‘Ladies, is there anything in the bill that will make the people—the many, not the few—happy and prosperous? Certainly a few people will walk the floor of the proposed new two-house parliament, a few people will draw handsome salaries, a few people will rejoice in a great increase of power. We, the people, will be taxed to pay for all these things and as compensation we will have the pleasure of trying to make ends meet, a thing politicians never do. Ladies, I urge all of you to have nothing to do with this unjust bill!’

The room erupted and all but a handful were soon on their feet, hats in the air, feet stamping the ground so that the very foundations of the hall shook.

‘Really!’ said Miss Dempsey loudly in Eleanor’s ear. ‘Have you ever heard such wantonly militant, such deplorably misguided nonsense?’

As the roar went on and on, and it seemed for a time that order would not be restored, Ned Dempsey heaved himself to his feet and acknowledged the applause, and when the hall had fallen silent he placed his thumbs in his waistband and threw back his shoulders and cast a shrewd eye at the expectant onlookers.

‘Ladies of Sydney,’ he began, and there was more applause. ‘The ordinary healthy, happy woman is generally an uninterested conservative. Home and friends, perhaps husband and children, fill up the measure of her desire, and she sees no reason for wishing to alter the old ways, which have brought her satisfaction. But when a great subject is under discussion, when a great movement is afoot, she must wake from her lethargy of indifference!’

A silence followed this, then a smattering of applause, not least from Miss Dempsey who was fervent in her enthusiasm, but it was a brave gambit, indeed, accusing one’s audience of lethargic indifference and Eleanor, peering at the speaker in some astonishment, was surely not the only person in the hall to recognise that his entire opening speech had been lifted word for word from Tuesday’s Herald.

The remainder of Mr Dempsey’s address fell rather flat, urging as he was the ladies of the colony to encourage their menfolk to vote against the bill while at the same time declaring that their place was in the home supporting their husbands and their husbands’ views. It was a contrary position to take and the applause he received was, accordingly, somewhat muted and Miss Dempsey, who expressed herself quite offended, proposed they depart at once.