"I don't see, Mrs. Plessington," he was saying, "that all this amounts to more than a kind of Glorious District Visiting. That is how I see it. You want to attack people in their homes--before they cry out to you. You want to compel them by this Payment in Kind of yours to do what you want them to do instead of trying to make them want to do it. Now, I think your business is to make them want to do it. You may perhaps increase the amount of milk in babies, and the amount of whitewash in cottages and slums by your methods--I don't dispute the promise of your statistics--but you're going to do it at a cost of human self-respect that's out of all proportion----" Uncle Hubert's voice, with that thick utterance that always suggested a mouthful of plums, came booming down the table. "All these arguments," he said, "have been answered long ago." "No doubt," said Trafford with a faint asperity. "But tell me the answers." "It's ridiculous," said Aunt Plessington, "to talk of the self-respect of the kind of people--oh! the very dregs!" "It's just because the plant is delicate that you've got to handle it carefully," said Trafford. "Here's Miss Gant," said Aunt Plessington, "_she_ knows the strata we are discussing. She'll tell you they have positively _no_ self-respect--none at all." "_My_ people," said Miss Gant, as if in conclusive testimony, "actually conspire with their employers to defeat me." "I don't see the absence of self-respect in that," said Trafford. "But all their interests----" "I'm thinking of their pride."... The discussion lasted to the end of dinner and made no headway. As soon as the ladies were in the drawing-room, Aunt Plessington, a little flushed from the conflict, turned on Marjorie and said, "I _like_ your husband. He's wrong-headed, but he's young, and he's certainly spirited. He _ought_ to get on if he wants to. Does he do nothing but his researches?" "He lectures in the spring term," said Marjorie. "Ah!" said Aunt Plessington with a triumphant note, "you must alter all that. You must interest him in wider things. You must bring him out of his shell, and let him see what it is to deal with Affairs. Then he wouldn't talk such nonsense about our Work." Marjory was at a momentary loss for a reply, and in the instant's respite Aunt Plessington turned to the jam and pickle lady and asked in a bright, encouraging note: "Well! And how's the Village Club getting on?"... She had another lunge at Trafford as he took his leave. "You must come again soon," she said. "I _love_ a good wrangle, and Hubert and I never want to talk about our Movement to any one but unbelievers. You don't know the beginnings of it yet. Only I warn you they have a way of getting converted. I warn you."... On this occasion there was no kissing in the cab. Trafford was exasperated. "Of all the intolerable women!" he said, and was silent for a time.