ing her, and how she had extracted a proposal before he
knew what he was about, and had him at the altar before he was ready to
support a wife in the style she had been accustomed to hope for. She
remembered only the dreams he had not brought true, the harsh realities
of their struggle upward. She had worked and skimped with him then. Now
she was like a lolling passenger in a jinrikisha, who berates the shabby
coolie because he stumbles where the roads are rough and sweats where
they are steep.

Julie spoke up in answer to her mother's word of caution:

"There's one thing better than being careful what you marry--and that's
not marrying at all!"

The rest of them were used to Julie's views; but Pop, who had paid
little heed to them, almost collapsed from his chair. Julie went on:

"Men are all alike, Mere. They're very soft-spoken when they come to
make love; but it's only a bluff to make us give up our freedom. Before
we know it they drag us up before another man, a preacher, and make us
swear to love, honor, and obey. They kill the love, make the honor
impossible, and the obey ridiculous. Then they coop us up at home and
expect us to let them run the world to suit themselves. They've been
running it for thousands of years--and look at the botch they've made of
it! It's time for us to take the helm."

"Go to it, sis," said Ethelwolf. "I care not who makes the laws so long
as I can break them."

"Let your sister alone!" said _Mere_. "Go on, Julie!"

"I've put it all in the address I read before the Federation last week,"
said Julie. "It was reported at length in one of the papers. I've got a
clipping in my handbag here somewhere."

She began to rummage through a little condensed chaos of handkerchiefs,
gloves, powder-puff, powdery dollar bills, powdery coins, loose bits of
paper, samples, thread, pins, buttons--everything--every-whichway.

J. Pennock laughed. "Pipe what's going to run the world! Better get a
few pockets first."

"Don't be a brute, Pen!" said _Mere_.

At last Julie found the clipping she sought and, shaking the powder from
it, handed it to her mother.

"It's on the strength of this speech that I was elected delegate to the
international convention at San Francisco," she said.

"You were!" _Mere_ gasped, and Beatrice and Consuelo exclaimed,
"Ripsnorting!"

"Are you going?" said _Mere_ when she recovered from her awe.

"Well, it's a pretty expensive trip. That's why I came home--to see
i