ll-behaved, or too amiable;" I said, "She's too intelligent. That
woman never spat at a policeman.'"

'Spit? No,' she said grimly.

'"Nor bit, nor scratched, nor any of those things. And since the papers
have lied about that," I said to myself, "I'll go to headquarters for
information."'

'What papers do you read?'

'Oh, practically all. This house is like a club for papers and
magazines. My brother-in-law has everything.'

'The _Clarion_?'

'No, I never saw the _Clarion_.'

'The _Labour Leader_?'

'No.'

'The _Labour Record_?'

'No.'

'It is the organ of our party.'

'I--I'm afraid I never heard of any of them.'

Miss Claxton smiled.

'I'll take them in myself in future,' said the lady on the sofa. 'Was it
reading those papers that set you to thinking?'

'Reading papers? Oh, no. It was----' She hesitated, and puckered up her
brows again as she stared round the room.

'Yes, go on. That's one of the things I wanted to know, if you don't
mind--how you came to be identified with the movement.'

A little wearily, without the smallest spark of enthusiasm at the
prospect of imparting her biography, Miss Claxton told slowly, even
dully, and wholly without passion, the story of a hard life met
single-handed from even the tender childhood days--one of those recitals
that change the relation between the one who tells and the one who
listens--makes the last a sharer in the life to the extent that the two
can never be strangers any more. Though they may not meet, nor write,
nor have any tangible communication, there is understanding between
them.

At the close Miss Levering stood up and gave the other her hand. Neither
said anything. They looked at each other.

After the lady had resumed her seat, Miss Claxton, as under some
compulsion born of the other's act of sympathy, went on--

'It is a newspaper lie--as you haven't needed to be told--about the
spitting and scratching and biting--but the day I was arrested; the day
of the deputation to Effingham, I saw a policeman knocking some of our
poorer women about very roughly' (it had its significance, the tone in
which she said 'our poorer women'). 'I called out that he was not to do
that again. He had one of our women like this, and he was banging her
against the railings. I called out if he didn't stop I would make him.
He kept on'--a cold glitter came into the eyes--'and I struck him. I
struck the coward in the face.'

The air of the mild luxurious room