Now,'' she ended, ``I shall be like Mr.
Bradlaugh. I shall hover round and continue my
work here.''
When Mrs. Besant had left the room Mrs. Bright
felt that it was her duty to admonish ``Aunt Susan''
to be more careful in what she said.
``You are making too light of her creed,'' she ex-
postulated. ``You do not realize the important
position Mrs. Besant holds. Why, in India, when
she walks from her home to her school all those she
meets prostrate themselves. Even the learned men
prostrate themselves and put their faces on the
ground as she goes by.''
``Aunt Susan's'' voice, when she replied, took on
the tones of one who is sorely tried. ``But why in
Heaven's name does any sensible Englishwoman
want a lot of heathen to prostrate themselves as she
goes up the street?'' she demanded, wearily. ``It's
the most foolish thing I ever heard.''
The effort to win Miss Anthony over to the theo-
sophical doctrine was abandoned. That night, after
we had gone to our rooms, ``Aunt Susan'' summed up
her conclusions on the interview:
``It's a good thing for the world,'' she declared,
``that some of us don't know so much. And it's a
better thing for this world that some of us think a
little earthly common sense is more valuable than
too much heavenly knowledge.''
X
THE PASSING OF ``AUNT SUSAN''
On one occasion Miss Anthony had the doubt-
ful pleasure of reading her own obituary notices,
and her interest in them was characteristically naive.
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