But as she did so she met the innocent eye of a passer-by, tired of craning his neck to look back at the meeting. With precipitation Mrs. Fox-Moore withdrew into the innermost recesses of the black shell.
'Come, Janet,' said Vida, who had meanwhile jumped out and settled the fare.
'Did that man know us?' asked the other, lifting up the flap from the back window of the hansom and peering out.
'No, I don't think so.'
'He stared, Vida. He certainly stared very hard.'
Still she hesitated, clinging to the friendly shelter of the hansom.
'Oh, come on! He only stared because—— He took you for a Suffragette!' But the indiscretion lit so angry a light in the lady's eye, that Vida was fain to add, 'No, no, do come—and I'll tell you what he was really looking at.'
'What?' said Mrs. Fox-Moore, putting out her head again.
'He was struck,' said Vida, biting her lip to repress smiles, 'by the hat of the Woman of the People.'