`` As for the social , why , of course , if women are n't good enough to speak in church they are not good enough to work for it either . Lucy , dear , will you pass me the cookies ? '' `` Lucy dear '' passed the cookies and then rose abruptly and left the table . Her father 's face was too much for her . `` What confounded nonsense is this ? '' demanded the elder explosively . Mrs. Knox opened her mellow brown eyes widely , as if in amazement at her husband 's tone . `` I do n't understand you , '' she said . `` Our position is perfectly logical . '' She had borrowed that phrase from Myra Wilson , and it floored the elder . He got up , seized his hat , and strode from the room . That night , at Jacob Wherrison 's store at the Corner , the Putney men talked over the new development . The social was certainly off -- for a time , anyway . `` Best let 'em alone , I say , '' said Wherrison . `` They 're mad at us now and doing this to pay us out . But they 'll cool down later on and we 'll have the social all right . '' `` But if they do n't , '' said Andrew McKittrick gloomily , `` who is going to pay for that carpet ? '' This was an unpleasant question . The others shirked it . `` I was always opposed to this action of the session , '' said Alec Craig .
`` It would n't have hurt XXXXX have let the woman speak .
Wilson at for from if night of on over to