"Oh?" Milly protested.
"Not even children!" he added triumphantly, and glanced at the names on his programme. "I don"t believe they could produce a child among "em."
Milly knew that the women speakers of the evening happened all to be childless women. One of them was not married, another was a widow, a third separated from her husband, and of the others at least one--Hazel--had deliberately evaded maternity.
"That may not be their fault!" Milly retorted with meaning.
"True," the man admitted. "But I"d like to hear something on the question from Mothers."
"Having children isn"t the only thing women are good for," Milly suggested.
"It"s one mighty fine thing, though!"
(Milly could never understand why men, as a rule, were so enthusiastic over women who had children.)
"Aren"t we getting away from the subject?" she suggested.
Their talk was interrupted by the presence of the solemn footman with the book of irreproachable names. To Milly"s surprise her unknown companion grasped the pen and scrawled beneath her signature a name that looked like "A. Vanniman," with the address of a well-known club. So he was a single man!
"How could you do that?" Milly demanded accusingly.
"Why not? I want women to vote, just as soon and as often as they like.
Then they"ll know how little there is in the vote and maybe get down to bra.s.s tacks."
"You don"t really believe in women," Milly remarked coquettishly.
"I don"t believe in this sort of flummery, no.... I want to hear from the waitresses, the clerks, the factory girls--the seven or eight millions of women who are up against it every day of their lives to earn a living. I want to hear what _they_ have to say about suffrage and the rights of women--what _they_ want? Did you ever ask them?"
"No-o," Milly admitted, and then recalled another of Hazel"s arguments.
"All those women need the vote, of course, to make laws to help them earn their living. But they haven"t the time to agitate and organize.
They are not educated--not expressive."
"Not expressive!" the man exclaimed. "I wish you and all these good women here could listen to my stenographer for ten minutes on what women need. She knows the game!"
Milly did not approve of her companion"s sentiments: he clearly belonged to the large cla.s.s of prejudiced males whose indifference the Cause had to combat. But he had an interesting face and was altogether an attractive specimen of his species. She wondered who he might be. It seemed to her that "Vanniman" had a familiar sound, and she believed he was some man of importance in the city.
There was a general drift towards the supper room. But Milly hesitated.
She had promised Hazel to join her after the speaking and be introduced to some of the leaders,--especially to the pretty young woman who had denounced Man,--in the hope that a paid position could be found for her.
At first she could not find her friend, and then she saw Hazel surrounded by a number of important-looking men and women, talking very earnestly with them, and a sudden timidity came over her in the midst of this distinguished gathering.
"We"d better get something to eat," her unknown acquaintance suggested.
He had waited for her, and she felt relieved to have some one to speak to. "It makes one fearfully hungry to listen to a lot of talk, don"t you think?"
So Milly went out to supper with the agreeable stranger.
"No," he resumed, after presenting her with a comforting beaker of champagne, "I"ve every sympathy with the woman with a job or with the woman who wants a job. All this silly talk about the s.e.xes makes me tired. Man or woman, the job"s the thing."
"Yes!" Milly a.s.sented with heartfelt emphasis.
"What every one needs is something to do, and women must be trained like men for their jobs."
He began to talk more seriously and entertainingly on the economic changes in modern society that had produced the present state of unrest and readjustment. He sketched quite feelingly what he called the old-fashioned woman, with her heavy duties and responsibilities in the pioneer days. "The real pillar of Society--and often a domestic slave, G.o.d bless her!" he said. "But her granddaughter has become either a parasite, or another kind of slave,--an industrial slave. And the vote isn"t going to help her in either case."
Milly wondered in which cla.s.s she fell. She didn"t like the word "parasite,"--it sounded like a disease,--and yet she was afraid that was what she was.
"I think that I must be going," Milly said at last. She noticed that the rooms were fast emptying after the food had been devoured, and she could see Hazel nowhere. She would call her up in the morning and congratulate her on her speech. And so with a nod to the stranger she went for her wraps. But she found him again in the vestibule, and wondered if he had waited for her to come down.
"What"s the name?" he asked, as the servant came forward to call her carriage.
"I haven"t any cab," Milly replied bravely. It was her custom these days Cinderella-like to dispense with a return cab.
"But it"s raining," the man protested. "You must let me set you down at your home."
A private hansom had drawn up to the curb before the awning. "Where?" he insisted.
"It"s an awful way out," Milly faltered; "just take me to the nearest subway station."
Embarra.s.sed by the gaze of the servant and by the waiting people behind, she got into the hansom. The man gave some sort of order to his driver and got in beside her. They trotted briskly around the corner on to the Avenue, and as it was misting heavily the driver let down the gla.s.s shield. It seemed cozy and pleasant to jog home from a party in a private cab, with an agreeable man by one"s side. Quite like old times, Milly thought!
"You"d better let me take you all the way. Where shall I say?" and he raised the top with his stick. For a moment Milly was about to yield.
She liked the sense of having a masterful man near her, overbearing her doubts, but she still protested,--
"No, no--it"s too far. Just put me down at Columbus Circle."
The man hesitated, looked at Milly curiously, then gave the driver the direction. Milly wondered why he had not insisted as she had expected he would or did not again suggest driving her out, when they had reached the subway station. There was a time when men would not have taken no for an answer. But he didn"t--nor even ask her name. Instead he courteously helped her to alight and raising his hat drove off.
She was depressed going up-town in the crowded, smelly, shrieking train.
The meeting had not been as thrilling as she had antic.i.p.ated. Hazel would probably scold her to-morrow for not coming forward and meeting the leaders. But she felt that the Woman Forward movement had little to offer her in her perplexities. Hers was part of that economic maladjustment that the good-looking stranger had talked about, and even with the suffrage it would take generations to do anything for women like her.
What really depressed her most was the fact that her unknown acquaintance had not considered it worth while to find out her name and pave the way for further relations. She realized cynically that for the present at any rate the woman question came down to just this: men could do many pleasant and useful things for women when they were so inclined.
And a woman failed when she could not interest a man sufficiently to move him to make the advance. Of course Milly knew that the "modern woman" would fiercely desire to be independent of all such male patronage. But as Milly climbed wearily the long flight of stairs to her apartment, feeling tired and forlorn and very much alone in the world, she knew that in the bottom of her heart she had no wish to be "modern."
And she was even sceptical as to how sincerely the other women, like Hazel Fredericks, desired that "complete independence of the male" they chattered so much about.
When Milly turned on the electric light in the little apartment, it was forebodingly still. She glanced at once into the room where Virginia slept and found it empty, with the bedclothes tumbled in a heap. She rushed to the maid"s room. That too was empty and the rear door was locked on the outside. For a moment Milly"s heart ceased beating, then with a shriek,--"Virgie, Virgie--where are you!" she ran into the front hall and plunged, still shrieking, down the stairs.
A door opened on the floor below, and the figure of a large woman in a rose-pink negligee confronted Milly.
"Lookin" for yer little girl?" the stranger asked in a loud, friendly voice. "Well, she"s all right--just come in here!"
She held open the door and pointed to the front room, where under a crocheted shawl little Virginia was curled up asleep on the divan. Milly fell beside her with an hysterical sob. The child, partly awakened, put out her thin arms and murmured sleepily, "The strange lady"s very nice, but she"s queer. Take me home, mama, please."
The "strange lady," who was looking on interestedly, explained,--
"I heard the kid runnin" round up above and cryin"--oh, that was hours ago when I first com" home--and as she kep it up cryin" as if she were scared and callin", I went up there and brought her down to stay with me till you got back.... Guess she woke up and was lonesome all by herself."