I struck while the iron was hot, and got her permission to put her name upon our committee list.  She said, moreover, that she would get some free time, and be more than a mere name to us.  What were the duties of a member of our committee?

“First,” I said, “to know the facts about child-labour, as you have seen them to-day, and second, to help other people to know.”

“And how is that to be done?”

“Well, for instance, there is that hearing before the legislative committee.  You remember I suggested that you appear.”

“Yes,” she said in a low voice.  I could almost hear the words that were in her mind:  “What would he say?”

25.  Sylvia’s name went upon our letter-heads and other literature, and almost at once things began to happen.  In a day or two there came a reporter, saying he had noticed her name.  Was it true that she had become interested in our work?  Would I please give him some particulars, as the public would naturally want to know.

I admitted that Mrs. van Tuiver had joined the committee; she approved of our work and desired to further it.  That was all.  He asked:  Would she give an interview?  And I answered that I was sure she would not.  Then would I tell something about how she had come to be interested in the work?  It was a chance to assist our propaganda, added the reporter, diplomatically.

I retired to another room, and got Sylvia upon the ’phone, “The time has come for you to take the plunge,” I said.

“Oh, but I don’t want to be in the papers!” she cried “Surely, you wouldn’t advise it!”

“I don’t see how you can avoid having something appear.  Your name is given out, and if the man can’t get anything else, he’ll take our literature, and write up your doings out of his imagination.”

“And they’ll print my picture with it!” she exclaimed.  I could not help laughing.  “It’s quite possible.”

“Oh, what will my husband do?  He’ll say ‘I told you so!’”

It is a hard thing to have one’s husband say that, as I knew by bitter experience.  But I did not think that reason enough for giving up.

“Let me have time to think it over,” said Sylvia.  “Get him to wait till to-morrow, and meantime I can see you.”

So it was arranged.  I think I told Sylvia the truth when I said that I had never before heard of a committee member who was unwilling to have his purposes discussed in the newspapers.  To influence newspapers was one of the main purposes of committees, and I did not see how she could expect either editors or readers to take any other view.

“Let me tell the man about your trip down town,” I suggested, “then I can go on to discuss the bill and how it bears on the evils you saw.  Such a statement can’t possibly do you harm.”

She consented, but with the understanding that she was not to be quoted directly.  “And don’t let them make me picturesque!” she exclaimed.  “That’s what my husband seems most to dread.”