? Does it permit us to
seek protection under false pretences; to say yes when we mean no; to
kneel before a God we do not believe in; to accept immunity under a
law we do not believe in?"

"If all this concerned only one's self, then, no! Or, if the man
believed as we do, no! But even then--" she shook her head slowly,
"unless _all_ agree, it is unfair."

"Unfair?"

"Yes, it is unfair if you have a baby. Isn't it, darling? Isn't it
unfair and tyrannical?"

"You mean that a child should not arbitrarily be placed by its parents
at what it might later consider a disadvantage?"

"Of course I mean just that. Do you know, Palla, what Jack once said
of us? He said--rather brutally, I thought--that you and I were
immaturely un-moral and pitiably unbaked; and that the best thing for
both of us was to marry and have a few children before we tried to do
any more independent thinking."

Palla's reply was: "He was such a dear!" But what she said did not
seem absurd to either of them.

Ilse added: "You know yourself, darling, what a relief it was to you
to learn that I had married Jack. I think you even said something
like, 'Thank God,' when you were choking back the tears."

Palla flushed brightly: "I meant--" but her voice ended in a sob.
Then, all of a sudden, she broke down--went all to pieces there in the
dim and empty little drawing-room--down on her knees, clinging to
Ilse's skirts....

She wished to go to her room alone; and so Ilse, watching her climb
the stairs as though they led to some dread calvary, opened the front
door and went her lonely way, drawing the mourning veil around her
face and throat.

CHAPTER XXIV

Leila Vance, lunching with Elorn Sharrow at the Ritz, spoke of
Estridge:

"There seem to be so many of these well-born men who marry women we
never heard of."

"Perhaps we ought to have heard of them," suggested Elorn, smilingly.
"The trouble may lie with us."

"It does, dear. But it's something we can't help, unless we change
radically. Because we don't stand the chance we once did. We never
have been as attractive to men as the other sort. But once men thought
they couldn't marry the other sort. Now they think they can. And they
do if they have to."

"What other sort?" asked Elorn, not entirely understanding.

"The sort of girl who ignores the customs which make us what we are.
We don't stand a chance with professional women any more. We don't
compare in interest to girls who ar