"
"That is, supposing we go there," said Mrs. Arbuthnot
restrainingly. She felt that Mrs. Wilkins needed holding on to.
"After all, we've only written just to ask. Anybody may do that. I
think it quite likely we shall find the conditions impossible, and even
if they were not, probably by to-morrow we shall not want to go."
"I see us there," was Mrs. Wilkins's answer to that.
All this was very unbalancing. Mrs. Arbuthnot, as she presently
splashed though the dripping streets on her way to a meeting she was to
speak at, was in an unusually disturbed condition of mind. She had,
she hoped, shown herself very calm to Mrs. Wilkins, very practical and
sober, concealing her own excitement. But she was really
extraordinarily moved, and she felt happy, and she felt guilty, and she
felt afraid, and she had all the feelings, though this she did not
know, of a woman who was come away from a secret meeting with her
lover. That, indeed, was what she looked like when she arrived late on
her platform; she, the open-browed, looked almost furtive as her eyes
fell on the staring wooden faces waiting to hear her try and persuade
them to contribute to the alleviation of the urgent needs of the
Hampstead poor, each one convinced that they needed contributions
themselves.
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