'But you've just said the men are useless in this matter.'
She had no answer.
'But, I believe,' Vida went on, 'if more women were like you—if they looked into the thing——'
'Very few could stand it.'
'But don't hundreds of poor women "stand" much worse?'
'No; they drink and they die. I was ill for three months after my first experience even of the tramp ward.'
'Was that the first thing you tried?'
'No. The first thing I tried was putting on a Salvation Army bonnet, and following the people I wanted to help into the public-houses, selling the War Cry.'
'May one wear the uniform who isn't a member of the Army?'
'It isn't usual,' she said slowly. And then, as though to give the coup de grace to the fine lady's curiosity, 'But that was child's play. Before I sampled the tramp ward, I covered myself with Keating's powder from head to foot. It wasn't a bit of good.'