Part 27 (1/2)
”Women Chartists,” said Sister Jenifer.
”What are they doing here?”
”They go wherever they can get a hearing.”
Max stopped to listen a little satirically; he had never heard a woman speaking in public before. Presently he turned to his guide and found that her eye was on him. ”Shall we go on?” he said.
”This does not interest you, then?”
”It is a subject about which I know nothing.”
”But you came to learn.”
”Well,--is that woman telling the truth?”
”No, not exactly.”
”Does she know what she is talking about?”
”Not as well as she ought to.”
”Then, isn't that sufficient?”
”You have listened to men here whose statements were just as wide of the mark, and whose proposals were just as useless.”
”Yes, so you warned me; but what I find instructive is not the speaker but the crowd.”
”You have a crowd here.”
”A much smaller one.”
”So you are for the majorities?”
Max acknowledged the stroke. ”Very well,” he said; ”let us go back.”
”No, I only wanted you to notice the crowd. Did they seem interested?”
”They listened.”
”That is something, is it not, when she was talking of things that to their minds hardly concerned them?”
”But you say she was not telling the truth.”
”She was ignorant, and she exaggerated; but for all they know what she is saying might be gospel.”
”Is that how you would have it preached?”
”If gospels had to wait for the wise and prudent,” said Jenifer, ”they would wait till eternity. That woman was speaking not for an inst.i.tution but for a movement.”
”Do not such exaggerations condemn it?”