that she was talking in riddles, she gave an account
of the accident, and repeated old Mrs. Donegan's plea that the story of
the staircase with its double tragedy be told that afternoon, in order
that public sentiment might be aroused in behalf of the people of the
tenements.

"I wish it had been Mr. Stoner himself who fell through those rotten
stairs!" stormed Mary, her face white with indignation and her eyes
blazing angrily. "I never felt such a mighty wrath rise up in me before!
I could stop right here on the street corner and call out his name so
all the town could hear. I'd like to shout 'Here's your model citizen!
Here's the kind, benevolent man who buys your praise with his gifts to
the poor. Look what he has done for the Reillys and for Dena!' It isn't
as if he didn't know what condition the place is in. He'd been warned
that the steps were unsafe, even before the first accident. And to think
he let it go on ten years after it had been condemned and cost one
life--"

She stopped abruptly, finding words futile to express her feelings, and
Mrs. Blythe, taking the crumpled sheet, hastily scanned it. They were
turning into Main Street when she finished, and with a glance at the
clock in the front of the car she told the chauffeur to go around by Mr.
Blythe's office.

"It may make us a little late for the first speech," she said, "but I
must ask Mr. Blythe's advice. I shall tell this story of the two
accidents of course. It will illustrate one point I am trying to make
better than anything else I could say. But I don't know how personal I
ought to make it. It would be a centre shot at the enemy, and _might_
help to defeat Stoner in the election day after to-morrow if I could
mention him by name, and emphasize the big rents he collects from those
working girls and factory men, but it may not be wise for me to do it,
in the interest of the bill. It might antagonize all his party, as he is
one of the most influential of the local bosses. I must ask Mr. Blythe
just how far I can go."

Two minutes later they stopped at the office, and Mary, watching from
her seat in the car, saw Mrs. Blythe go in and the stenographer rise
hurriedly from her desk beside the big front window, and come forward.
Evidently what she was telling Mrs. Blythe was very unexpected and
agitating, for she came out looking pale and frightened, and spoke only
the one word, "Home," as she sank back limply in her seat.

"Dudley was taken suddenly i