to go to
them," she confessed, later, after they had become confidential. "My
husband is a manufacturer, and I was anxious to see whether they would
try to get light on the questions that they are tackling, or would
simply form an opinion beforehand and talk about it."

"Well, how did they strike you?"

"They didn't strike me at all; I went to two of them; but the first one,
two southern acquaintances of mine lured me out into a committee-room,
to tell me the dreadful things Massachusetts was going to do about the
color question--not one of which had entered our heads, by the way--and
the other meeting, I sat back in the hall and couldn't hear anything,
and a Massachusetts friend came in, very calm but deeply excited, and
got me out in the hall to tell me the plots of the Georgia delegation.
Between them, I didn't hear a word of the industrial question. I'm told
Missouri has been studying preventive legislation in regard to woman and
child labor for the last year; what did they decide to recommend?"

"Well," said Mrs. Hardy, drily, "you see they were studying for a
_year_; if they had taken the subject for a month or two, no doubt they
would have had opinions; but as it was, they didn't recommend anything.
But what you say about the sessions made me think. I find that there are
two classes of delegates, those who are interested in the meetings and
those who simply go to the meetings to get a better chance to pull
wires. It makes me more at sea than ever about the object of the
federation. What do _you_ think it is?"

The Massachusetts woman meditated. She was a handsome woman, a woman
with ancestors, it was evident, for the blue and gold of the Colonial
Dames badge, and the enamel star and scarlet ribbon of the Order of
Colonial Governors illuminated the white chiffon of her bodice; and
there were five bars on the scarlet ribbon. "My idea of the object is
simply that it is a clearing-house," said she; "and so far it is
democratic, for it brings us all together; and I," said the descendant
of governors and warriors, "_I'm_ democratic. Look at us. It is not only
that we represent so many different classes, we represent so many
sections of the country. In fact, about this color question, I feel that
it is more important for the north and the south to get acquainted and
friendly, working together, than it is for us to give the opportunities
of the federation to a few colored people."

"I don't look at it that way, it