ut me; I was just a humble member of society, one of the throng of
dun-coloured, ordinary-looking females, who may be seen by the thousand
in every thoroughfare in the land, but who, as a matter of fact, are not
seen at all, because no one troubles to look. By Bridget's side I
passed through the streets of London as through a desert waste.

Half an hour's journey by tube brought us to the first of the flats on
my list. It was also the first specimen of its kind which Irish Bridget
had ever seen, and the shock was severe. I found myself in the painful
position of expecting "a decent body" to live in a kitchen two yards
square, with a coal "shed" under the table on which she was supposed to
cook, and to sleep in a cupboard, screened in merciful darkness, since,
when the electric light was turned on, the vista seen through the grimy
panes was so inimitably depressing that one's only longing was to turn
it off forthwith!

"Preserve us! Indeed, if it was to die in it we were trying, it would
be easy enough, but I'm thinking we'd make a poor show of living, Miss
Evelyn! And used to the best as we are, too," said poor Bridget
dolefully.

I sprang a good ten pounds in rent at the sound of her pitiful voice,
and ran my pencil through every address below that figure.

Ten separate flats did we visit in the course of that day, and it was a
proof of what Aunt Emmeline would call my stubbornness that I came
through the ordeal without wavering. Regardless of Bridget's appealing
eyes, I led the way forward, always affecting a buoyant hope that our
next visit would be successful, while mentally I was holding a Jekyll
and Hyde argument with my inner self, as follows:--

"Impossible to live in such warrens!"

"_Other people_ manage to live in them all the year round!"

"But, as Bridget says, I have been used to the best."

"Quite time, then, that you take your share of the worst!"

"My health might suffer--"

"You have a good chance to recruit."

"I might lose my looks--"

"Disagreeable--but the world would go on, even if you did.
Incidentally, you might improve the looks of other women!"

"It would be awfully dull!"

"At first--yes! Not when you get into stride. Helping other people is
the most exhilarating of tonics."

"I have never lived in a town. I should feel cramped, prisoned, stifled
for air."

"But think how you would feel when the day came to return to Pastimes!
Wouldn't that first hour in the garde