There was a little delay while the members of the club shifted positions
in such manner as to bring them facing the president. When this had been
accomplished, the militant suffragette at once stood up, and spoke with
the aggressive energy that marked her every act.
"I move that we dispense with the reading of the minutes of the last
meeting."
"Yes, I think we ought to," Cicily agreed, and she smiled approval on
Mrs. Flynn. "In fact, there were no minutes."
But Mrs. Carrington nourished rancor against her rival for the
presidency, and the fact that Mrs. Flynn had made a suggestion, was
reason enough why she should combat it.
"I think," she remarked coldly, getting to her feet slowly, "that we
should certainly read the minutes. It's most interesting to read the
minutes." She re-seated herself, with an air of great importance.
"But," Cicily objected, "there are no minutes."
Mrs. Carrington did not trouble to rise for her retort:
"I don't see what that has to do with the question at issue."
"Oh, very well, then," Cicily rejoined, with one of those flashes of
inspiration that were of such service to her as a presiding officer,
"you read them yourself, Mrs. Carrington." At this happy suggestion,
Mrs. Carrington uttered an ejaculation, but vouchsafed nothing more
precise. Cicily waited for a few seconds, then continued gaily: "Now
that the minutes are read, the specific business before the house is the
consideration of new members. All working clubs to be successful must
take in constantly virile, live members."
Mrs. Morton, who had by no means forgotten her conversation with Mrs.
McMahon and cherished a distinct grudge against that excellent woman,
voiced a caution:
"But, Mrs. Hamilton," she objected, "due care should be exercised in the
selection."
"The club cannot be too careful," Mrs. Carrington agreed.
Mrs. McMahon was fuming in her chair, evidently on the edge of an
outbreak. Mrs. Delancy saved the situation by prompt action.
"I think," she said, rising, "that, if new members are to be voted on,
they should not be present in the meeting during the discussion."
"Oh, yes," Cicily made decision, with a smile of gratitude for her aunt.
She nodded brightly toward the three candidates, and addressed them in
her most winning voice.
"Mrs. McMahon, will you and Mrs. Schmidt and Miss Ferguson kindly await
the club's action in the next room?" She indicated the curtained archway
that led into the withdrawing-room at the back.
"Certainly, ma'am," the Irishwoman answered, with a rough haughtiness
all her own. She heaved herself up from the gilt chair, which seemed to
creak a sigh of relief; and the trio went out in the midst of a deep
silence.
Their departure set free a babel of chatter, a great part of it
addressed in personal remonstrance to the presiding officer. Cicily lost
patience, and called out sharply, with the authority of her office:
"Any member addressing the chair will please follow the usual
parliamentary procedure!"
Mrs. Carrington was the first to take advantage of the formal method.
Sitting elegantly in her place, she spoke:
"Madam Chairman, I rise to a point of order."
"Very well, then, Mrs. Carrington," Cicily rejoined, with her most
official manner, "please rise."
The outraged member bounced to her feet with an alacrity that was not
her habit. It was evident that the lady was angry.
"Really," she declared in an acid voice, "I never in my whole life--"
"What was your point of order?" Cicily interrupted, blandly.
"Why, well--well--that is, I've forgotten it now. But it was very big!"
The presiding officer's sense of humor ran away with her discretion.
"The chair," she announced gravely, "regrets exceedingly that the member
found her point of order too big to raise."
[Illustration]
It was Mrs. Delancy who, after her usual fashion, strove to restore
peace, as Mrs. Carrington indignantly settled back into her chair:
"Madam Chairman, if this meeting is called to consider the election of
new members, I would like to nominate Mrs. McMahon, Mrs. Schmidt and
Miss Ferguson."
Ruth now made display of her customary need for information. She turned
her large eyes on the presiding officer, and inquired plaintively:
"How do you elect new members?"
Cicily explained with an air of patient toleration.
"They must first be nominated, my dear, and then be seconded. You have a
chance of performing a valuable service to the club now, Ruth, by
seconding the nominations already made."
"Oh, have I?" the girl demanded, animatedly, evidently pleased by this
unexpected opportunity of fulfilling her ideals. "Well, then, I second
them--yes, every one of them!"
"It is moved and seconded," Cicily stated briskly, "that Mrs. McMahon,
Mrs. Schmidt and Miss Sadie Ferguson be elected as members of the
Civitas Society for the Uplift of Women and the Spread of Social
Equality among the Masses."
The militant suffragette was on her feet before the presiding officer
had finished speaking.
"Madam Chairman," she announced in her resonant voice, "I rise on a
question of rules."
"But there is a question before the house," Cicily protested.
"I am exceedingly sorry to antagonize the chair," Mrs. Flynn maintained
resolutely, "but, since my late lamentable experience in this club, I
have made it a point to look up the matter of parliamentary law as
exercised in America." By way of verification, she held aloft a
formidable-appearing, fat volume. "Now, I would like to know whether
members are elected to this club by a plurality of votes, or by a
two-thirds majority, or whether or no a single adverse vote can keep out
a candidate from the privileges of the club."
"A plurality is quite sufficient, Mrs. Flynn, I assure you," Cicily
decided without the slightest hesitation, despite the fact that her
knowledge as to the difference, if any, between plurality and majority
was of the vaguest. "Now, all in favor of the candidates, please--"
Once again, her purpose was frustrated by the suffragette, who had been
busily consulting the formidable volume.
"A moment, Madam Chairman," she demanded, peremptorily. "This American
book on parliamentary law says that the club has the right to decide how
new members are to be elected. Therefore, I move that these elections be
as the elections in England, made by secret voting, and that three black
balls be sufficient to defeat any candidate in her candidacy."
"I second the motion," Miss Johnson called out, rallying to the support
of Mrs. Flynn as on a former occasion, because she believed that such
action would tend toward the annoyance of her dear friends, Mrs.
Carrington and Cicily.
Cicily forthwith offered the motion to a vote, and it was carried,
although Mrs. Carrington, Mrs. Morton and Mrs. Delancy voted against it.
Immediately, Mrs. Flynn brought to view from a mysterious pocket a small
black box of wood.
"I have here," she explained impressively, "the voting-box used in our
club in England. I'm very sorry we did not have it on the occasion of
the election of the president at the last session of this club. I have
no doubt that the issue would have been quite otherwise. Yet, I hope
that no one will misunderstand my position. It is merely my tendency
toward the strong upholding of constitutional rights as opposed
unalterably and forever to tyranny and the forces of disorder and
anarchy. Naturally, there can be no doubt as to the ultimate election of
one at least of the candidates in this particular instance, inasmuch as
that particular candidate is the relation of a member of the Civitas
Society."
Mrs. Morton flounced out of her seat, with an agility that showed her
full appreciation of the thrust.
"It is unconstitutional for one club-member to insult a fellow
club-member," she cried, in a rage. "And, anyhow, I wish to deny that
statement. I'm not a relation--I'm not, I'm not!"
"Pardon me," the militant suffragette declared, belligerently. Her
narrow, sallow face was set; the lust of battle shone in her snapping
eyes. "I know that in Ireland the Mortons and the McMahons are close
relatives. Being an Englishwoman, I naturally know all about it."
Cicily deemed this a fitting time for the exercise of her prerogative
as presiding officer, and rapped violently on the table with the gavel.
"Order! Order!" she commanded. Then, she beamed approvingly on Mrs.
Flynn.
"Will you carry the box around, Mrs. Flynn, please?" she requested.
The suffragette courteously acquiesced, and, as a formal return to the
chair for the honor bestowed on her, first presented the box to Cicily,
who under instructions as to the manner of operation dropped a white
ball into the receptacle, after exhibiting it ostentatiously so that all
the company could see. Next, Mrs. Flynn offered the box to Mrs. Morton,
who selected a black ball, and permitted all who would to observe the
color before her vote was concealed within the box.
"I congratulate you on your triumph over natural family affection," the
presiding officer remarked, bitterly.
In turn, the box was presented to each of the members present. This task
accomplished, Mrs. Flynn, at the request of Cicily, set herself to
counting the votes, while the idle ladies discussed the exciting events
of the session with great animation. Presently, the teller looked up,
and addressed the chair.
"Madam Chairman," she announced in a businesslike tone, "the vote stands
eight to two."
At this statement, the presiding officer clapped her hands merrily, in a
manner more joyous than dignified.
"Good!" she cried, and her dainty smile was all-embracing, as her happy
eyes roved over the assembly. "Then, they're all elected, after all.
It's great! Oh, I thank you! I knew our club would vindicate itself. I
knew that you would live up to our motto--whatever it is. I knew that
you were too big to let social prejudices stand in the way of the
progress of real womanhood. I knew that we were actually a live club,
come together with a genuine aim to do real good. I can see now that we
are going to accomplish something worth while. We are not going to be
merely a set of empty-headed, silly women with nothing to do. Oh, I tell
you that I have some great plans, now that at last we are really started
out right. Now, we can outline our plans of work among women less
fortunate than we ourselves. We can find places for them, we can lead
them on to better things, we can teach them our own doctrine of living
for others, our own principle of making other people happy." The young
wife had spoken with an ever increasing enthusiasm. Her eyes were
sparkling; her voice deepened musically; the color glowed brightly in
her cheeks; her slender form was held proudly erect in the tense
eagerness of an exalted sincerity of purpose. The other women listened
wonderingly at first; but, little by little, the eloquent vehemence of
their president moved them to sympathetic excitement, so that they
nodded and smiled assent to the speaker's lofty sentiments.
Only Mrs. Flynn seemed entirely unaffected by the oratorical outburst.
Now, when the speech came to a close, that militant suffragette again
addressed the chair.
"Madam Chairman," she said with brutal directness, "the vote stands
eight to two. There are two white balls, and eight black balls."
At this shocking revelation of the fact, Cicily stared dazedly for a
moment; then, an expression of bleak disappointment stole over her
features. She uttered a sound of dismay, which was almost a moan, and
the color fled from her face.
"Oh, I don't--can't believe it!" she cried, with sudden fierceness.
With the words, she snatched up the box, which Mrs. Flynn had deposited
on the table, and poured out the balls. She stared at them affrightedly
for a moment. There could be no mistake: They were two white and eight
black! Cicily regarded the incontrovertible evidence of defeat for a
minute with dilated eyes. Then, abruptly, she laughed hardily,
straightened up from her scrutiny of the balls, and gazed wrathfully out
upon her fellow club-members. When she spoke, her tone was of ice. Her
utterance was made with the utmost of deliberation.
"So," she said, while her amber eyes flashed fire, "you are a set of
empty-headed, silly women with nothing to do, after all!"
"Cicily!" Mrs. Delancy exclaimed, aghast, while the others could only
gasp in horror before this unparalleled vituperation.
"I mean it--every word of it!" Cicily repeated, hotly. But the
impetuosity of her mood was checked as she beheld the general
consternation consequent on her attack; for now all the others were on
their feet, moving hurriedly and muttering excitedly.
"I suppose this is parliamentary law as it is understood in America,"
the militant suffragette made sarcastic comment, in a shrill voice. "I
prefer the English fashion of doing things, for my part."
Cicily realized, with an increase of misery, how intolerable had been
her conduct. With that swift changefulness that was distinctive of her
nature, she sought to make amends as best she could, although she
understood that the task was well-nigh a hopeless one.
"I beg your pardon," she said, with as much humility as she could
summon. "But, oh, you don't know what you are doing. You can't know!
Don't you realize that you are spoiling our one chance for doing
good--spoiling our chance to make this a genuine club to help women
actually, not just merely making a joke by pretending?"
Mrs. Morton voiced the general sentiment of disagreement succinctly:
"I fail to see how association with such persons could be anything but
distasteful, even disgusting."
"Exactly!" Mrs. Carrington agreed.
"Such women have their own clubs," Miss Johnson pointed out for the
enlightenment of the presiding officer. She was very happy over her dear
Cicily's discomfiture. "How can they help in any really great work? Let
them work among the creatures of their own class. We," she concluded
loftily, "have our ideals."
"My ideal," the president retorted bitterly, "is to do something--not
merely to talk about it. Not one of you," she continued, waxing wroth
again, "has ever done any real good, has ever put herself out to be of
service to others, has ever really done anything for anybody else--not
one of you!"
"Mrs. Hamilton," Mrs. Morton protested indignantly, "I cannot permit
such a statement. I for one send my check to the Charity Organization
every Christmas, without fail." Others, too, boasted of their
philanthropies, always exercised through some most respectable medium.
As the clamor of rebuke died away, Cicily ventured one more plea:
"Then, won't you do this for me?" she asked. "I, as your president, ask
that you elect these women. Let them in, to help me in doing the hard
work. You needn't do anything, but just belong and take the credit. I am
under obligations to these persons. I promised them election to the
club. I know now that I had no right to do so, but I did. I am sorry
that I was so hasty in the matter. But won't you make my word good in
this one case?" The musical voice was tenderly persuasive. Some of those
who listened yielded to the spell of it and the winning radiance of the
amber eyes. But Mrs. Flynn was not of these.
"There's nothing in this book of American parliamentary law that says
the president has a right to promise anything binding on the club. I
move that the president consider herself rebuked for exceeding her
authority."
"Ruth, there's another chance to second something," Cicily suggested,
ironically.
The maiden of the large eyes was pleased and flattered by the
suggestion, which she accepted in all seriousness.
"Really?" she exclaimed, and turned her gaze aloft. "Oh, then, I second
it--I second it, of course!"
"It is moved and seconded," Cicily declared listlessly, "that the
president be rebuked for trying to be of some genuine use to herself and
to her fellow women. All in favor of the motion will please say ay."
The form in which the president had stated the motion was not
satisfactory to most of the members, who preserved a silence of
indecision, with the single exception of Ruth, who uttered an
enthusiastic affirmative vote, as a matter of course, only to shrink
back perplexedly when she found angry eyes focused on her from every
side. But Cicily nonchalantly announced the motion as having been
carried, without troubling to call for the contrary vote.
"Ladies," she said, "the president accepts the rebuke; and she also
resigns from her office and from the club. She is done with you, with
all of you, and with your pitiful joke of a club."
She stood serenely defiant, while the company of babbling, head-tossing
women hastened forth from the drawing-room, until only Mrs. Delancy
remained.