A few moments after, she was again established in her sofa corner, and the door of her sitting-room opened. "The lady, miss." Into the wide, harmonious s.p.a.ce was ushered a hot and hara.s.sed-looking woman, in a lank alpaca gown and a tam-o"-shanter. Miss Claxton"s clothes, like herself, had borne the heat and burden of the day. She frowned as she gave her hand.
"I am late, but it was very difficult to get away at all."
Miss Levering pushed towards her one of the welcoming great easy-chairs that stood holding out cool arms and a lap of roses. The tired visitor, with her dusty clothes and brusque manner, sat down without relaxing to the luxurious invitation. Her stiffly maintained att.i.tude and direct look said as plain as print, Now what excuse have you to offer for asking me to come here? It may have been recollection of Mrs.
Fox-Moore"s fear of "the thin end of the wedge" that made Miss Levering smile as she said--
"Yes, I"ve been expecting you for the last half hour, but it"s very good of you to come at all."
Miss Claxton looked as if she quite agreed.
"You"ll have some tea?" Miss Levering was moving towards the bell.
"No, I"ve had my tea."
The queer sound of "my" tea connoting so much else! The hostess subsided on to the sofa.
"I heard you speak the other day as I told you in my note. But all the same I came away with several unanswered questions--questions that I wanted to put to you quietly. As I wrote you, I am not what _you_ would call a convert. I"ve only got as far as the inquiry stage."
Miss Claxton waited.
"Still, if I take up your time, I ought not to let you be out of pocket by it."
The hostess glanced towards the little spindle-legged writing-table, where, on top of a heap of notes, lay the blue oblong of a cheque-book.
"We consider it part of every day"s business to answer questions," said Miss Claxton.
"I suppose I can make some little contribution without--without its committing me to anything?"
"Committing you----"
"Yes; it wouldn"t get into the papers," she said, a little shamefaced, "or--or anything like that."
"It wouldn"t get into the papers unless you put it in."
The lady blinked. There was a little pause. She was not easy to talk to--this young woman. Nor was she the ideal collector of contributions.
"That was a remarkable meeting you had in Hyde Park last Sunday."
"Remarkable? Oh, no, they"re all pretty much alike."
"Do they all end like that?"
"Oh, yes; people come to scoff, and by degrees we get hold of them--even the Hyde Park loafers."
"I mean, do they often crowd up and try to hustle the speakers?"
"Oh, they are usually quite good-natured."
"You handled them wonderfully."
"We"re used to dealing with crowds."
Her look went round the room, as if to say, "It"s this kind of thing I"m not used to, and I don"t take to it over-kindly."
"In the crush at the end," said Miss Levering, "I overheard a sc.r.a.p of conversation between two men. They were talking about you. "Very good for a woman," one said."
Miss Claxton smiled a scornful little smile.
"And the other one said, "It would have been very good for a man. And personally," he said, "I don"t know many men who could have kept that crowd in hand for two hours." That"s what two men thought of it."
She made no answer.
"It doesn"t seem to me possible that your speakers average as good as those I heard on Sunday."
"We have a good many who speak well, but we look upon Ernestine Blunt as our genius."
"Yes, she seems rather a wonderful little person, but I wrote to you because--partly because you are older. And you gave me the impression of being extremely level-headed."
"Ernestine Blunt is level-headed too," said Miss Claxton, warily.
She was looking into the lady"s face, frowning a little in that way of hers, intent, even somewhat suspicious.
"Oh, I dare say, but she"s such a child!"
"We sometimes think Ernestine Blunt has the oldest head among us."
"Really," said Miss Levering. "When a person is as young as that, you don"t know how much is her own and how much borrowed."
"She doesn"t need to borrow."
"But _you_. I said to myself, "That woman, who makes other things so clear, she can clear up one or two things for me.""
"Well, I don"t know." More wary than ever, she suspended judgment.
"I noticed none of you paid any attention when the crowd called out--things about----"
Miss Claxton"s frown deepened. It was plain she heard the echo of that insistent, never-answered query of the crowd, "Got your dog-whip, miss?"
She waited.
It looked as though Miss Levering lacked courage to repeat it in all its violent bareness.
"----when they called out things--about the encounters with the police.
It"s those stories, as I suppose you know, that have set so many against the movement."
No word out of Miss Claxton. She sat there, not leaning back, nor any longer stiffly upright, but hunched together like a creature ready to spring.
"I believed those stories too; but when I had watched you, and listened to you on Sunday," Miss Levering hastened to add, a little shamefaced at the necessity, "I said to myself, not" (suddenly she stopped and smiled with disarming frankness)--"I didn"t say, "That woman"s too well-behaved, or too amiable;" I said, "She"s too intelligent. That woman never spat at a policeman.""
"Spit? No," she said grimly.