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of her political theories; and, at home, she would not have any opportunities for doing the work which lay nearest to her heart. As my devotion to her had won her parents' hearty friendship, she had determined to ask them to let her travel with me. She had known from the first, she said, that she would have my entire sympathy in her laudable efforts; for, being a citizen of a republic, I should naturally condemn and detest the tyranny of monarchies, etc., etc.

She would then and there have confided her

every thought to me and have made my blood run cold, had I not prevailed on her to drop 'the subject until I had had time to give her suggestions my most serious and dispassionate consideration.

This mistaken altruism upon the part of any member of my sex would have keenly touched my heart, but coming from one for whom I felt such personal attachment, it aroused my greatest apprehension as well. I determined at once to save her from her theories, but I soon discovered the only possible way to do so was to reach the associates who were influencing her.

I therefore urged her to let me address her co-workers at one of their meetings. I swore eternal secrecy as to their identities, should I ever be admitted to their sanctum, and I vowed that if they answered to my satisfaction the questions which I should put to them, I not only would become a life member of their society (and immediately thereafter induce her parents to let her travel about Europe with me), but would further use my Yankee ingenuity to devise some plan for ridding the earth of aristocrats a plan which would be so speedy and effective that all others would pale into insignificance compared with it. (My blushes, as I said this, she mistook for indignation.)

My plan worked so effectually that in the course of a week I was invited to the rooms of one of her co-theorists, where a little coterie of women had assembled. I detected at a glance that several of them were aristocrats-that all evidently were (just what I had expected to find) women of unusual ability, courage and determination; and that "I must make an unsuspected, merciless, and persistent attack upon

that citadel to make it surrender"; or, in other words, I noted what I was prepared to note— that these women could not be reached by small talk or frivolity; also that I must master them at once or they would conquer me.

When I first began to speak they evinced great suspicion of me, and immediately became so vociferous in their disapproval that I could scarcely be heard; but, as I continued, I first gained their confidence, then their courteous attention, and soon their good will.

This young personage introduced them en masse to me and said: "Friends, Mrs. Woolsey, who will address us, is from the largest Republic of the world; a kinsman of hers,* history relates, was sent to America by the English government as an explorer in 1584; her people thereafter helped overthrow monarchists by driving the British from that continent; they were present at the birth of the American Republic, assisted at its christening, and have ever since aided in guarding its life and development.

*Captain Barlow of the English navy-see English or 'American Histories.

We shall, therefore, hear an account of our sex in this the freest, the most advanced, and the best of all existing forms of government or society, from one who is unbiased, either through heredity or association, by old world prejudices and narrowness. This lady will speak to us chiefly of woman's position in a republic in contradistinction to her position in a monarchy. And as democracy is so close to our own ideal of society, we can easily see how its lofty conception of womanhood must be preserved as it evolves into our yet more liberal belief. For as we have all agreed, the future of our sex is foreshadowed by a republic. When we answer certain questions which will be put to us, Mrs. Woolsey will become a member of our prospective society; and I am confident she will be one of our most efficient workers, and particularly the one whom tyrants will fear most." (Cheers.)

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