In a moment they were in the midst of the waltz, and at its close Hilda
had so managed that they were near Miss Holland. Stepping up to her on
Jack's arm she presented her brother, and, accepting Hilda's invitation,
Miss Holland joined their party.
"Did I not see you a year ago on the streets in London, the time I was
arrested?" she naively asked Jack.
"Yes, but you were very busy. How in the world could you remember me?"
"Don't be flattered by the apparent compliment. While I was delivering
my little speech to the police I noted how closely you followed me and
that you were the only American around, and I had determined to appeal
to you for assistance if they undertook to jail the feeble old woman
who was with us. They didn't disturb her, and so you were not called
upon, but you see how near you came to being a militant English
suffragette and perhaps a prisoner for thirty days," she said, half
seriously and half smilingly.
"The word of command would have made me both," he answered, with so much
emphasis that Frank broke into the conversation with, "I wonder if the
open door of an English jail would convert me?"
"That would depend upon who was directing your footsteps toward the
jail," suggested his brother-in-law.
"Not at all; I think I am hopeless after having heard so much of the
theoretical benefits of suffrage and seen the utter lack of effect in
Colorado, where I live."
Silvia Holland turned her great, intense eyes upon him. They were
glowing, and he felt the same fascination he had experienced in the
afternoon.
"You from Colorado and talk this way!" she said in amazement. "Surely
you are jesting. Take the effect on the polling places alone. Compare
those of New York with those of Denver, and I have seen them in full
operation in both places. In the first is the atmosphere of barrooms; in
the second the manners and air of drawing-rooms. If I were a Colorado
man I should be proud of the result upon Colorado women of their
responsibility in citizenship. I know women of all nationalities, but I
know none where the average of intelligence or womanly grace and real
accomplishments are greater than with your Colorado women."
"I am a railroad attorney, sent out by the owners of some of the lines
traversing Colorado to look after their interests," he answered. "It is
possible that my conclusions have been influenced by my occupation. I am
prepared to admit that. But I have rather old-fashioned notions in
relation to the proper place for women being in the home and not in
politics."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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