The opener’s speech lasted about twenty minutes; then came the speech from the opposition. Marjorie could not help starting as she heard Belle Acheson’s well-known voice. Her words were forcible and full of power, put together with much grammatical fluency, and absolutely to the point. She did her utmost to crush Miss Frere, declaring that if woman, the modern woman, who had such a vast work before her, was to spend her life devoting herself to the pleasures of the toilet, to society, to mere ornamentation, to the thought of what others would think of her, she would be frittering away her birthright, and would be a despicable creature.
“There are no two sides,” cried Belle. “Woman has got to choose. If she means to take up her whole mission, she must drop that which has hindered her in the past; she must cast away her crutch and stand alone.”
“Hear! hear!” burst from some of the students whose ideas coincided with Belle’s.
“For shame!” muttered others.
“Yes,” continued Belle, raising her short-sighted eyes and glancing down the hall to right and left of her. “I repeat once again that there are no two sides. I disagree with Miss Frere in toto. Away with shams! Away with shams!”
As Belle said the last words she brought down her hand upon the table with a great clap which caused the glass and bottle of water standing upon it to rattle ominously.
There was a stamping of feet when she sat down. Marjorie and Eileen looked no longer displeased; their eyes were bright and their cheeks flushed.
“Dear old Belle,” whispered one of the girls to the other; “it is quite refreshing to hear her and to see her again.”
“How true to her colours she is,” said Eileen. “I respect her more than words can say.”
After the speeches from the opener and the opposition, the debate proceeded with enthusiasm. Girls argued for Miss Frere and against Miss Frere; but finally, when the summing-up was over, Miss Frere was able to declare that she had a small victory on her side. She then thanked the girls for their polite attention, hoped that those who differed from her would by and by see matters in another light, and broke up the debate.