ut her 'bloomin' policy.' No hint in her of the cheap smartness that
had wrecked the other speaker. In that highly original place for such
manifestation, Ernestine offered all unconsciously a new lesson of the
moral value that may lie in good-breeding. She won the loutish crowd to
listen to her on her own terms.

'Both parties,' she was saying, 'have been glad enough to use women's
help to get candidates elected. We've been quite intelligent enough to
canvass for them; we were intelligent enough to explain to the ignorant
men----' She acknowledged the groans by saying, 'Of course there are
none of that sort here, but elsewhere there are such things as ignorant
men, and women by dozens and by scores are sent about to explain to them
why they should vote this way or that. But as the chairman told you, any
woman who does that kind of thing in the future is a very poor creature.
She deserves no sympathy when her candidate forgets his pledge and
sneers at Womanhood in the House. If we put ourselves under men's feet
we must _expect_ to be trodden on. We've come to think it's time women
should give up the door-mat attitude. That's why we've determined on a
policy of independence. We see how well independence has worked for the
Irish party--we see what a power in the House even the little Labour
party is, with only thirty members. Some say those thirty Labour members
lead the great Liberal majority by the nose----'

'Hear! hear!'

'Rot!'

They began to cheer Lothian Scott. Some one tossed Mr. Chamberlain's
name into the air. Like a paper balloon it was kept afloat by vigorous
puffings of the human breath. ''Ray fur Joe!' 'Three cheers for
Joe!'--and it looked as if Ernestine had lost them.

'Listen!' She held out her hands for silence, but the tumult only grew.
'Just a moment. I want to tell you men--here's a friend of yours--he's a
new-comer, but he looks just your kind! Give him a hearing.' She
strained her voice to overtop the din. 'He's a _Liberal_.'

'Hooray!'

'Yes, I thought you'd listen to a Liberal. He's asking that old
question, Why did we wait till the Liberals came in? Why didn't we worry
the Conservatives when they were in power? The answer to that is that
the Woman's Suffrage cause was then still in the stage of mild
constitutional propaganda. Women were still occupied in being ladylike
and trying to get justice by deserving it. Now wait a moment.' She
stemmed another torrent. 'Be quiet, while I tell you s