Annie Kilburn

He nodded his head, and said gravely, "Yes," and "Yes," and "Yes," at each

significant point of her statement. At the end he asked: "And are the means

forthcoming? Have they raised the money for renting and furnishing the

rooms?"

"Well, no, they haven't yet, or not quite, as I understand."

"Have they tried to interest the working people themselves in it? If they

are to value its benefits, it ought to cost them something--self-denial,

privation even."

"Yes, I know," Annie began.

"I'm not satisfied," the minister pursued, "that it is wise to provide

people with even harmless amusements that take them much away from

their homes. These things are invented by well-to-do people who have no

occupation, and think that others want pastimes as much as themselves.

But what working people want is rest, and what they need are decent homes

where they can take it. Besides, unless they help to support this union out

of their own means, the better sort among them will feel wounded by its

existence, as a sort of superfluous charity."

"Yes, I see," said Annie. She saw this side of the affair with surprise.

The minister seemed to have thought more about such matters than she had,

and she insensibly receded from her first hasty generalisation of him,

and paused to reapproach him on another level. The little girl began to

play with her glasses, and accidentally knocked them from her nose. The

minister's face and figure became a blur, and in the purblindness to which

she was reduced she had a moment of clouded volition in which she was

tempted to renounce, and even oppose, the scheme for a Social Union, in

spite of her promise to Mr. Brandreth. But she remembered that she was

a consistent and faithful person, and she said: "The ladies have a plan

for raising the money, and they've applied to me to second it--to use my

influence somehow among the villagers to get them interested; and the

working people can help too if they choose. But I'm quite a stranger

amongst those I'm expected to influence, and I don't at all know how they

will take it." The minister listened, neither prompting nor interrupting.

"The ladies' plan is to have an entertainment at one of the cottages, and

charge an admission, and devote the proceeds to the union." She paused.

Mr. Peck still remained silent, but she knew he was attentive. She pushed

on. "They intend to have a--a representation, in the open air, of one of

Shakespeare's plays, or scenes from one--"