of costume.  I have taken the new offices in the name of Mr. Michaelis[1] for a special reason; and with some modifications of David’s costume I have appeared in person to assume possession of them.  I generally enter No. 94 dressed as Vivie Warren.  All this may sound very silly to you, like playing at conspiracy.  But these precautions seem to be necessary.  The Government is beginning to take Suffragism seriously, and a whole department at New Scotland Yard has been organized to cope with our activities.

[Footnote 1:  Michaelis, I believe, was a Greek merchant dealing with sponges, emery powder, coral, and other products of the Mediterranean shores whose acquaintance Vivie had originally made when interested in the shares of that Levantine house, Charles Davis and Co.  Of Ionian birth he had become a naturalized British subject, but having grown wealthy had decided to transfer himself to Athens and enter political life.  He had consented amusedly to Vivie’s adoption of his name for her new tenancy and had given her an old passport, which you could do in the days that knew not Dora—­she resembling him somewhat in appearance.  He was aware of her Suffragist activities and guessed she might want it occasionally for eluding the police on trips abroad.—­H.H.J.]

One reason I have in writing this letter—­a letter I hope you will burn after you have read and noted its contents—­is to ask you to lend me for a while the services of Bertie Adams as clerk.  Of course I shall insist on paying his salary whilst I employ him, and indemnifying him for anything he may suffer in my service—­that of the W.S.P.U.  I am fairly well off for money now.  Besides the funds the W.S.P.U. places at my disposal, I have the interest on mother’s Ten Thousand pounds, and she would give me more if I asked for it.  She has quite taken to the idea of spending her ill-gotten gains on the Enfranchisement of Women! (I am going over to see her for a week or so, when it is not quite so cold.)

What business am I going specially to undertake in Mr. Michaelis’s office on the top storey of 88-90?  I will tell you.  Scotland Yard is getting busy about us, the Suffragists, trying to find out all it can that is detrimental to our personal characters, our upbringing, our progeniture, our businesses and our relations; whether we had a forger in the family, whether I am the daughter of the “notorious” Mrs. Warren, whether Mrs. Canon Burstall is really my aunt and whether she couldn’t be brought to use her private influence on me to keep me quiet, in case it came out that Kate Warren was her sister, and that she led Kate into that way of life wherein she earned her shameful livelihood.  I have had one or two covert hints from Aunt Liz promising to open up relations if only I’ll behave myself!  Scotland Yard has already had the sorry triumph of causing one or two of our most prominent workers to retire from the ranks because