Regiment of Women

REGIMENT OF WOMEN BY CLEMENCE DANE
'The monstrous empire of a cruell woman we knowe to be the onlie occasion of all these miseries: and yet with silence we passe the time as thogh the mater did nothinge appertein to us.'
John Knox, First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women .
New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1922 All rights reserved
Copyright, 1917, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. ———— Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1917. Norwood Press: Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U. S. A.
To E. A.

The school secretary pattered down the long corridor and turned into a class-room.
The room was a big one. There were old-fashioned casement windows and distempered walls; the modern desks, ranged in double rows, were small and shallow, scarred, and incredibly inky. In the window-seats stood an over-populous fish-bowl, two trays of silkworms, and a row of experimental jam-pots. There were pictures on the walls— The Infant Samuel was paired with Cherry Ripe , and Alfred, in the costume of Robin Hood, conscientiously ignored a neat row of halfpenny buns. The form was obviously a low one.
Through the opening door came the hive-like hum of a school at work, but the room was empty, save for a mistress sitting at the raised desk, idle, hands folded, ominously patient. A thin woman, undeveloped, sallow-skinned, with a sensitive mouth, and eyes that were bold and shining.
They narrowed curiously at sight of the new-comer, but she was greeted with sufficient courtesy.
Yes, Miss Vigers?