"I suppose the first thing to be done is to see, as tactfully as we can, that during these first few weeks at any rate the wives and families of the men who have gone away to fight for us suffer no want. There are other ways in which we can be useful--And I take it for granted that all of us women, who cannot fight, are longing to be useful in some way or other. . . . There is the working of socks, scarves, waistcoats, for instance; the tearing and rolling of bandages; and Dr Mant, who has so kindly driven over from St Martin's, tells me that he is ready to be kinder still and teach an Ambulance Cla.s.s. . . . But our first business--as he and Mr Hambly agree--is to make sure that the wives and children of our reservists want neither food nor money to pay their rent. . . . They tell me that in a few weeks the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families a.s.sociation will be ready to take much of this work off our hands, though acting through local distributors. Indeed, the Vicar--indeed, my husband has already received a letter from the District Secretary of the a.s.sociation asking him to undertake this work. In time, too, no doubt--as Government makes better provision--that work will grow less and less. But we have not even arrived at it yet. Until it is set going these poor women and children may be short of money or the food that money buys. So the proposal is to raise a few pounds, form a War Emergency Committee, and tide matters over until a higher authority supersedes us. For in the interval a neighbour may be starving because her husband has gone off to fight for his country.

None of us, surely, could bear the thought of that?"

Mrs Steele's voice had gathered confidence, with something of real emotion, as it went on; and an approving murmur acknowledged her little speech. Her husband, whose eyes had kindled towards the close, was in the act of throwing her an applausive glance when Mrs Polsue's voice cut the silence sharply.

"I don't understand this talk about a Soldiers' and Sailors'

a.s.sociation, or whatever you call it. Are we a part of it, here in this room?"

"Oh, no," the Vicar answered. "We are here merely to discuss forming an Emergency Committee, to provide (among other things) present relief until the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families a.s.sociation-- dreadful name!--until the S.S.F.A., as we'll call it, is ready to take over the work."

"And then we shall be cold-shouldered out, I suppose?"

"Dang it, ma'am!" put in Farmer Best. "What matter who does the work, so long as the poor critters be fed meantime?"

[Here we should observe that while Mrs Polsue had a trick of sniffing that suggested a chronic cold in the head, Farmer Best suffered from an equally chronic obstruction of the respiratory organs, or (as he preferred to call them) his pipes. As from time to time he essayed to clear one or another of these, the resultant noise, always explosive, resembled the snort of a bullock or the _klock_ of a strangulated suction-pump. With these interjections Mrs Polsue on the one hand, Farmer Best on the other, punctuated the following dialogue. And this embarra.s.sed the company, which, obliged in politeness to attribute them to purely physical causes, could not but own inwardly that they _might_ be mistaken for the comments--and highly expressive ones--of mutual disapprobation.]

"Danging it don't answer my question--nor banging it," persisted Mrs Polsue. "I want to know more about this a.s.sociation, and where _we_ come in. . . . Just now, Mrs Steele was talking about a District Secretary and local distributors--which looks to me as if the whole business was cut-and-dried."

"There's nothing cut an' dried about _me_, ma'am." Farmer Best's sharp little eyes twinkled, and he chuckled obesely.

"Again Mrs Polsue has the right of it," answered the Vicar.

"Perhaps I should have explained at the beginning that this War, coming upon us so suddenly, has taken the S.S.F.A. somewhat at unawares, in Cornwall at any rate. The machinery exists--in skeleton; but there still wants the _personnel_ to work it.

In our District, for instance--"

"District?" snapped Mrs Polsue. "What's a District?"

The Vicar pulled a wry face. "The Districts at present correspond with the Deaneries in the diocese."

"O-oh, indeed? Ha!"

"There is worse to come, Mrs Polsue." He laughed frankly.

"You asked, 'Who are the local distributors?' A present rule of the a.s.sociation--which I beg you to believe that I regret--provides for two agents in each parish, to report and advise on cases: the Parson, and one of the Guardians."

"--And that's me, ma'am. _Honk!_" added Farmer Best. "I'm what Parson called the skelliton of the machinery." He wound up with a wink at the company, and a wheezy laugh.

"You may t.i.tter, all of you!" Mrs Polsue glared about her. "But if ever there was hole-and-corner sectarianism in this world--And _this_ is what we've come to listen to!"

"You han't done much listenin' up to now, ma'am."

"Forgive me," Mrs Steele interposed, as Dr Mant looked at his watch.

"I don't know much about rules of the chair; but I really think you are all out of order. We are not yet discussing the a.s.sociation or its rules, but whether or not we shall form a Committee to look after these poor people until something better is done for them.

We in this room, at all events, belong to very different denominations. I--I hope we meet only as Christians."

Farmer Best slapped his thigh. "Bray-vo, ma'am! and you never spoke a truer word."

"I only wish to add," the Vicar persisted, "that before any outside society works in this parish, I shall urge very strongly that the parish nominates its agents: and that I hope to have the pleasure of proposing Mrs Polsue and Mr Hambly. One more word--"

"Certainly not." His wife cut him short with a sharp rap on the table. "I can rule _you_ out of order, at all events!"

Everybody laughed. Even Mrs Polsue was mollified. "Well, I managed to drag the truth out at last," was her final shot, as the meeting resolved itself into Committee and fell to business.

She was further placated, a few minutes later, by being elected (on the Vicar's proposition) a member of the House-to-house Visiting Sub-Committee. "'Twill give her," Farmer Best growled to his wife, later, as they jogged home in the gig, "the chance of her life to poke a nose into other folks' kitchens."

Farmer Best--it should here be observed--with all his oddities, was an exemplary Poor Law Guardian. He had small personal acquaintance with Polpier itself: the steepness of the coombs in which it lay was penible to a man of his weight: yet, albeit by hearsay, he knew the inner workings of the small town, being interested in the circ.u.mstances of all his neighbours, vividly charitable towards them, and at the same time no fool in judging. Of the country-folk within a circuit of twelve miles or more his knowledge was something daemonic. He could recount their pedigrees, intermarriages, numbers in family; he understood their straits, their degrees of affluence; he could not look across a gate at a crop, or view the state of a thatch, but his mind worked sympathetically with some neighbour's economies. He gave away little in hard money; but his charities in time and personal service were endless. And the countryside respected him thoroughly: for he was eccentric in the fashion of a true Englishman, and, with all his benevolence, you had to get up early to take him in.

Nor was Farmer Best the only one to doubt Mrs Polsue's fitness for her place in the sub-committee. Mrs Steele spoke to her husband very positively about it as he helped to water her begonia-beds in the cool of the evening.

"You were weak," she said, "to play up to that woman: when you know she is odious."

"The more reason," he answered. "If you're a Christian and find your neighbour odious, you conciliate him."

"Fiddlesticks!"

"My dear Agatha--isn't that a somewhat strong expression, for you?"

She set down her watering-pot.

"Do you know what I _want_ to say?" she asked. "I _want_ to say, 'Go to blazes!' . . . When I said the woman is odious, do you suppose I meant odious to me or to you?"

"O-oh!" The Vicar rubbed the back of his head penitently.

"I am sorry, Agatha--I was thinking of the time she gave you this afternoon."

"She will give those poor women a worse time--a dreadful time!" said Mrs Steele, with conviction.

He picked up his watering-pot in such a hurry as to spill a tenth or so of its contents into his shoes; swore under his breath; then laughed aloud.

"I'll bet any money they'll get upsides with her, all the same.

Lord! there may be fun!"

His wife eyed him as he emptied the watering-pot spasmodically over the flowers.

"As a rule you have so much more imagination than I. . . . Yet by fits and starts you take this business as if it were a joke.

And it _is_ War, you know."

The Vicar turned away hurriedly, to fetch more water.

On the Sub-Committee for House to house Visiting--the Relief Committee, as it came to be called--were elected:

(1) For Polpier--Mrs Polsue, Miss Alma Trudgian (in Mrs Polsue's words, "a pitiful Ritualist, but well-meaning. _She'll_ give no trouble"), the Vicar, and Mr Hambly.

(2) For the country side of the parish--Mr and Mrs Best, "with power to add to their number." On the pa.s.sing of this addendum, Farmer Best uttered, apparently from the roof of his palate, a noise not unlike the throb of the organ under the dome of St Paul's, and the mysterious words, "Catch me!"

Next was formed a Sub-Committee of Needle-Workers, to make hospital-shirts, knit socks, &c. It included Miss Charity Oliver; and Mrs Steele undertook to act as Secretary and send out the notices.

--Next, a Sub-Committee of Ways and Means, to collect subscriptions, and also to act as Finance Committee. The Vicar, Mr Best, Mr Hambly, with Mr Pamphlett for Honorary Treasurer. Mrs Pamphlett (a timid lady with an irregular catch of the breath), without pledging her husband, felt sure that under the circ.u.mstances he wouldn't mind.

Then Dr Mant unfolded a scheme of Ambulance Cla.s.ses. He was one of those careless, indolent men who can spurt invaluably on any business which is not for their private advantage. (Everybody liked him; but he was known to neglect his own business deplorably.) He could motor over to Polpier and lecture every Sat.u.r.day evening, starting forthwith. Mrs Steele undertook to write to the Local Education Authority for permission to use the Council Schoolroom.

At this point the parlour-maid brought in the tea.