JUST been elected to the Council of the Eugenic Society, and the only woman to sit on the Council of the Cremation Society of England.
And so ring down the curtain on the “Bakers’ Dozen,” and the booksellers’ and authors’ thirteen. So ends my tale—no “Spy’s” tail.
AU REVOIR!
P.S.—No woman ever wrote a letter—tradition says—without a P.S. Above everything I am a woman, so let me hasten to add my P.S.
These pages have been corrected for press during fourteen days of great strain.
Thousands of invitations were sent from my door between reading the “galleys.” Thousands of letters and questions were answered during the correction of the “page proof,” which turned up while I was acting as Hospitality Honorary Secretary for the First International Eugenics Congress, held in London, July, 1912.
For the Inaugural Banquet I sent out to all parts of the world about a thousand invitations, nearly five hundred of which were accepted. Major Leonard Darwin, son of the great Darwin and nephew of Sir Francis Galton, presided at the dinner, and Mr. Arthur J. Balfour and the Lord Mayor (Sir Thomas Crosby) spoke. A Reception, at which all members attending the Congress were present, followed.
Amongst those who came forward and helped me, by giving delightful entertainments and each receiving five or six hundred guests in their beautiful homes, were H. E. the American Ambassador, the Duchess of Marlborough, the Lord Mayor (the first medical man to fill that post), Mr. Robert Mond, and Major Darwin.
My part of the festivities ended by my taking a hundred of our foreign and colonial visitors to tea on the Terrace of the House of Commons, thanks to the generosity of ten Members of Parliament. The Speaker kindly lent his gallery, and allowed his Private Secretary to find seats for the whole number.
All this was most enjoyable, but it was not good for careful proof-reading.
HERE ENDS THE TALE. SKETCH IN “SPY,” 1912