"You forget that women can do anything nowadays. I'll come over to you whenever I feel dull. I'm going to have a couple of friends down next week. They're overworked and want a rest."
Then, as Mysie danced along in front, calling the dogs after her, Dora turned to Rowena with an intent look upon her face.
"I want a talk with you. I've been longing for it. I want to have the highest goal. I've discovered mine is pretty low down, and I want to right it."
"Oh, Dora dear, I'm so glad."
As they walked homewards, their talk was a serious one, and when they parted, Dora said:
"Come to-morrow, and we'll make Mysie happy with the dogs somewhere whilst we have another talk. I really came back here to see more of you. Things you said to me have stuck."
Rowena went home with a light in her eyes and a glow in her heart. Di had disappointed her with her irresponsiveness, and all the time another was standing by who was longing to be helped and guided.
The next day she and Mysie went to tea at the Lodge as arranged, and when Mysie, in her old fashion, had gone out to see Granny in the kitchen, Rowena and Dora had a long talk together.
"You see," said Dora after a time, "I don't want to alter my life or give up my work. That's all right. But I want to put something in it that I haven't got. And when we are working away at these women, and getting them into Clubs and Guilds and all that sort of thing, we are continually knocking up against cases embittered by their circumstances and soured by trouble, and then one feels rather helpless. To tell them to go to church makes them smile. I think they feel they want something more. You have a living Power in your life. I can see it. I want to have that too, and I want to tell others how they can get it. You can't cure a vicious minded woman by giving her a dancing club, or comfort a broken-hearted one by teaching her how to make baskets! If one's work is to be a success, you must give of your best; and my best is not worth having. You quoted a verse to me one day in the summer: 'Except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it.' And of course I've been thinking we, and every one of these women we try to help, are made or built by God in the first instance, and if we come to grief, there's no one can rebuild us properly except our Maker. I want to put myself in His Hands; tell me how to do it."
It was not difficult for Rowena to help the girl. She was anxious and willing and quite convinced that a life without God was a failure.