Part 40 (1/2)
Volume 1. No. 4 FEBRUARY, 1910 Copyright for 1910 C. P. Gilman
There is one large obstacle to woman suffrage which has nothing to do with s.e.x.
Men, the governing cla.s.s, hesitate in extending equal political responsibility and power to their domestic servants. Do you wonder?
TWO PRAYERS
Only for these I pray, Pray with a.s.surance strong: Light to discover the way, Power to follow it long.
Let me have light to see, Light to be sure and know, When the road is clear to me Willingly I go.
Let me have Power to do, Power of the brain and nerve, Though the task is heavy and new Willingly I will serve.
My prayers are lesser than three, Nothing I pray but two; Let me have light to see, Let me have power to do.
AN OFFENDER
”Where's Harry?” was Mr. Gortlandt's first question.
”He's gone to the country, to mother. It was so hot this last day or two, I've sent him out, with Miss Colton. I'm going Sat.u.r.day. Sit down.”
”I miss him,” said her visitor, ”more than I thought I could. I've learned more in these seven years than I thought there was to know. Or in the last two perhaps, since I've found you again.”
She looked at him with a little still smile, but there was a puzzled expression behind it, as of one whose mind was not made up.
They sat in the wide window of a top floor apartment, awning-shaded. A fresh breeze blew in upon them, and the city dust blew in upon them also, lying sandy on the broad sill.
She made little wavy lines in it with one finger--
”These windows ought to be shut tight, I suppose, and the blinds, and the curtains. Then we should be cleaner.”
”As to furniture,” he agreed, ”but not as to our lungs.”
”I don't know about that,” she said; ”we get plenty of air--but see what's in it.”
”A city is a dirty place at the best; but Mary--I didn't come to consider the ethics of the dust--how much longer must I wait?” he asked, after a little pause. ”Isn't two years courting, re-courting--enough?
Haven't I learned my lesson yet?”
”Some of it, I think,” she admitted, ”but not all.”
”What more do you ask?” he pursued earnestly. ”Can't we come to a definite understanding? You'll be chasing off again in a few days; it's blessed luck that brought you to town just now, and that I happened to be here too.”
”I don't how about the luck,” said she. ”It was business that brought me. I never was in town before when it was so hot.”
”Why don't you go to a hotel? This apartment is right under the roof, gets the sun all day.”
”It gets the breeze too, and sunlight is good. No, I'm better off in the apartment, with Harry. It was very convenient of the Grants to be away, and let me have it.”