SOME STRENUOUS ANTI-SUFFRAGISTS
Several of the New York papers carried lurid headlines and more or less
sensational accounts of the accident to the child and the treatment
administered by Dr. Earl, as well as a tribute to the heroism of the
volunteer nurse. All of them contained a report of some character of
these occurrences.
When Dr. Earl called at the home of his fiancee, according to
appointment, to take her and her mother to luncheon the next day, he
found Leonora in a sullen mood, and it did not take him long to discover
that he was not in high favor at this particular hour.
He greeted her with a kiss, but hers in return was perfunctory. He was
not compelled to wait long for an explanation, for she poured out her
feelings without any questioning.
"Oh, Jack, dear, how could you mix up with that suffrage crowd! Don't
you know that mamma is vice-president of the Anti-Woman Suffrage
League? She is so annoyed! And that horrid Silvia Holland--why, Jack,
she is a downright socialist. Don't you know she was arrested in England
for trying to break into parliament with a lot of other suffragettes,
and she was arrested here only last month for defying the police and
taking sides with a lot of girls who refused to work in the factories
where they were employed! Even when in school she was horrid. When they
wouldn't let her make a suffrage speech on the school grounds one night
she took the girls to a neighboring graveyard and spoke from a flat
monument! And to think the papers have you mixed up with her, and our
wedding soon to be announced! Oh, it's terrible!" and she buried her
face in the sofa pillows.
Had this scene occurred with any one else, Jack felt certain he could
not have restrained his laughter, for he could see Miss Holland
delivering an exhortation to the schoolgirls from a tombstone in a
cemetery by night. But he understood the prejudices of a certain element
of New York society, and while the past twenty-four hours had led him,
somewhat, to believe that this progressive democratic wave sweeping
over the world had engulfed all New Yorkers, he now realized how sadly
mistaken he had been.
With infinite tact he told her that his sister had taken their party to
the ball--pointed out his own duty when the injured child had been
brought in from the street, and how he had not even suggested that Miss
Holland should assist him. He saw that the present was no time for a
discussion of the merits of the case or a pronouncement of his own
views, but he distinctly realized, with something of a jolt, it is true,
that a wide gulf separated the Bourbon element of America's supposed
democracy from the advancing column of her real and inspired democracy,
and he wondered whether it were at all possible to tunnel under or
bridge over this gulf. He lightly changed the subject.
"I have just discovered that I can get my old offices on East 53rd
Street, as the year's lease expires the first of next month, and the
agents heeded my letter asking them to wait for me. So I shall feel
quite at home in the old quarters," he said.
She smiled at this, but was not quite ready to drop the former subject.
"Jack, dear, did you take Miss Holland home at one o'clock in the
morning?"
He laughed at her this time, as he bent to kiss her. "I really believe
you are jealous, you little nymph. Of course I took her home. She could
not stay there all night, and there was no one else to take her."
She looked very serious. "No, I don't know what jealousy is," she slowly
and emphatically said, "but I don't want to know people who do the
things that Miss Holland does, and I don't want you to know them."
"My dear child," he said, taking her hands in his and catching her eyes
with his own steady glance. "I must know whoever is thrown into my path
either in a professional or a social way. All people are intensely
interesting to me, for we are, after all, but one great family of human
beings, trying to carve out lives that are worth while, and this we can
do better by getting the best there is from each other." He hesitated a
moment, still looking steadily at her. She quivered slightly, but he was
dimly conscious of the colossal character of the will she was summoning
to her aid. Then very slowly, but with all the earnestness of his
nature, he added, "You must get away from these views, for they are
dwarfing and not becoming to you, and if you do not we shall be very
unhappy. Miss Holland is a remarkable young woman. She is destined to
fill a great place in our American social and political life. She is
well worthy of your friendship."
She withdrew her hands, but still kept her eyes fixed on his. Her brow
contracted and with emphasis she said: "Miss Holland has forfeited her
place in our set by her conduct; why, Jack, you don't know how she is
criticized by our friends or you would not suggest such a thing."
He arose with a shrug of his shoulders. Fortunately, Mrs. Kimball
appeared at this moment and they motored to the Plaza for luncheon,
which was a somewhat formal and unsatisfactory affair, in spite of all
his efforts to make it otherwise. The young man could not but feel that
Mrs. Kimball shared her daughter's views--was, in fact, their
author--and that in the eyes of his future mother-in-law he had been
guilty of a breach of etiquette far more serious than an infraction of
the moral law. He left them with the understanding that he would
accompany them to the theatre in the evening.