said, "properly managed...."

But that was as far as his acquiescence went and Lady Harman was
destined to be a widow before she saw the foundation of any Hostel for
young married couples in London.

Sec.10

The reinforced concrete rose steadily amidst Lady Harman's questionings
and Mr. Brumley's speculations. The Harmans returned from a recuperative
visit to Kissingen, to which Sir Isaac had gone because of a suspicion
that his Marienbad specialist had failed to cure him completely in order
to get him back again, to find the first of the five hostels nearly ripe
for its opening. There had to be a manageress and a staff organized and
neither Lady Harman nor Mr. Brumley were prepared for that sort of
business. A number of abler people however had become aware of the
opportunities of the new development and Mrs. Hubert Plessington, that
busy publicist, got the Harmans to a helpful little dinner, before Lady
Harman had the slightest suspicion of the needs that were now so urgent.
There shone a neat compact widow, a Mrs. Pembrose, who had buried her
husband some eighteen months ago after studying social questions with
him with great eclat for ten happy years, and she had done settlement
work and Girls' Club work and had perhaps more power of
organization--given a suitable director to provide for her lack of
creativeness, Mrs. Plessington told Sir Isaac, than any other woman in
London. Afterwards Sir Isaac had an opportunity of talking to her; he
discussed the suffrage movement with her and was pleased to find her
views remarkably sympathetic with his own. She was, he declared, a
sensible woman, anxious to hear a man out and capable, it was evident,
of a detachment from feminist particularism rare in her sex at the
present time. Lady Harman had seen less of the lady that evening, she
was chiefly struck by her pallor, by a kind of animated silence about
her, and by the deep impression her capabilities had made on Mr.
Plessington, who had hitherto seemed to her to be altogether too
overworked in admiring his wife to perceive the points of any other
human being. Afterwards Lady Harman was surprised to hear from one or
two quite separate people that Mrs. Pembrose was the only possible
person to act as general director of the new hostels. Lady
Beach-Mandarin was so enthusiastic in the matter that she made a
special call. "You've known her a long time?" said Lady Harman.

"Long enough to see what a chance she is!" said Lady