it as soon as I can afford to."

"I should make it a bit sooner than that," suggested the elder woman.
"One can't always stop oneself just where one wants to when sliding down
a slope. It has a knack of getting steeper and steeper as one goes on."

Madge had asked Joan to come a little earlier so that they could have a
chat together before the others arrived.

"I've only asked a few," she explained, as she led Joan into the restful
white-panelled sitting-room that looked out upon the gardens. Madge
shared a set of chambers in Gray's Inn with her brother who was an actor.
"But I have chosen them with care."

Joan murmured her thanks.

"I haven't asked any men," she added, as she fixed Joan in an easy chair
before the fire. "I was afraid of its introducing the wrong element."

"Tell me," asked Joan, "am I likely to meet with much of that sort of
thing?"

"Oh, about as much as there always is wherever men and women work
together," answered Madge. "It's a nuisance, but it has to be faced."

"Nature appears to have only one idea in her head," she continued after a
pause, "so far as we men and women are concerned. She's been kinder to
the lower animals."

"Man has more interests," Joan argued, "a thousand other allurements to