“I HAVE been wondering,” the Rector began, “if it would be possible for
you to let us have a Temperance Meeting here in your cottage? I feel
sure it would be productive of good, and we sadly need more aggressive
Temperance work in this parish. And a little gathering in a private
house would be more of a novelty than one held in the Parish Room, or
at the Rectory.”
“A Temperance Meeting!” I repeated, rather hesitatingly, I confess.
I knew well enough that there was work waiting to be done in this
direction, but whether those who most needed reforming could be got
inside my door was quite another matter.
“Oh, but I am not meaning an evening meeting for the purpose of
reaching the men themselves,” the Rector explained. “My idea is to
have an afternoon Ladies’ Meeting to discuss more particularly the
question of prohibition. We might eventually get up a week of meetings
in various parts of the district. Only it all wants talking over.
There are a number of ladies who would be willing to aid, if only
some definite scheme were put before them. If you would issue the
invitations, I know they would be only too pleased to come; and we
could possibly get a committee appointed as the initial step in the
proceedings.”
I saw at once that the idea was a practical one. Quite a goodly handful
of ladies would be available from houses dotted here and there upon the
hillside. So we made a list of those living near enough to me to be
invited.
“Now, have we overlooked anybody?” I said finally, going down the list
once more. It included the Manor House and one or two other large
country houses where I knew the people would be sympathetic, the rest
being cottage-residences and small places inhabited by people of the
educated classes, who kept simple, unassuming establishments—some from
choice, some because their means were small. In several cases the
ladies dispensed with any servant, finding that life’s problems and
breakages and fingermarks were much reduced when they did the work
themselves!
“By the way, there are two visitors in the place at present, who would
like to come, I am sure,” said the Rector, “One is a very nice girl,
who has been doing V.A.D. work since the beginning of the War. She
is here recruiting after a nervous breakdown; and is boarding at the
Jones’s farm—I know she would appreciate an invitation.” I duly wrote
down her name.
“And the other, Miss Togsie, is a literary lady, and is lodging with
old Mrs. Perkins; do you happen to know her name?”