ferguson seized on the opportunity thus given to voice the rancor that
was in his heart.

"Yes, yes," he cried excitedly, "you want to understand that we're men!
We're striking--yes! But we're fighting you in the open, like men. And
we've come to tell you that we're not going to stand for the way you
fight.... Is that plain enough for you, Mr. Hamilton?"

The amazement of Hamilton over the charge thus brought against him was
undoubtedly genuine. He stepped forward as if to strike, but check