voted to pleasure. It had a moral object, and that
object was to demonstrate the progress of civilisation in our islands. Its
official title, indeed, was "The National Progress Exhibition," but the
citizens of Birmingham and the vicinity never called it anything but the
Blue City.

On that Saturday afternoon a Cabinet Minister historically hostile to the
idols of Birmingham was about to address a mass meeting in the Imperial
Hall of the Exhibition, which held seven thousand people, in order to prove
to Birmingham that the Government of which he was a member had done far
more for national progress than any other Government had done for national
progress in the same length of time. The presence of the Cabinet Minister
accounted for the presence of Jane Foley; the presence of Jane Foley
accounted for the presence of Audrey; and the presence of Audrey accounted
for the presence of Miss Ingate.

Although she was one of the chief organisers of victory, and perhaps--next
to Rosamund and the family trio whose Christian names were three sweet
symphonies--the principal asset of the Suffragette Union, Jane Foley had
not taken an active part in the Union's arrangements for suitably welcoming
the Cabinet Minister; partly because of her lameness, partly because she
was writing a book, and partly for secret reasons which it would be unfair
to divulge. Nearly at the last moment, however, in consequence of news
that all was not well in the Midlands, she had been sent to Birmingham,
and, after evading the watch of the police, she had arrived on the previous
day in Audrey's motor-car, which at that moment was waiting in the
automobile park outside the principal gates of the Blue City.

The motor-car had been chosen as a means of transit for the reason that the
railway stations were being watched for notorious suffragettes by members
of a police force whose reputations were at stake. Audrey owed her
possession of a motor-car to the fact that the Union officials had seemed
both startled and grieved when, in response to questions, she admitted that
she had no car. It was communicated to her that members of the Union as
rich as she reputedly was were expected to own cars for the general good.
Audrey thereupon took measures to own a car. Having seen in many
newspapers an advertisement in which a firm of middlemen implored the
public thus: "Let us run your car for you. Let us take all the worry and
responsibility," she interviewed the firm, an