We had a good passage, and everything has run
as smoothly. Do you take an active interest in us?"
Miss Roden paused in the action of pouring out tea, and looked across
at her interlocutor.
"Not an active one," she answered, with a momentary gravity; and, after
a minute, glanced at Cornish's face again.
"It is going to be a big thing," he said enthusiastically. "My cousin
Joan Ferriby is working hard at it in London. You do not know her, I
suppose?"
"I was at school with Joan," replied Miss Roden, with her soft laugh.
"And we took a school-girl oath to write to each other every week when
we parted. We kept it up--for a fortnight."
Cornish's smooth face betrayed no surprise; although he had concluded
that Miss Roden was years older than Joan.
"Perhaps," he said, with ready tact, "you do not take an interest in
the same things as Joan. In what may be called new things--not clothes,
I mean. In factory girls' feather clubs, for instance, or haberdashers'
assistants, or women's rights, or anything like that."
"No; I am not clever enough for anything like that. I am profoundly
ignorant about women's rights, and do not even know what I want, or
ought to want."
Roden, who had approached the table, laughed, and taking his tea, went
and sat down near the fire. He, at all events, was tired and looked
worn--as if his responsibilities were already beginning to weigh upon
him. Cornish, too, had come forward, and, cup in hand, stood looking
down at Miss Roden with a doubtful air.
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