veins of
religious feeling in the most hard-headed men. I saw that Titherington
had a theological side to his character and I respected him all the more
for it.

"Here's a letter," he said, "from one of the suffrage societies,
offering to send down speakers to help us. As I said before, women are
a nuisance, but it's just possible that there may be a few cranks
among that temperance lot. You'll notice that if a man has one fad he
generally runs to a dozen, and there may be a few who really want women
to get votes. We can't afford to chuck away any chances. If I could get
deputations from the Anti-Vaccinationists and the Anti-Gamblers I would.
But I'd be afraid of their going back on us and supporting Vittie.
Anyhow, if these women are the right sort they'll pursue Vittie round
and round the constituency and yell at him every time he opens his
mouth."

I took the letter from Titherington. It was headed A.S.P.L. and signed
Lalage Beresford.

"Are you quite sure," I said, "that the A.S.P.L. is a woman's suffrage
society?"

"It must be," said Titherington. "The letter's signed by a woman, at
least I suppose Lalage is a woman's name. It certainly isn't a man's."

"Still----"

"And what the devil would women be writing to us for if they weren't
Suffragettes?"

"But A.S.P.L. doesn't stand for----"

"It must," said Titherington. "S stands for Suffrage, doesn't it? The
rest is some fancy conglomeration. I tell you that there are so many of
these societies nowadays that it's pretty hard for a new one to find a
name at all."

"All the same----"

"There's no use arguing about their name. The question we have to
decide is whether it's worth our while importing Suffragettes into the
constituency or not."

If Titherington had not interrupted me so often and if he had not
displayed such complete self-confidence I should have told him what the
A.S.P.L. really was and warned him to be very careful about enlisting
Lalage's aid. But I was nettled by his manner and felt that it would
be very good for him to find out his mistake for himself. I remained
silent.

"I think the best thing I can do," he said, "is to interview the lady. I
can judge then whether she's likely to be any use to us."

I felt very pleased to think that Titherington would learn his mistake
from Lalage herself. He will be much less arrogant afterward.

"If she is simply an old frump with a bee in her bonnet," he said, "who
wants to bore people, I'll h