Part 16 (1/2)

”Really,” she declared in an acid voice, ”I never in my whole life--”

”What was your point of order?” Cicily interrupted, blandly.

”Why, well--well--that is, I've forgotten it now. But it was very big!”

The presiding officer's sense of humor ran away with her discretion.

”The chair,” she announced gravely, ”regrets exceedingly that the member found her point of order too big to raise.”

[Ill.u.s.tration]

It was Mrs. Delancy who, after her usual fas.h.i.+on, strove to restore peace, as Mrs. Carrington indignantly settled back into her chair:

”Madam Chairman, if this meeting is called to consider the election of new members, I would like to nominate Mrs. McMahon, Mrs. Schmidt and Miss Ferguson.”

Ruth now made display of her customary need for information. She turned her large eyes on the presiding officer, and inquired plaintively:

”How do you elect new members?”

Cicily explained with an air of patient toleration.

”They must first be nominated, my dear, and then be seconded. You have a chance of performing a valuable service to the club now, Ruth, by seconding the nominations already made.”

”Oh, have I?” the girl demanded, animatedly, evidently pleased by this unexpected opportunity of fulfilling her ideals. ”Well, then, I second them--yes, every one of them!”

”It is moved and seconded,” Cicily stated briskly, ”that Mrs. McMahon, Mrs. Schmidt and Miss Sadie Ferguson be elected as members of the Civitas Society for the Uplift of Women and the Spread of Social Equality among the Ma.s.ses.”

The militant suffragette was on her feet before the presiding officer had finished speaking.

”Madam Chairman,” she announced in her resonant voice, ”I rise on a question of rules.”

”But there is a question before the house,” Cicily protested.

”I am exceedingly sorry to antagonize the chair,” Mrs. Flynn maintained resolutely, ”but, since my late lamentable experience in this club, I have made it a point to look up the matter of parliamentary law as exercised in America.” By way of verification, she held aloft a formidable-appearing, fat volume. ”Now, I would like to know whether members are elected to this club by a plurality of votes, or by a two-thirds majority, or whether or no a single adverse vote can keep out a candidate from the privileges of the club.”

”A plurality is quite sufficient, Mrs. Flynn, I a.s.sure you,” Cicily decided without the slightest hesitation, despite the fact that her knowledge as to the difference, if any, between plurality and majority was of the vaguest. ”Now, all in favor of the candidates, please--”

Once again, her purpose was frustrated by the suffragette, who had been busily consulting the formidable volume.

”A moment, Madam Chairman,” she demanded, peremptorily. ”This American book on parliamentary law says that the club has the right to decide how new members are to be elected. Therefore, I move that these elections be as the elections in England, made by secret voting, and that three black b.a.l.l.s be sufficient to defeat any candidate in her candidacy.”

”I second the motion,” Miss Johnson called out, rallying to the support of Mrs. Flynn as on a former occasion, because she believed that such action would tend toward the annoyance of her dear friends, Mrs.

Carrington and Cicily.

Cicily forthwith offered the motion to a vote, and it was carried, although Mrs. Carrington, Mrs. Morton and Mrs. Delancy voted against it.

Immediately, Mrs. Flynn brought to view from a mysterious pocket a small black box of wood.

”I have here,” she explained impressively, ”the voting-box used in our club in England. I'm very sorry we did not have it on the occasion of the election of the president at the last session of this club. I have no doubt that the issue would have been quite otherwise. Yet, I hope that no one will misunderstand my position. It is merely my tendency toward the strong upholding of const.i.tutional rights as opposed unalterably and forever to tyranny and the forces of disorder and anarchy. Naturally, there can be no doubt as to the ultimate election of one at least of the candidates in this particular instance, inasmuch as that particular candidate is the relation of a member of the Civitas Society.”

Mrs. Morton flounced out of her seat, with an agility that showed her full appreciation of the thrust.

”It is unconst.i.tutional for one club-member to insult a fellow club-member,” she cried, in a rage. ”And, anyhow, I wish to deny that statement. I'm not a relation--I'm not, I'm not!”