and whispering in corners. 'Have you
heard about Jenny Pearl? Isn't it shocking? Oh, I do think it's a
dreadful thing. What a terrible girl.' God, and look at _you_. Married
women! Yes, and what have you married? Why, there isn't a girl in this
dressing-room whose husband can afford to keep her. Husbands! Why,
they're no better than--"

"She's been going out with Lilli Vergoe," interrupted Elsie sneeringly.
"Jenny Pearl's turned into a suffragette."

"What of it? You and your six pairs of gloves that your Willie bought
you. Well, if he did, _which_ I don't think, he must have broke open the
till to do it."

Madge Wilson's disloyalty effected for Jenny what nothing else had done.
It made the blood course fast, the heart beat: it kindled her eyes
again. That night in bed, she thought of falseness and treachery and
cried herself to sleep.

Chapter XXVI: _In Scyros_

The outburst against feminine treachery had an effect upon Jenny's state
of mind beyond the mere evoking of tears. These were followed by a
general agitation of her point of view necessitating an outlet for her
revived susceptibleness to emotion. A less sincere heart would have been
caught on the rebound; but she and men were still mutually unattractive.
The consequence of this renewed activity of spirit, in the aspect of its
immediate cause, was paradoxical enough; for when Jenny thought she
would try the pretensions of suffragism, no clear process of reasoning
helped her to such a resolve, no formulated hostility to man. Whatever
logic existed in the decision was fortuitous; nor did she at all
perceive any absence of logic in throwing in her lot with treacherous
woman.

Lilli Vergoe was proud of such a catechumen, and made haste to introduce
her to the tall house in Mecklenburg Square, whose elm-shadowed rooms
displayed the sober glories of the Women's Political, Social and
Economic League. Something about the house reminded Jenny of her first
visit to Madame Aldavini's School; but she found Miss Bailey less
alarming than the dancing mistress as, rising from masses of letters and
scarlet gladioli, she welcomed the candidate. Miss Bailey, the president
of the League, was a tall, handsome woman, very unlike Jenny's
conception of a suffragette. She had a regular profile, a thin,
high-bridged nose, and clearly cut, determined lips. Her complexion was
pale, her hair very brown and rich. Best of all Jenny liked her slim
hands and the voice which, t