ve husbands, were
the nearest approach to intimates he had in that segment of society
which gets itself spelled with a capital S.

Violet's attitude toward Rose, as revealed to him at the little dinner
following the Williamsons' discovery of Rose in the Globe chorus, had
not in the least surprised him. For, with her husband he had recognized
in her biting contempt of the thing the girl had done, the typical
attitude of her class. He didn't do Society very much, but he dipped
expertly now and then. He understood the class--loyalty that is woven
into all their traditions, and knew how violently it was outraged by
Rose's inexplicable bolt.

But, as I said, he went home after that dinner, rather mournful over
Violet's failure to see an aspect of the thing which, it seemed to him,
should have been apparent to anybody: this was Rose's courage in
actually doing the thing. The idea that had evidently prompted the act
was a perfectly familiar guest at their tea-tables. Rose wouldn't have
had to go to "that votes-for-women mother of hers" to pick up the notion
of the desirability of economic independence for women. But, instead of
playing with the idea, Rose had gripped it in both hands and gone
through with it; and at what cost of resolution and courage Jimmy was
perhaps the only one of her friends capable of forming an adequate
conception. But he'd have thought that even Violet might be expected to
see that a mere petulant restlessness wouldn't have carried her through;
might have admitted, if only in parenthesis, the gameness the girl had
shown.

She'd made no attempt to get the cards stacked in her favor, as she
might so easily have done. She must have thought of coming to him for
advice and help; must have known how gladly he'd give it. A note from
him to Goldsmith would have spared her untold terrors and
uncertainties. Yet she had denied herself that help; gone ahead and
done the thing on her own.

He could imagine the sort of test Galbraith had put her to before giving
her a job at all. He'd seen inexperienced girls applying for positions
in the chorus. He knew the sort of work that lay behind her advancement
to the sextette. He knew that her presence there on the stage of the
Globe the opening night, unrecognized by any one in the company as
anybody except Doris Dane of nowhere, represented a solid achievement
that a girl with Rose's background and training might be proud of.

For Jimmy it had stamped her, once and