d the matter
over, and that, when he proved timid of interviewing me, she forced him
to come. Again, two or three winters ago, a man despairing of work in
England got in touch with some agency to assist him in emigrating to
Canada. It was his wife then who went round the parish trying to raise
the few extra pounds that he was to contribute. That was a case to fill
comfortable people with uncomfortable shame. The woman, not more than
five-and-twenty, would have been strikingly handsome if she had ever in
her life had a fair chance; but as it was she looked half-starved, and
she had a cough which made it doubtful if she would ever live to follow
her husband to Canada. Still, she was playing her part as the man's
comrade. As soon as he could save enough money he was to send for her
and her baby, she said; in the meantime she would have to earn her own
living by going out to day-work.

During the South African War there was many a woman in the village
keeping things together at home while the men were at the front. They
had to work and earn money just as they do when their men are beaten
down at home. There was one woman who received from her husband a copy
of verses composed by him and his companions during their occupation of
a block-house on the veldt. Very proud of him, she took the verses to a
printer, had them printed--just one single copy--and then had the
printed copy framed to hang on the bedroom wall in her cottage. Her
husband showed it to me there one day, mightily pleased with it and her.

Probably the people behind the counters at the provision shops in the
town could tell many interesting things about the relations between
married people of this class, for it is quite the common thing in the
villages for a man and wife to lock up their cottage on a Saturday
evening, and go off with the children to do the week's shopping
together. On a nice night the town becomes thronged with them, and so do
the shops, outside which, now and then, a passer-by may notice little
consultations going on, and husband or wife--sometimes one, sometimes
the other--handing over precious money to the other to be spent. And if
it is rather painful to see the faces grow so strained and anxious over
such trifling sums, on the other hand the signs of mutual confidence and
support are comforting. Besides, anxiety is not the commonest note. The
majority of the people make a little weekly festivity of this Saturday
night's outing; they meet