"Wear a bathing suit around the house. I used to, regularly. In the tenements in Kips Bay I always did the dishes in my bathing suit. Annette Kellerman tights, a skirt to the knees, no sleeves, no stockings. A dandy rig-out for quick action." "Permit me to say, Janet—" began Cornelia, in frigid, authoritative tones. Mrs. Jerome impatiently waved her away, an indignity so astounding that Madame Paulette could scarcely trust her eyes. Janet, fearing she had been indiscreet, hastened to add: "Of course, Cornelia—Madame Paulette—doesn’t allow it in Paris. She requires us to be perfectly proper here." "She would!" said Mrs. Jerome significantly, her back still turned to Cornelia. "But what good does it do you? Nine-tenths of the people in Paris are perfectly proper; but they don’t look it. The other tenth are perfectly improper; but they, as often as not, don’t look it either." The manikins received another inning. A brief one, though, for Mrs. Jerome inspected and dismissed them in quick succession. "Well, well," she said, half aloud, "to think that you came from the tenements." She gave Janet a quick, sceptical glance. "I can scarcely believe it." "I can scarcely believe it myself," said Janet, with a perfectly straight face. Cornelia bit her lips and, flashing an angry look at her friend, went out of the salon, unable to trust her feelings any longer. "If the Duchess got wind of it," Mrs. Jerome mused on, "that would finish Paulette’s for me. She don’t think a shop is a classy shop unless the proprietor has a classy pedigree." "Oh, our pedigree will seem classy enough to the Duchess," said Janet, "if you don’t give us away. And you can’t do that, you know. I only told you in the strictest confidence." "Don’t you go shifting your responsibilities on me, young woman. If you want your secrets kept, you just keep them to yourself. I’m no safe deposit vault for anyone else’s hidden thoughts. For your comfort I’ll tell you this, though. I’ve never given my daughter food or information that I knew she couldn’t digest. I’m too old to begin doing it now." "You’re quite right, Mrs. Jerome. Things slip off my tongue that oughtn’t to. Personally, I don’t care a straw. But other people—" "Don’t worry about other people, my dear," said Mrs. Jerome, who had enjoyed the tit-for-tat immensely. "I’m not likely to desert Madame Paulette. At least not while she keeps anyone with your healthy face and fascinating eyes here to talk to me. Mind, I’m not gone on these Paulette frocks. I guess the Madame knows that pretty well. But this establishment is run by a woman, a woman from my own country. That means a good deal to me. For although our sex is coming into its own, the pace isn’t a dizzy one. The men see to that. And so I say, this is a time for all good women to stand by one another."