"And now," said Mary briskly, "while we are waiting to find out about that, I think we'd better have a business meeting of 'The Merry Hearts.' I don't know of any business myself, and I don't see how we can transact any, with our peculiar rules and regulations; but Madeline and Roberta have been casting base insinuations on my fitness for the exalted office I hold, and I am going to show them how beautifully I could have presided over the Congress of these United States, if I'd only been a man."