in one section of the book, describing the work of a fictional woman writer, mary carmichael, woolf deliberately invokes lesbianism: "then may i tell you that the very next words i read were these – 'chloe liked olivia ...' do not start. do not blush. let us admit in the privacy of our own society that these things sometimes happen. sometimes women do like women." woolf references the obscenity trial and public uproar resulting from the publishing of radclyffe hall's lesbian-themed novel "the well of loneliness" (1928). before she can discuss chloe liking olivia, the narrator has to be assured that sir chartres biron, the magistrate of hall's obscenity trial, is not in the audience: "are there no men present? do you promise the figure of sir chartres biron is not concealed? we are all women, you assure me? then i may tell you ..."