It was Miss Johnson who caused the interruption to this burst of eloquence.
"Why, that's positively immoral!" gasped the outraged spinster.
"—at least three or four men dependent upon her," concluded the unabashed president of the Civitas Club, as she cast a withering look on her enemy, who quailed visibly. "And I think that's all," Cicily added, contentedly. She felt that she could with justice claim to have conducted herself nobly throughout a critical situation.
"I move that we adjourn," said Mrs. Flynn, energetically. Her vigorous temperament would permit no longer sulking in silence despite the humiliation to which she had so recently been subjected.
Mrs. Carrington, however, had not yet rejected all hope of office.
"We must first select a secretary," she suggested.
This was opposed by Miss Johnson, always persistently moved to discredit the older woman who had snubbed her socially.
"Why not select a professional stenographer as a member of the club; then make her secretary? Any number of young working women would doubtless be glad of the honor." This brought an outcry against the admission of any professional working woman into the exclusive Civitas.
"Oh, remember that we have ideals!" Ruth Howard remonstrated, with sincere, if vague, adherence to her ideals; and she up-turned her great eyes toward the ceiling.