Legacy by James A. Michener Page B

women who wanted to be men and contemptuous of the idea that they might want the vote or know what to do with it if they got it: 'Have you ever heard that splendid chain of words invented in Germany not long ago? Kaiser, Kirche, Kinder, Kiiche. That's what women really want. Obedience to the ruler. Faithfulness to the church. Care of the children. And supervision of the kitchen and home.'
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    Emily, even though she was now twenty-eight, had hoped to avoid confrontation with her father, but she was so imbued with the daring ideas of Kate Kedzie that she simply could not remain silent: 'I think that if our form of government has errors, they must be corrected-' 'Errors? And who are you to determine error?, 'If half the population is denied participation-' 'Participation? You women run the home, high- est calling in Christendom. What more do you want? A soldier's uniform and a gunT He was so agitated that he dispatched one of his daughter-in-law's servants to fetch Anne and Malcolm, and when they appeared in dressing gowns, for they rose late, a triumvirate was formed, three people who would oppose Emily for the rest.of her life: General Hugh in the middle, stern and forbidding; brother Malcolm on his left, pallid but always willing to preach; sister-in-law Anne yn the General's right, cool and able and formidable. The General spoke first: 'Our Emily has dis- graced herself. Acting up in public. Wants women to be soldiers.' He ranted for nearly five minutes, ridiculing his daughter's aspirations and lam- pooning her presumptions: 'Suffragists? Is there an uglier word in the language? I would march to the shore and swim away if my country ever encouraged women to leave the sanctuary of the home and dirty themselves in cheap politics.'
    He looked to his son for confirmation, but Malcolm, like many indecisive men who have mar- ried women wealthier and brighter than them- selves, merely nodded and deferred to his wife. Now another phenomenon of this tense period in American life began to manifest itself. Anne
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    Greer, a woman of privilege with six servants, became a vigorous foe of everything that her sister-in-law Emily was fighting for: 'The General is right. Woman's place is within the chapel of the home, tending it, making it a haven, providing a refuge from the busy cares of the world . . .' On and on she went about the glories of homemaking, despite the fact that she never performed any of these tasks; her servants did. But her first outburst was so effective, so filled with cherishable imagery that Emily thought: She'll be more dangerous than the men, and that would be true, for without waiting for a chastized Emily to disappear, Anne said: 'The thing to do is got Philip Rawson down here immediately, and you marry him Emily, because he's your last chance.' Philip was summoned by telegraph, arrived on the first train, and his courtship was both proper and forceful. It was obvious that he had grown to like Emily and dislike the prospect of endless years in a Connecticut library. On her part, Emily appreciated what a decent young man he was and how, on the assured income that Anne promised, they could have a meaningful life together. Malcolm, supervising the strange woomg, reported to his co-conspirators: 'I think it's settled. We can be damned grateful.' But now Kate Kedzie blustered back into town for her next shouting match with congressmen, and when Emily unwisely invited her home for tea, the other four very tense Starrs, counting Philip Rawson as one soon to be, met uneasily with the type of new woman they had not previously encountered. It was not a pleasant afternoon, especially when Kate told the three men, hoping to
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    enlist their support: 'It was actually my husband who got the movement started in Wyoming.' 'I should think,' the General snapped, 'that men of any significance in their community would unite to oppose this foolishness,' to which Kate replied with a smile: 'But isn't the real foolishness for men