ave amused you.'

'But you have amused me!' His eyes shone mischievously.

'Oh, very well.' She took the gibe in good part, offering her hand
again.

'Good-bye, my dear,' he said gently. 'It's great fun having you in the
world!' He spoke as though he had personally arranged this provision
against dulness for his latter end.

* * * * *

The next evening he came up to her at a party to ask why she had
absented herself from a dinner the night before where he expected to
find her.

'Oh, I telephoned in the morning they weren't to expect me.'

'What were you doing, I should like to know?'

'No, you wouldn't like to know. But you couldn't have helped laughing if
you'd seen me.'

'Where?'

'Wandering about the purlieus of Battersea.'

'Bless me! Who with?'

'Why, with that notorious Suffragette, Miss Ernestine Blunt. Oh, you'd
have stared even harder if you'd seen us, I promise you! She with a
leather portfolio under one arm--a most business-like apparatus, and a
dinner-bell in one hand.'

'A _dinner_ bell!' He put his hand to his brow as one who feels reason
reeling.

'Yes, holding fast to the clapper so that we shouldn't affright the isle
out of season. I, if you please, carrying an armful of propagandist
literature.'

'Good Lord! _Where_ do you say these orgies take place?'

'Near the Fire Station on the far side of Battersea Park.'

'I think you are in great need of somebody to look after you,' he
laughed, but no one who knew him could mistake his seriousness. 'Come
over here.' He found a sofa a little apart from the crush. 'Who goes
with you on these raids?'

'Why, Ernestine--or rather, I go with her.'

'But who takes care of you?'

'Ernestine.'

'Who knows you're doing this kind of thing?'

'Ernestine--and you. It's a secret.'

'Well, if I'm the only sane person who knows--it's something of a
responsibility.'

'I won't tell you about it if it oppresses you.'

'On the contrary, I insist on your telling me.'

Vida smiled reflectively. 'The mode of procedure strikes one as highly
original. It is simple beyond anything in the world. They select an open
space at the convergence of several thoroughfares--if possible, near an
omnibus centre. For these smaller meetings they don't go to the length
of hiring a lorry. Do you know what a lorry is?'

'I regret to say my education in that direction leaves something to be
desired.'

'Last week I was equally ignorant