st, and anxious to bring the others round to her point of view.
Once more, she knew exactly and indisputably what is right and what
is wrong. As if emerging from a mist, the old foes of the public
good loomed ahead of her--capitalists, newspaper proprietors,
anti-suffragists, and, in some ways most pernicious of all, the masses
who take no interest one way or another--among whom, for the time being,
she certainly discerned the features of Ralph Denham. Indeed, when Miss
Markham asked her to suggest the names of a few friends of hers, she
expressed herself with unusual bitterness:

"My friends think all this kind of thing useless." She felt that she was
really saying that to Ralph himself.

"Oh, they're that sort, are they?" said Miss Markham, with a little
laugh; and with renewed vigor their legions charged the foe.

Mary's spirits had been low when she entered the committee-room; but now
they were considerably improved. She knew the ways of this world; it was
a shapely, orderly place; she felt convinced of its right and its
wrong; and the feeling that she was fit to deal a heavy blow against her
enemies warmed her heart and kindled her eye. In one of those flights of
fancy, not characteristic of her but tiresomely frequent this afternoon,
she envisaged herself battered with rotten eggs upon a platform, from
which Ralph vainly begged her to descend. But--

"What do I matter compared with the cause?" she said, and so on. Much to
her credit, however teased by foolish fancies, she kept the surface of
her brain moderate and vigilant, and subdued Mrs. Seal very tactfully
more than once when she demanded, "Action!--everywhere!--at once!" as
became her father's daughter.

The other members of the committee, who were all rather elderly people,
were a good deal impressed by Mary, and inclined to side with her and
against each other, partly, perhaps, because of her youth. The feeling
that she controlled them all filled Mary with a sense of power; and she
felt that no work can equal in importance, or be so exciting as, the
work of making other people do what you want them to do. Indeed, when
she had won her point she felt a slight degree of contempt for the
people who had yielded to her.

The committee now rose, gathered together their papers, shook them
straight, placed them in their attache-cases, snapped the locks firmly
together, and hurried away, having, for the most part, to catch trains,
in order to keep other appoint