The bill entitled "An act to amend the laws of the District of Columbia as to married women, to make parents the natural guardians of their children, and for other purposes," was introduced in the Senate early in January, and referred to the District Committee. Then the trials of the gentlemen comprising the committee, not to say the whole Senate, began. The beautiful room of the Committee on the District became the Mecca to which many a pilgrimage led. Naturally it was of the first importance to enlist the Committee, and it chanced that one or two of them were hard to enlist, being by nature and environment conservative, and doubtful of anything that looked toward change. Women had always fared well in their part of the country, and been contented, and they could see no reason why their status elsewhere should be tampered with. This was why Mrs. Belden had been anxious to take Margaret to see Senator Southard, who was one of the Committee, and a conservative of the conservatives. Yes, that might justly be called a campaign, for it was a "connected series of operations forming a distinct stage in a war," as the dictionary hath it, and moreover all the methods of war were used. There were gallant charges of battalions led by experienced generals, and the not less effective guerrilla warfare in which each fair combatant picked off her man with any weapon that was at hand, caring not for the rules of combat, but only that he fell. Sieges were planned and carried on during that campaign; strategic positions were captured and held; there was an occasional repulse and sometimes danger of rout, but the forces always rallied and, as the winter passed, it was found that they were steadily advancing. Into this determined but entirely womanly warfare Margaret threw herself with all the ardor of her tempestuous soul. Here was something to do. She had been too long a creature simply "to be" and "to suffer." Before this question of joint guardianship, which to her was the essence of the bill, all other measures up before Congress dwindled into insignificance. It is a difficult thing for women to sink the personal. Sometimes it seems difficult for men also. To Margaret the passage of this bill meant Philip in her arms and the overthrow of her enemy. It had never occurred to her to doubt that it would give her Philip.