e women on the panel took a lot of heat for the reconvening of the
hearing. Ricocheting across campus were the whisperings and
lamentations of Esther as she endeavored to absolve herself from blame.

Jane's battle with her conscience reached only the ears of her closest
friends, but her glacial features and bent posture bespoke her
frustration and her impotency.

The saddest of all was Annette who had quietly borne the conflicting
waves of testimony that flowed over her at the hearing. She had dared
to speak up a couple of times, but now she knew that it had been a
mistake. Whatever Henry asked her to sign, she would sign. Without
question, without hesitation, but not with good conscience. His visit
to her and his carefully chosen words concerning his knowledge of her
life-style had left no doubt remaining that the threat of exposure was
real.

Diana found out early on that it would be unwise to place too much
confidence in the judicial system. She discovered that a court cares
nothing about right or wrong, good or bad. It cares only about what
the law is, can you prove it, and who proves it in the most
entertaining manner.

The Attorney General had told Diana that an additional hazard was that
this was a civil rights case--sex discrimination. The current federal
administration had knocked the hell out of most of the laws pertaining
to sex or age discrimination and greatly weakened any remaining. The
EEOC was acting like a toothless pussy cat under the direction of a
staunch Reagan\Bush conservative whose payoff would be a seat on the
Supreme Court.

However, for all its drawbacks, it was the only game in town. A
choice, instead of giving up. Besides, Diana was overwhelmed with the
magnitude of support in the form of cold cash from the university
community and alumni. She had to at least have the faith in herself
that others had shown--but the cost! Enough to make her frugal Yankee
blood congeal in horror.

Well, no help for it, she thought. She carefully figured out just how
far she could go with what she had and what had been given her. That
far she would go and no further. She'd give the court a chance, but
she wouldn't bet the whole farm on it and certainly not the rest of her
life. Decidedly not in a city where the old boy network was so
substantial and entrenched that it kept its meeting place a male
bastion and ruled the entire state from it. Not to mention that The
Pope was a prepaid