"I thought you had begun to do various things--cripples--and cottages--and schools--for Mr. Winnington," said Gertrude, drily. "I wanted to--but Weston's illness stopped it--and then I came here." "Well, you 'wanted to.' And why shouldn't you?" There was a silence. Then Delia looked up--very pale now--her head thrown back. "So you mean you wish to get rid of me, Gertrude!" "Nothing of the sort. I want you to do--what you clearly wish to do." "When have I ever shown you that I wished to desert you--or--the League?" "Perhaps I read you better than you do yourself," said Gertrude, slightly reddening too. "Of course you have been goodness--generosity--itself. But--this cause wants more than gifts--more than money-it wants a woman's _self_!" "Well?" Delia waited. Gertrude moved impatiently. "Why should we play the hypocrite with each other!" she said at last. "You won't deny that what Mr. Winnington thinks--what Mr. Winnington feels--is infinitely more important to you now than what anybody else in the world thinks or feels?" "Which I shewed by coming up here against his express wishes?--and joining in the raid, after he had said all that a man could say against it, both to you and to me?" "Oh, I admit you did your best--you did your best," said Gertrude sombrely. "But I know you, Delia!--I know you! Your heart's not in it--any more." Delia rose, and began slowly to pace the room. There was a wonderful virginal dignity--a suppressed passion--in her attitude, as though she wrestled with inward wound. But she said nothing, except to ask--as she paused in front of Gertrude-- "Where are you going--and who is going with you?" "I shall go to the sea, somewhere--perhaps to the Isle of Wight. I daresay Marion Andrews will come with me. She wants to escape her mother for a time." "Marion Andrews?" repeated Delia thoughtfully. Then, after a moment--"So you're not coming down to Maumsey any more?" "Ask yourself what there is for me to do there, my dear child! Frankly, I should find the society of Mr. Winnington and Lady Tonbridge rather difficult! And as for their feelings about me!" "Do you remember--you promised to live with me for a year?" "Under mental reservation," said Gertrude, quietly. "You know very well, I didn't accept it as an ordinary post." "And now there's nothing more to be got out of me? Oh, I didn't mean anything cruel!" added the girl hastily. "I know you must put the cause first." "And you see where the cause is," said Gertrude grimly. "In ten days from now Sir Wilfrid Lang will have crushed the bill." "And everybody seems to be clamouring that we've given them the excuse!" Fierce colour overspread Gertrude's thin temples and cheeks. "They'll take it, anyway; and we've got to do all we can--meetings, processions, way-laying Ministers--the usual things--and any new torment we can devise." "But I thought you were going to Southsea!"