"Or as a man may always safely talk to earnest women," said Mrs. Greuze. The Senator bowed. "It is to this class, I was going to say, rather than to those who go outside the sacred precincts of the home, striving to stir up antagonism between the sexes, seeking even as your honorable body is doing to-day, to--to--" "To secure a mother's right to her children," prompted Mrs. Pennybacker. The Senator frowned slightly. "--seeking to influence legislation, I was going to remark. It is to such noble women, content to immolate themselves upon the altar of sacrifice for their little ones--to find their broadest field of endeavor within the sanctuary of home--" Mrs. Pennybacker was regarding the Senator with marked attention. Had he known her better he might not have considered this cause for unmixed felicitation. As it was, he felt the subtle flattery of her deferential hanging upon his every word, and, stimulated by it, soared higher. "Ah, ladies, I cannot refrain from expressing the belief that it is to such noble women that we must look for the regeneration of the race. They are doing a great work--as somebody remarked--I cannot at this moment recall exactly who it was that said it--but--" "If you were going to say that they were doing a great work and could not come down," remarked the small woman with the bright eyes who had a satirical look of having heard this before, "it was Nehemiah, and he said it to Sanballat." "Yes, yes," said the Senator, who was a trifle weak in the Hebrew prophets,--"that's it exactly. 'They are doing a great work, so that they cannot come down.' That is what these noble women who stay at home are doing--" "Ye-es," observed Mrs. Pennybacker, reflectively. "This one was having a dog party to-day and eight other noble women who couldn't come down were going to take their dogs to it." This punctured the Senator's oratorical balloon so sharply that it came to earth with a thump, leaving him not even a parachute to hang to. And while it was in collapse, Mrs. Pennybacker, whose tongue no longer clave to the roof of her mouth, took the opportunity to remark: "It is dangerous to generalize, Senator Southard, unless you have a good deal of data. I have observed that not all of the women who stay away from public gatherings and committee meetings do so because of their devotion to their children. Some of them haven't any children and _won't_ have. They can't take time from their pleasures to be bothered with babies. Or they are not willing to give up the apartment house, where they can have every comfort, every luxury,--except children. Some of them substitute dogs, and give dog parties.