"I don't want a definite answer here and now." She looked round disdainfully at the foyer. "But I do want to set your mind on the right track at the earliest possible moment--before any accidents occur." She smiled satirically. "You see how frank I am with you. I'll be more frank still, and tell you that I came to this concert to-night specially to see you." "Did you?" Audrey murmured. "Well!" The older woman looked down upon her from a superior height. Her eyes were those of an autocrat. It was quite possible to see in them the born leader who had dominated thousands of women and played a drawn game with the British Government itself. But Audrey, at the very moment when she was feeling the overbearing magic of that gaze, happened to remember the scene in Madame Piriac's automobile on the night of her first arrival in Paris, when she herself was asleep and Rosamund, not knowing that she was asleep, had been solemnly addressing her. Miss Ingate's often repeated account of the scene always made her laugh, and the memory of it now caused her to smile faintly. "I want to suggest to you," Rosamund proceeded, "that you begin to work for me." "For the suffrage--or for you?" "It is the same thing," said Rosamund coldly. "I am the suffrage. Without me the cause would not have existed to-day." "Well," said Audrey, "of course I will. I have done a bit already, you know." "Yes, I know," Rosamund admitted. "You did very well at the Blue City. That's why I'm approaching you. That's why I've chosen you." "Chosen me for what?" "You know that a new great campaign will soon begin. It is all arranged. It will necessitate my returning to England and challenging the police. You know also that Jane Foley was to have been my lieutenant-in-chief--for the active part of the operation. You will admit that I can no longer count on her completely. Will you take her place?" "I'll help," said Audrey. "I'll do what I can. I dare say I shan't have much money, because one of those 'accidents' you mentioned has happened to me already." "That need not trouble you," replied Rosamund imperturbable. "I have always been able to get all the money that was needed." "Well, I'll help all I can." "That's not what I ask," said Rosamund inflexibly. "Will you take Jane Foley's place? Will you give yourself utterly?" Audrey answered with sudden vehemence: "No, I won't. You didn't want a definite answer, but there it is." "But surely you believe in the cause?" "Yes." "It's the greatest of all causes." "I'm rather inclined to think it is." "Why not give yourself, then? You are free. I have given myself, my child." "Yes," said Audrey, who resented the appellation of "child." "But, you see, it's your hobby." "My hobby, Mrs. Moncreiff!" exclaimed Rosamund. "Certainly, your hobby," Audrey persisted. "I have sacrificed everything to it," said Rosamund.