first assigned for the attack on the younger woman was that her mother had insulted the elder woman’s son.  It appeared, however, that a close friendship had existed between the two women, that latterly the younger woman had formed a friendship with the forewoman of her work-room, and that the elder woman, animated by jealousy, then resolved to murder both; this design was frustrated by the accidental absence of the forewoman that day.

In theaters the abnormal sexuality stimulated by such association in work is complicated by the general tendency for homosexuality to be connected with dramatic aptitude, a point to which I shall have to refer later on.  I am indebted to a friend for the following note:  “Passionate friendships among girls, from the most innocent to the most elaborate excursions in the direction of Lesbos, are extremely common in theaters, both among actresses and, even more, among chorus-and ballet-girls.  Here the pell-mell of the dressing-rooms, the wait of perhaps two hours between the performances, during which all the girls are cooped up, in a state of inaction and of excitement, in a few crowded dressing-rooms, afford every opportunity for the growth of this particular kind of sentiment.  In most of the theaters there is a little circle of girls, somewhat avoided by the others, or themselves careless of further acquaintanceship, who profess the most unbounded devotion to one another.  Most of these girls are equally ready to flirt with the opposite sex, but I know certain ones among them who will scarcely speak to a man, and who are never seen without their particular ‘pal’ or ‘chum,’ who, if she gets moved to another theater, will come around and wait for her friend at the stage-door.  But here, again, it is but seldom that the experience is carried very far.  The fact is that the English girl, especially of the lower and middle classes, whether she has lost her virtue or not, is extremely fettered by conventional notions.  Ignorance and habit are two restraining influences from the carrying out of this particular kind of perversion to its logical conclusions.  It is, therefore, among the upper ranks, alike of society and of prostitution, that Lesbianism is most definitely to be met with, for here we have much greater liberty of action, and much greater freedom from prejudices.”

With girls, as with boys, it is in the school, at the evolution of puberty, that homosexuality usually first shows itself.  It may originate in a way mainly peripheral or mainly central.  In the first case, two children, perhaps when close to each other in bed, more or less unintentionally generate in each other a certain amount of sexual irritation, which they foster by mutual touching and kissing.  This is a spurious kind of homosexuality, the often precocious play of the normal instinct.  In the girl who is congenitally predisposed to homosexuality it will continue and develop; in the majority it will be forgotten as quickly as possible, not without shame, in the presence of the normal object of sexual love.