Harris tweed strongly odorous from
the rain. Her hair might have been arranged to set off her features to
greater advantage, and it was a pity her complexion was spoilt by a
network of tiny purple veins which always attracted the concentration of
those who talked to her. Jenny began to count them at once.

"Come to hear Connie Ragstead?" asked Miss Worrill. "Jolly good crowd
for August," she went on, throwing a satisfied glance round the room.
"Have you ever heard her?"

"No," Jenny replied, wondering why something in this girl's way of
speaking reminded her of Maurice.

"You'll like her most awfully. I met her once at the Lady Maggie
'Gaudy.'"

"At the what?"

"Our Gaude at Lady Margaret's. Festive occasion and all that. I say, do
you play hockey? I'm getting up a team to play at Wembley this winter."

"My friend and I are too busy," Miss Vergoe explained, looking nervously
round at Jenny to see how she took the suggestion.

"But one can always find time for 'ecker.'"

"I _could_ find time to fly kites. Only I don't want to," said Jenny
dangerously. "You see, I'm on the stage."

"I'm frightfully keen on the stage," Miss Worrill volunteered. "I
believe it could be such a force. I thought of acting myself once--you
know, in real plays, not musical comedy, of course. A friend of mine was
in the 'Ecclesiasuzae' at the Afternoon Theater. She wore a _rather_
jolly vermilion tunic and had bare legs. Absolutely realistic."

Jenny now began to giggle, and whispered "Cocoanut knees" to Lilli, who,
notwithstanding the importance of the occasion, also began to giggle. So
Miss Worrill, presumably shy of their want of sensibility, retired.

Soon, when the rumor of the speaker's arrival ran round the assemblage,
a general move was made in the direction of the large room on the first
floor. Jenny, as she entered with the stream, saw Leonardo's sinister
portrait and tried to retreat; but there were too many eager listeners
in the way, and she had to sit down and prepare to endure the damnable
smile of La Gioconda that seemed directed to the very corner where she
was sitting.

During the earlier part of Miss Ragstead's address, Jenny's attention
was chiefly occupied by her neighbors. She thought that never before was
such a collection of freaks gathered together. Close beside her, dressed
in a green djibbeh embroidered with daisies of terra-cotta silk, was a
tallowy woman who from time to time let several books slide from