"But I may be married any day now."

"Whoever the father is, he seems a bit of a fool," remarked Miss
Toombs, as she took the baby on her knee.

"To love me?"

"In not marrying you and getting you for life. From a man's point of
view, you're a find, pretty Mavis."

"Nonsense!"

"I don't call it nonsense. Just look at your figure and your hips and
the colour of your hair, your lovely white skin and all, to say nothing
of the passion in your eyes."

"Is it staid Miss Toombs talking?"

"If I'm staid, it's because I have to be. No man 'ud ever want me. As
for you, if I were a man, I'd go to hell, if there were such a place,
if I could get you for all my very own."

"Don't you believe in hell?"

"Do you?"

"I don't know. Don't you?"

"The only hell I know is the jealous anger in a plain woman's heart. Of
course there are others. You've only to dip into history to read of the
hells that kings and priests, mostly priests, have made of this earth."

"What about Providence?" asked Mavis.

"Don't talk that 'tosh' to me," cried Miss Toombs vehemently.

"But is it 'tosh'?"

"If I were to give you a list of even the few things I've read about,
the awful, cruel, blood-thirsty, wicked doings, it would make your
blood boil at the injustice, the wantonness of it all. Read how the
Spaniards treated the Netherlanders once upon a time, the internal
history of Russia, the story of Red Rubber, loads of things, and over
and over again you'd ask, 'What was God doing to allow such unnecessary
torture?'"

Miss Toombs paused for breath. Seeing Mavis looking at her with
open-mouthed astonishment, she said:

"Have I astonished you?"

"You have."

"Haven't you heard anyone else talk like that?"

"What I was thinking of was, that you, of all people, should preach
revolt against accepted ideas. I always thought you so straitlaced."

"Never mind about me."

"But I do. If you believe all you say, why do you go to church and all
that?"

"What does it matter to anyone what an ugly person like me thinks or
does?"

"Anyway, you're quite interesting to me."

"Really: really interesting?" asked Miss Toombs, with an inflection of
genuine surprise in her voice.

"Why should I say so if I didn't think so?"

A flush of pleasure overspread the plain woman's face as she said:

"I believe you're speaking the truth. If ever I play the hypocrite,
it's because I'm a hopeless coward."

"Really!" laughed Mavis, who was beginning