"But some one who has followed my argument thus far may say, 'All that
you have said is true, lamentably true; but what has it to do with the
Advancement of Woman?' I answer, it _is_ the Advancement of Woman."

"How do you make that out?" I asked.

Bagster looked vaguely troubled. "There is no such thing as an isolated
moral phenomenon," he said, as if he were repeating something from a
former sermon; "when you attempt to remedy one evil you find it related
to a whole moral series. But perhaps I did not make the connection
plain. My address doesn't seem to be as closely reasoned as it did when
I was delivering it. Does it seem to you to be cogent?"

"Cogent is not precisely the word I would use. But it seems earnest."

"Thank you," said Bagster. "I always try to be earnest. It's hard to be
earnest about so many things. I am always afraid that I may not give to
all an equal emphasis."

"And now that you have stopped for a moment," I suggested, "perhaps you
would be willing to skip to the last page. When I read a story I am
always anxious to get to the end. I should like to know how your address
comes out,--if it does come out."

Bagster turned over a dozen pages and read in a more animated manner.

"Your chairman has the reputation of making the meetings over which he
presides brisk and crisp. He has given me just a minute and a half in
which to tell what the country expects of this Federation of Young