shortcomings of Remsen City young men or by the rivalry of Miss
Hereford. Her dissatisfaction was personal--the feeling of
futility, of cheapness, in having dressed herself in her best and
spent a whole evening at such unworthy business. ``Whatever I am
or am not fit for,'' said she to herself, ``I'm not for
society--any kind of society. At least I'm too much grown-up
mentally for that.'' Her disdainful thoughts about others were,
on this occasion as almost always, merely a mode of expressing
her self-scorn.

As she was undressing she found in her party bag the dodger Hull
had got for her from Victor Dorn. She, sitting at her dressing
table, started to read it at once. But her attention soon
wandered. ``I'm not in the mood,'' she said. ``To-morrow.''
And she tossed it into the top drawer. The fact was, the subject
of politics interested her only when some man in whom she was
interested was talking it to her. In a general way she
understood things political, but like almost all women and all
but a few men she could fasten her attention only on things
directly and clearly and nearly related to her own interests.
Politics seemed to her to be not at all related to her--or,
indeed, to anybody but the men running for office. This dodger
was politics, pure and simple. A plea to workingmen to awaken to
the fact that their STRIKES were stupid and wasteful, that the
way to get better pay and decent hours of labor was by uniting,
taking possession of the power that was rightfully theirs and
regulating their own affairs.

She resumed fixing her hair for the night. Her glance bent
steadily downward at one stage of this performance, rested