"Jill?" He whispered the appeal, but the girl was out of the reach of his voice, far away in those dark lands, whereof no man knows the boundary. Tenderly he drew together the torn folds of her blouse which showed beneath it a white slip threaded with a narrow ribbon. He felt a chivalrous pity to see the disorder of her simple dress, and, drawing the pin out of his tie, he tried clumsily, to repair it. But as he did so he gave a start, a new fear gripping him. For something red gleamed beneath the thin and tattered material. It looked like a great drop of blood against the fairness of her skin! He set his teeth. Deliberately, but with unconscious reverence, he drew down the frill of lace where the ribbon held the folds together. Then he gave a gasp of relief. Into his blue eyes came the light of love victorious; infinite wonder flooded his soul with tenderness. For there it lay, in the soft hollow between the delicate curves of her breast, in ruby glass with its lover's knot, his "fairing"--the little "double heart"! CHAPTER XXVII The night was close and sultry. A sudden longing for air drove McTaggart into the deserted Park. His luggage was packed, and early next day he would start for the North and his round of visits there. The Uniackes were at Worthing, and McTaggart's thoughts instinctively turned to Jill as he left the path and took a chair in an empty row beyond the Achilles Statue. The girl's initial venture as a Militant Suffragette had left no lasting trace physically. But mentally it had marked a definite turning point in her views on the subject that engrossed her home. She had gone to Cluar expecting resistance from the law and possible rough treatment at the hands of men; but the sight of fellow-women, losing all control, violently turning against their own sex, and the utter absence of that esprit de corps--so strong a feature of her college life--had astounded and revolted her to the depths of her soul. She argued thus: If a movement that held as its primary cause the advancement of women produced not only a breach with the opposite sex but civil war among themselves, what would be the state of a government where the rival factions _each_ held the vote and in which the fighting element despised the prevailing laws of the land? Was Arson a slight weapon of offence? Or Assassination, risked by bombs? It was Anarchy none the less, the offenders being mere women. The present scheme of government might be open to various abuses, but at least it was a rule of order, upholding the laws it sought to enforce and the safety of the citizen. In the long journey home, Jill had threshed out in this fashion the pros and cons of Woman's Suffrage with McTaggart; and needless to say the man had approved the conclusion she reached at last. She turned her back on the "Cause."