"There are a great, great many things," said Edna thoughtfully, "that I want to speak about at the meeting. I have been so little to the College lately, but it is not often out of my thoughts."
"Bellew is taking the chair," Sir Julian observed, less irrelevantly than might have been supposed.
He was aware, and knew that Edna was aware, that no check or limit would be placed by Alderman Bellew on the College problems that Lady Rossiter might choose to regard as coming within the scope of her influence.
He wondered for the hundredth time whether it would not have been possible to decline the complimentary offer of a position on the general committee of management which had been made to Lady Rossiter as wife of the leading director, and which he knew that she cherished the more from being the only representative of her sex at the meetings.
"By the by," he said suddenly, "the position of Lady Superintendent carries, ipso facto, a place on the General Committee. You will have another lady to keep you in countenance, Edna."
"What, poor Miss Marchrose?"
"Miss Marchrose," Julian assented, tacitly refusing the epithet.
Lady Rossiter was silent for a moment and then said quietly, "I'm so glad that I can spare the time to come in to-day. She could never have faced all those men by herself, poor thing, and they would probably have disliked it as much as she would, or more. An unmarried woman is always at a disadvantage."
Julian left undisputed this cardinal article of faith characteristic of the wedded Englishwoman.
In the hall of the College they found Cooper, who said in a congratulatory way, "Sir Julian and Lady Rossiter! You've come for the General Meeting. Let me take your coat, Lady Rossiter, and put it here—just lay it across the chair-back. We're going to have a good meeting, I think—no absentees. Will you wait in Mr. Fuller's rooms, Sir Julian? I'll open the door."