had run all the way from her last stopping-place. "I
have been so frightfully busy. Oh, thank you, William, thank you; but do
you know, that tea looks dreadfully strong. In fact, I think I had
really better not have any. I wonder if I might have some hot water
instead? Thank you so much. Thank you, dear Rachel--simply water,
nothing else."

"That doesn't sound a very reviving beverage," said Lady Gore.

"Oh, but it is, I assure you," said Miss Judd. "It is wonderful. And,
you see, I had tea for luncheon, and I don't like to have it too often."

"Tea for luncheon?" said Sir William.

"Yes, at an Aerated Bread place," she replied, "near Victoria. I have
been leaving the canvassing papers for the School Board election, and I
had not time to go home."

"What it is to be such a pillar of the country!" said Lady Gore
laughing.

"You may laugh, Cousin Elinor," Miss Judd said, drinking her hot water
in quick, hurried sips, "but I assure you it is very hard work. You see,
whatever the question is that I am canvassing for, I always feel bound
to explain it to the voters at every place I go to, for fear they should
vote the wrong way: and sometimes that is very hard work. At the last
General Election, for instance, I lunched off buns and tea for a
fortnight."

"Good Lord!" said Sir William to Pateley as they stood a little apart.
"Imagine public opinion being expounded by people who lunch off buns!"

"And the awful thing, do you know," said Pateley laughing, "is that I
believe those people do make a difference."

"It is horrible to reflect upon," said Sir William.

"By the way," said Pateley, with a laugh, "your side is going in for the
sex too, I see. Is it true that you are going to have a Women's Peace
Crusade?"

"Yes," said Sir William with an expression of disgust, "I believe that
it is so. _My_ womenkind are not going to have anything to do with it, I
am thankful to say."

"Oh, yes, I saw about that Crusade," said Wentworth, joining them, "in
the _Torch_."

"Don't believe too firmly what the _Torch_ says--or indeed any
newspaper--ha, ha!" said Pateley.

"I should be glad not to believe all that I see in the _Arbiter_, this
morning," Sir William said. "Upon my word, Pateley, that paper of yours
is becoming incendiary."

"I don't know that we are being particularly incendiary," said Pateley,
with the comfortable air of one disposing of the subject. "It is only
that the world is rather inflammable at this m