se than prison fare.
That's why women ought not to sleep o' nights till this Shelter stands
spreading out wide arms.'

'No, no,' said the girl, jumping up.

'Even when it's built,'--Mrs. Heriot was angrily gathering up her
gloves, her fan and her Prayer-book--'you'll see! Many of those
creatures will prefer the life they lead. They _like_ it. A woman told
me--one of the sort that knows--told me many of them like it so much
that they are indifferent to the risk of being sent to prison. "_It
gives them a rest_,"' she said.

'A rest!' breathed Lady John, horror-struck.

Miss Levering glanced at the clock as she rose to go upstairs, while
Lady John and Mrs. Heriot bent their heads over the plan covertly
talking.

Jean ran forward and caught the tall grey figure on the lower step.

'I want to begin to understand something of----,' she began in a
beseeching tone. 'I'm horribly ignorant.'

Miss Levering looked down upon her searchingly. 'I'm a rather busy
person,' she said.

'I have a quite special reason for wanting _not_ to be ignorant. I'll go
to town to-morrow,' said Jean, impulsively, 'if you'll come and lunch
with me--or let me come to you.'

'Jean!' It was Aunt Lydia's voice.

'I must go and put my hat on,' said Miss Levering, hurrying up the
stair.

Mrs. Heriot bent towards her sister and half whispered, 'How little she
minds talking about horrors!'

'They turn me cold. Ugh! I wonder if she's signed the visitor's book.'
Lady John rose with harassed look. 'Such foolishness John's new plan of
keeping it in the lobby. It's twice as likely to be forgotten.'

'For all her Shelter schemes, she's a hard woman,' said Aunt Lydia.

'Miss Levering is!' exclaimed Jean.

'Oh, of course _you_ won't think so. She has angled very adroitly for
your sympathy.'

'She doesn't look----' protested the girl.

Lady John, glancing at her niece, seemed in some intangible way to take
alarm.

'I'm not sure but what she does. Her mouth--always like this--as if she
were holding back something by main force.'

'Well, so she is,' slipped out from between Aunt Lydia's thin lips as
Lady John disappeared into the lobby.

'Why haven't I seen Miss Levering before this summer?' Jean asked.

'Oh, she's lived abroad.' The lady was debating with herself. 'You don't
know about her, I suppose?'

'I don't know how Aunt Ellen came across her, if that's what you mean.'

'Her father was a person everybody knew. One of his daughters ma