Her Infinite Variety Part 4

But it was not so much the speech he thought of, as the effect of the speech; already he could see the newspapers and the big headlines they would display on their first pages the next morning; he could see his mother reading them at breakfast, and then he could see Amelia reading them. How her dark eyes would widen, her cheeks flush pink! She would raise her hand and put back her hair with that pretty mannerism of hers; then impulsively resting her arms on the table before her, she would eagerly read the long columns through, while her mother reminded her that her breakfast was getting cold. How proud she would be of him! She would never chide him again; she would see that at last he had found himself.

The Eltons, too, would read, and his absence from their dinner would react on them impressively. And Maria Greene-but a confusion arose-Maria Greene! He had not thought of Amelia all the morning until that very instant; Amelia's letter lay still unopened on his desk back there in the Senate chamber. Maria Greene! She would hear, she would color as she looked at him, and her eyes would glow; he could feel the warm pressure of the hand she would give him in congratulation.

And it was this handsome young woman's presence in the chamber that gave rise to all this nervousness. He was sure that he would not have been nervous if Amelia were to be there. She had never heard him speak in public, though he had often pressed her to do so; somehow the places where he spoke were never those to which it would be proper for her to go. She would wish she had heard this speech, for in twenty-four hours it would be the one topic of conversation throughout the state; his picture would be in the newspapers-"The brilliant young Chicago lawyer who electrified the Illinois Senate with his pa.s.sionate oratory and pa.s.sed the woman-suffrage measure." It would be an event to mark the beginning of a new era-

But his imaginings were broken, his name was spoken; he turned and saw Miss Greene.

"Come," she said. "It's up! Hurry!"

She was excited and her cheeks glowed. His teeth began to chatter. He followed her quick steps in the direction of the chamber.

"But," he stammered. "I-I didn't know-I haven't even arranged for recognition."

"Oh, I've fixed all that!" the woman said. "The lieutenant-governor promised me." She was holding her rustling skirts and almost running.

V

AS they entered the Senate chamber, Vernon heard the lieutenant-governor say: "And the question is: Shall the resolution be adopted? Those in favor will vote 'aye,' those opposed will vote 'no,' when their names are called; and the secretary will call the-"

"Mr. President!" Vernon shouted. There was no time now to retreat; he had launched himself on the sea of glory. A dozen other senators were on their feet, likewise demanding recognition.

"The senator from Cook," said the lieutenant-governor.

Vernon stood by his desk, arranging complacently the doc.u.ments Miss Greene had given him. Once or twice he cleared his throat and wiped his lips with his handkerchief. The other senators subsided into their seats, and, seeing that they themselves were not then to be permitted to speak, and like all speakers, not caring to listen to the speeches of others, they turned philosophically to the little diversions with which they whiled away the hours of the session-writing letters, reading newspapers, smoking. Vernon glanced around. Maria Greene was sitting precariously on the edge of a divan. Her face was white and drawn. She gave a quick nod, and a smile just touched her fixed lips. And then Vernon began. He spoke slowly and with vast deliberation; his voice was very low. He outlined his subject with exquisite pains, detail by detail, making it clear just what propositions he would advance. His manner was that of the lawyer in an appellate court, making a masterly and purely legal argument; when it was done, the Senate, if it had paid attention-though it seldom did pay attention-would know all about the question of woman-suffrage.

In his deliberation, Vernon glanced now and then at Maria Greene. Her eyes were sparkling with intelligent interest. As if to choose the lowest point possible from which to trace the rise and progress of legislation favorable to women, Vernon would call the attention of the Senate, first, to the decision of the Illinois Supreme Court _In re_ Bradwell, 55 Ill. 525. That was away back in 1869, when the age was virtually dark; and that was the case, gentlemen would remember, just as if they all kept each decision of the court at their tongues' ends, in which the court held that no woman could be admitted, under the laws of Illinois, to practise as an attorney at law. But,-and Vernon implored his colleagues to mark,-long years afterward, the court of its own motion, entered a _nunc pro tunc_ order, reversing its own decision in the Bradwell case. Vernon dilated upon the importance of this decision; he extolled the court; it had set a white milestone to mark the progressing emanc.i.p.ation of the race. Then, briefly, he proposed to outline for them the legislative steps by which woman's right to equality with man had been at least partly recognized.

He fumbled for a moment among the papers on his desk, until he found one of the pamphlets Miss Greene had given him, and then he said he wished to call the Senate's attention to the Employment Act of 1872, the Drainage Act of 1885, and the Sanitary District Act of 1890. Vernon spoke quite familiarly of these acts. Furthermore, gentlemen would, he was sure, instantly recall the decisions of the courts in which those acts were under review, as for instance, in Wilson _vs._ Board of Trustees, 133 Ill. 443; and in Davenport _vs._ Drainage Commissioners, 25 Ill. App. 92.

Those among the senators who were lawyers, as most of them were, looked up from their letter writing at this, and nodded profoundly, in order to show their familiarity with Vernon's citations, although, of course, they never had heard of the cases before.

"This recognition of woman's natural right," Vernon shouted, "this recognition of her equality with man, can not be overestimated in importance!" He shook his head fiercely and struck his desk with his fist. But then, having used up all the facts he had marked in Miss Greene's pamphlets, he was forced to become more general in his remarks, and so he began to celebrate woman, ecstatically. He conjured for the senators the presence of their mothers and sisters, their sweethearts and wives; and then, some quotations fortunately occurring to him, he reminded them that Castiglione had truly said that "G.o.d is seen only through women"; that "the woman's soul leadeth us upward and on." He recounted the services of women in time of war, their deeds in the days of peace, and in the end he became involved in an allegory about the exclusion of the roses from the garden.

The senators had begun to pay attention to him as soon as he talked about things they really understood and were interested in, and now they shouted to him to go on. It was spread abroad over the third floor of the State House that some one was making a big speech in the Senate, and representatives came rushing over from the House. The correspondents of the Chicago newspapers came over also to see if the a.s.sociated Press man in the Senate was getting the speech down fully. All the s.p.a.ce on the Senate floor was soon crowded, and the applause shook the desks and made the gla.s.s prisms on the chandeliers jingle. The lieutenant-governor tapped from time to time with his gavel, but he did it perfunctorily, as though he enjoyed the applause himself, as vicariously expressing his own feelings; his eyes twinkled until it seemed that, were it not for certain traditions, he would join in the delighted laughter that made up most of the applause.

Once a page came to Vernon with a gla.s.s of water, and as he paused to wipe his brow and to sip from the gla.s.s, he glanced again at Maria Greene. Her face was solemn and a wonder was growing in her eyes. Beside her sat old "Doc" Ames, scowling fiercely and stroking his long white beard. There were sharp cries of "Go on! Go on!"

But Vernon, not accustomed to thinking on his feet, as talkers love to phrase it, and having stopped, could not instantly go on, and that awkward halt disconcerted him. He was conscious that the moments were slipping by, and there were other things-many other things-that he had intended to say; but these things evaded him-floated off, tantalizingly, out of reach. And so, for refuge, he rushed on to the conclusion he had half formed in his mind. The conclusion was made up mostly from a toast to which he had once responded while in college, ent.i.tled "The Ladies."

The words came back to him readily enough; he had only to apply them a little differently and to change his figures. Thus it was easy to work up to a panegyric in which Illinois stood as a beautiful woman leading her sister states up to new heights of peace, of virtue and of concord.

He had a rapt vision of this woman, by her sweet and gentle influence settling all disputes and bringing heaven down to earth at last.

The Senate was in raptures.

"This is the face," he cried, "'that launched a thousand ships and burned the topless towers of Ilium!' ... 'she is wholly like in feature to the deathless G.o.ddesses!'" So he went on. "'Age can not wither, nor custom stale, her infinite variety.'"

He was growing weary. He already showed the impressive exhaustion of the peroration. He had sacrificed a collar and drunk all the water from his gla.s.s. He fingered the empty tumbler for a moment, and then lifted it on high while he said:

"'I filled this cup to one made up Of loveliness alone, A woman, of her gentle s.e.x The seeming paragon- Her health! and would on earth there stood Some more of such a frame, That life might be all poetry, And weariness a name.'"

When he had done, there was a moment's stillness; then came the long sweep of applause that rang through the chamber, and while the lieutenant-governor rapped for order, men crowded around Vernon and wrung his hand, as he wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. And then the roll was called. It had not proceeded far when there was that subtile change in the atmosphere which is so easily recognized by those who have acquired the sense of political aeroscepsy; the change that betokens some new, unexpected and dangerous manuver. Braidwood had come over from the House. His face, framed in its dark beard, was stern and serious. He whispered an instant to Porter, the Senate leader. Porter rose.

"Mr. President," he said.

The lieutenant-governor was looking at him expectantly.

"The gentleman from Cook," the lieutenant-governor said.

"Mr. President," said Senator Porter, "I move you, sir, that the further discussion of the resolution be postponed until Wednesday morning, one week from to-morrow, and that it be made a special order immediately following the reading of the journal."

"If there are no objections it will be so ordered," said the lieutenant-governor.

Bull Burns shouted a prompt and hoa.r.s.e "Object!"

But the lieutenant-governor calmly said:

"And it is so ordered."

The gavel fell.

VI

AFTER the adjournment Vernon sought out Maria Greene and walked with her down Capitol Avenue toward the hotel. He was prepared to enjoy her congratulations, but she was silent for a while, and before they spoke again "Doc" Ames, striding rapidly, had caught up with them. He was still scowling.

"I was sorry you didn't finish your speech as you intended, sir," he said, with something of the acerbity of a reproach.

"Why," began Vernon, looking at him, "I-"

"You laid out very broad and comprehensive ground for yourself," the old man continued, "but unfortunately you did not cover it. You should have developed your subject logically, as I had hopes, indeed, in the beginning, you were going to do. An argument based on principle would have been more to the point than an appeal to the pa.s.sions. I think Miss Greene will agree with me. I am sorry you did not acquaint me with your intention of addressing the Senate on this important measure; I would very much have liked to confer with you about what you were going to say. It is not contemplated by those in the reform movement that the charms of woman shall be advanced as the reason for her right to equal suffrage with man. It is purely a matter of cold, abstract justice. Now, for instance," the doctor laid his finger in his palm, and began to speak didactically, "as I have pointed out to the House, whatever the power or the principle that gives to man his right to make the law that governs him, to woman it gives the same right. In thirty-seven states the married mother has no right to her children; in sixteen the wife has no right to her own earnings; in eight she has no separate right to her property; in seven-"

Vernon looked at Miss Greene helplessly, but she was nodding her head in acquiescence to each point the doctor laid down in his harsh palm with that long forefinger. Vernon had no chance to speak until they reached the hotel. She was to take the midday train back to Chicago, and Vernon had insisted on going to the station with her. Just as she was about to leave him to go up to her room she said, as on a sudden impulse:

"Do you know that the women of America, yes, the people of America, owe you a debt?"

Vernon a.s.sumed a most modest att.i.tude.

"If we are successful," she went on, "the advocates of equal suffrage all over the United States will be greatly encouraged; the reform movement everywhere will receive a genuine impetus."

"You will be down next Wednesday when the resolution comes up again, won't you?" asked Vernon.

"Indeed, I shall," she said. "Do you have any hopes now?"