She held out her hand for the note, and read and then reread it, and her forehead contracted. "I wonder," she said to herself, "whether this is what Orrin meant when he said the profession would furnish Dr. Earl enough rope—I meant to ask him what he did mean, but I forgot it." Aloud she said, "Isn't Dr. Morris one of the directors of this society? He's a fellow alumnus of yours; it doesn't seem as if he would be likely to show you an affront, does it?"
"That's just the point," answered Dr. Earl. "Is it a case of 'mine own familiar friend'?"
His sister looked at him quizzically. "When it comes to literary allusion, Jack," she said, "New York might permit Shakespeare, but I assure you it wouldn't stand for the psalmist. Do you really think it is a plan to get you into some false position or to embarrass you with criticisms or queries not made in good faith?"
"That is exactly what I want to know," he said.
"And what if it is?" asked Silvia.
He colored. "You mean I ought to be willing to bear testimony to my beliefs whether they meet with acceptance or not?"
Hilda blew a ring of smoke ceilingwards. "That's the trouble with these suffragettes," she said reminiscently. "They never question the advisability of 'casting pearls before swine.'"
Jack laughed and Silvia turned on her reproachfully. "Hilda! That isn't fair; haven't you just said yourself that this would be a picked audience? Suppose a little clique of them have arranged the meeting with the intention of heckling the speaker? The bulk of them will be there in good faith, anxious to learn, willing to listen to your brother's account of his experiences, and profit by them. If he can't gain a respectful hearing there, where will he gain it?"
"Forgive me for being biblical to-night," Hilda answered. "I can't seem to get away from the suggestion; you know it was the high priests and the rulers of the synagogue that stirred up their followers to cry, 'Crucify Him, crucify Him!' And times have changed more than people. The poor will hear gladly enough of healing that is to be had without money and without price, and operations that may be avoided by simply keeping well, but my experience is that the fetish of the professional man is a jealous god, given to heresy hunting, and bowing down and worshiping at the shrine of 'regularity.' They want to preserve the status quo at any cost."
"Yes," said Silvia bluntly, "even after it has long been lost. They are like people who might discover an ostrich egg-shell after the bird was half grown, and go chasing after it, trying to put it back inside the shell. I think it is Emerson who says that there are quantities of people who are always trying to become settled, whereas our only salvation consists in being constantly unsettled. I think the English women are infinitely braver and finer in their attitude on the suffrage question than we are. What I feel, Dr. Earl, is this: we have come to a time when nothing is really worth while unless it is worth fighting for. There are other worth while things, of course, for the laboratory man or woman, but for those of us who are in the thick of the fight, who want to do things now, it is necessary that we should be willing to do battle for our beliefs."