I gazed in dumb amazement while she went on, "My dear fellow, I have come to enlighten you,"--and as she said this she drew somewhat near to me, and laid her arm confidingly on my shoulder, and looked coaxingly in my face. The look of amazement which I gave, under these circumstances, seemed to cause her great amusement. "Ha! ha!" she said, "didn't I tell 'em so? You ain't half out of the shell yet. You ain't really hatched. You go for the emancipation of woman; but bless you, boy, you haven't the least idea what it means--not a bit of it, sonny, have you now? Confess!" she said, stroking my shoulder caressingly. "Really, madam--I confess," I said, hesitatingly, "I haven't the honor"-- [Illustration: _THE ADVANCED WOMAN OF THE PERIOD._ _"'You go for the emancipation of woman; but bless you, boy, you haven't the least idea what it means--not a bit of it, sonny, have you now? Confess?' she said, stroking my shoulder caressingly."_] "Not the honor of my acquaintance, you was going to say; well, that's exactly what you're getting now. I read your piece in the _Milky Way_, and, said I, that boy's in heathen darkness yet, and I'm going round to enlighten him. You mean well, Hal! but this is a great subject. You haven't seen through it. Lord bless you, child! you ain't a woman, and I am--that's just the difference." Now, I ask any of my readers, what is a modest young man, in this nineteenth century,--having been brought up to adore and reverence woman as a goddess--to do, when he finds himself suddenly _vis-à-vis_ with her, in such embarrassing relations as mine were becoming? I had heard before of Miss Audacia Dangyereyes, as a somewhat noted character in New York circles, but did not expect to be brought so unceremoniously, and without the least preparation of mind, into such very intimate relations with her. "Now, look here, bub!" she said, "I'm just a-going to prove to you, in five minutes, that you've been writing about what you don't know anything about. You've been asserting, in your blind way, the rights of woman to liberty and equality; the rights of women, in short, to do anything that men do. Well, here comes a woman to your room who _takes_ her rights, practically, and does just what a man would do. I claim my right to smoke, if I please, and to drink if I please; and to come up into your room and make you a call, and have a good time with you, if I please, and tell you that I like your looks, as I do. Furthermore, to invite you to come and call on me at my room. Here's my card. You may call me 'Dacia, if you like--I don't go on ceremony. Come round and take a smoke with me, this evening, won't you? I've got the nicest little chamber that ever you saw. What rent do you pay for yours? Say, will you come round?" "Indeed--thank you, miss--"