not and did not hear a word
she said. And Mrs. Arbuthnot stared too at Mrs. Wilkins, arrested by
the expression on her face, which was swept by the excitement of what
she saw, and was as luminous and tremulous under it as water in
sunlight when it is ruffled by a gust of wind. At this moment, if she
had been at a party, Mrs. Wilkins would have been looked at with
interest.

They stared at each other; Mrs. Arbuthnot surprised, inquiringly,
Mrs. Wilkins with the eyes of some one who has had a revelation. Of
course. That was how it could be done. She herself, she by herself,
couldn't afford it, and wouldn't be able, even if she could afford it,
to go there all alone; but she and Mrs. Arbuthnot together . . .

She leaned across the table, "Why don't we try and get it?" she
whispered.

Mrs. Arbuthnot became even more wide-eyed. "Get it?" she
repeated.

"Yes," said Mrs. Wilkins, still as though she were afraid of
being overheard. "Not just sit here and say How wonderful, and then go
home to Hampstead without having put out a finger--go home just as usual
and see about the dinner and the fish just as we've been doing for
years and years and will go on doing for years and years. In fact,"
said Mrs. Wilkins, flushing to the roots of her hair, for the sound of
what she was saying, of what was coming pouring out, frightened her,
and yet she couldn't stop, "I see no end to it. There is no end to it.
So that there ought to be a break, there ought to be intervals--in
everybody's interests. Why, it would really be being unselfish to go
away and be happy for a little, because we would come back so much
nicer. You see, after a bit everybody needs a holiday."

"But--how do you mean, get it?" asked Mrs. Arbuthnot.

"Take it," said Mrs. Wilkins.

"Take it?"

"Rent it. Hire it. Have it."

"But--do you mean you and I?"

"Yes. Between us. Share. Then it would only cost half, and you
look so--you look exactly as if you wanted it just as much as I do--as
if you ought to have a rest--have something happy happen to you."

"Why, but we don't know each other."

"But just think how well we would if we went away together for a
month! And I've saved for a rainy day--look at it--"

"She is unbalanced," thought Mrs. Arbuthnot; yet she felt
strangely stirred.

"Think of getting away for a whole month--from everything--to
heaven--"

"She shouldn't say things like that," thought Mrs. Arbuthnot. "The
vicar--" Yet she fe