Understanding this fact you will not be so rude and indecorous as to thrust your presence upon this meeting." But he added, "If, _gentlemen_, any of you are _ladies_ in disguise--why only apprise me of the fact, give me your names, and I will introduce you to the rest of your sex, and you can take seats among them accordingly." The power of benignity over malignity lasted a few moments after this little speech, when the situation changed rapidly from bad to worse.

"The tumult continually increased," says an eye-witness, "with horrible execrations, howling, stamping, and finally shrieking with rage.

They seemed not to dare to enter, notwithstanding their fury, but mounted on each other's shoulders, so that a row of hostile heads appeared over the slight partition, of half the height of the wall which divides the society's rooms from the landing place.

We requested them to allow the door to be shut; but they could not decide as to whether the request should be granted, and the door was opened and shut with violence, till it hung useless from its hinges." Garrison thinking that his absence might quiet these perturbed spirits and so enable the ladies to hold their meeting without further molestation volunteered at this juncture to the president of the society to retire from the hall unless she desired him to remain.

She did not wish him to stay but urged him to go at once not only for the peace of the meeting but for his own safety.