The man sat down and Kathleen was on her feet. "Break the walls down!"
she cried. "Take them our message as workers to break down the walls and
join in the social revolution."
There was loud applause and Kathleen dropped back, her face flushed, her
gray eyes gleaming.
The meeting over, the Irishwoman was the center of a group of excited
talkers. Hertha slipped into the background and watched the people
gesticulating and arguing. There were a few burly Irish among them, men
in the building trades, who found a chance to laugh in the midst of
their debate; but the majority were spare, hollow-cheeked Jews; tailors,
small tradesmen, lawyers, eager, often aggressive personalities. The
women were in the minority, and offered a contrast to the girls Hertha
had seen at the theater or parading the street. They were all simply
dressed, usually in white, somewhat mussy shirtwaists, with cheap,
ill-hanging skirts. Men and women, however, despite their shabby
clothes, were all intensely virile spirits to whom the story of the
evening had been a living fact; not a tale to weep over and forget, but
a truth to grip and to remedy.
"Come up to the platform with me, Kathleen," one of the women said, "and
meet the comrade from the South." Kathleen started to go, and then,
glancing back at Hertha, who had dropped into a seat, shook her head.
"No, I'll be off with my friend," she answered, and the two made their
way out. A few minutes' walk in the reviving air brought them to their
home.
"Goodness," Kathleen exclaimed, as she took off her coat, "we forgot the
ice cream!"
"Never mind," Hertha answered, "it's cold for ice cream. Sit down and
I'll make some cocoa," and she started to walk into the kitchen.
Kathleen followed her. "I'll make the cocoa myself."
"No you won't," Hertha declared. "You got the dinner and it's my turn
now."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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