d everything about Ernestine
Geyer's life contained in the previous chapter of this book and much
more that only a woman could confide in another woman,--intimate details
of her honorable struggle. Ernestine bared her hungry heart, her
loneliness in her new home, and her feeling of helplessness in not
getting, after all, what she wanted and what she had earned the money to
pay for.

"I guess I'm too much of a man," she said, after she had described her
solitary life in the apartment below. "There ain't enough of a woman
left in me to make a home!"

Milly tried to cheer her and encourage her, and promised to take dinner
with her some day and give her any suggestions she could.

* * * * *

After that Sunday Milly saw Ernestine Geyer almost every day and often
on Sundays for the whole day. Ernestine was fertile in clumsy ways of
wooing the new-found friends. She brought Virgie fruit and candies and
toys and insisted upon thrusting flowers and dainties on Milly. The
latter heartily liked the "queer" lady, as Virginia still called
Ernestine, and invited her cordially to come in whenever she would. In
Milly's busier, more social days, Ernestine's devotion might have proved
a bore. But this was a lonely winter. Very few friends came to see her,
and Milly had many idle hours.

Hazel Fredericks had not been offended by Milly's neglect to take
advantage of her opportunities the night of the suffrage meeting,--at
least she showed no pique when Milly finally got around to telephoning
her friend and congratulating her on her successful speech. But Hazel
had become so involved in the movement by this time, especially so
intimate with the fascinating young married agitator, that she had less
time and less interest to spare for Milly's small affairs. She was
planning with her new friend, so she told Milly when she did get out to
the flat, a serious campaign that promised to be immensely
exciting,--nothing less than a series of drawing-room meetings in some
western cities, especially Chicago, where "Society" had shown a
lamentable indifference hitherto to the Cause. Presently this mission
took Hazel Fredericks altogether beyond Milly's narrow sphere for the
remainder of the winter. From time to time Milly received newspaper
clippings and an occasional hurried note from Hazel, recounting the
social flutter that they had created by their meetings, and the progress
the Cause was making in the most fashi