In the meantime we drafted a petition in support of it and set ourselves to procure signatures. One Sunday evening I went with a bundle of petition forms to a meeting addressed by Mr. G. K. Chesterton at Morriss Hall, Clapham. The lecturer's remarks were devoted to a eulogy of the French Revolution, from which he asserted all ideas of popular representation had sprung. An opening, which I seized, was given for a question on the subject of votes for women in relation to the Government of our Colonies. Whilst the audience were asking questions and offering criticisms, Mr. Chesterton was busily making sketches of us all, but, though I saw myself being added to the picture gallery, in replying to the questions raised in the debate afterwards, he did not answer my point. Afterwards, however, he came up and told me that he had forgotten to deal with it and then gave me an explanation. I had not asked, "Are you in favour of Votes for Women?" I had assumed that he was and he replied on the same assumption, and afterwards voluntarily signed his name to my petition. It was with surprise, not untempered with amusement, therefore, that I afterwards found Mr. Chesterton coming forward as an active anti-Suffragist, but his attitude seemed to me to be an augury of our speedy success, for he delights to champion unpopular causes and to oppose himself to the overwhelming and inevitable march of coming events. Many other women's societies, suffrage, organised petitions at this time, for the fact of having a Bill before the House of Commons for the first time for eight years, had sent a thrill of new life through them all. The result of our united efforts was that, when the twelfth of May came round, the Strangers' Lobby was densely crowded, and many of the women had to be drafted on to the Terrace, or to stand in the various passages leading from the Lobby. As well as the members of the various suffrage societies, women of all classes, from the richest to the poorest, were represented in the gathering, and amongst the rest was a large contingent of women Co-operators, accompanied by Mrs. Nellie Alma Martel, of Australia, who had helped to win votes for women there, and had afterwards been run as a candidate for the Commonwealth Parliament, having polled more than 20,000 votes.