_Norie_: "Just so. But can't you find a little time to be social? Why be so morose? For instance, why not come and be introduced to Michael Rossiter? He's a dear--amazingly clever--a kind of prophet--Your one confidant, Stead, thinks a lot of him." _Vivie_: "_Dear_ Norie--I can't. I swore two years ago I would drop Society and run no risk of being found out as 'Mrs. Warren's daughter.' That beast George Crofts revenged himself because I wouldn't marry him by letting it be known here and there that I _was_ the daughter of the 'notorious Mrs. Warren'; whereupon several of the people I liked--you remember?--dropped me--the Burne-Joneses, the Lacrevys. Or if it wasn't Crofts some other swine did. But for the fact that it would upset our style as a firm I could change my name: call myself something quite different.... "D'you know, I've sometimes thought I'd cut my hair short and dress in men's clothes, and go out into the world as a man ... my voice is almost a tenor--_Such_ a lark! I'd get admitted to the Bar. But the nuisance about that would be the references. I'm an outlaw, you see, through no fault of mine.... I couldn't give _you_ as a reference, and I don't know any man who would be generous enough to take the risk of participating in the fraud.... unless it were Praed--good old Praddy. I'm sure it's been done now and again. They call Judge FitzSimmons 'an old woman.' Well, d'you know, I believe he _is_ ... a wise old woman." _Norie_: "Well: bide a wee, till our firm is doing a roaring business: I can pretend then to take in a male partner, p'raps. Rose and Lilian are very hard-working and we can't afford to lose them yet. If you appeared one morning dressed as a young man they might throw up their jobs and go elsewhere..." _Vivie_: "You may be quite sure I won't let _you_ down. Moreover I haven't the money for any vagaries yet, though I have an instinct that it is coming. You know those Charles Davis shares I bought at 5_s._ 3_d._? Well, they rose to 29_s._ whilst you were away; so I sold out. We had three hundred, and that, less commissions, made about L350 profit; the boldest coup we have had yet. And all because I spotted that new find of emery powder in Tripoli, saw it in a Consular Report.... "I want to be rich and therefore powerful, Norie! Then people will forget fast enough about my shameful parentage." _Norie_: "How _is_ she? Do you ever hear from or of her now?"