"The point would early arise as to how you would know, on visiting the Works, whether or not it needed repairs. You've inspected many factories, of course?"
"That's true!--I know nothing in the world about it. Of course not!"
She spoke with a sort of eagerness; but went on presently in another tone: "Do you know, I really don't know anything ...? I've never thought of it specially before, but all at once I'm constantly being impressed with my ignorance...."
And Hugo, with all his accomplishment and skill, could not thenceforward bring the conversation back where it belonged. Only the time and the place were his to-night, it seemed....
"I," said the girl, "belong to the useless classes. I don't pay my way. I'm a social deadbeat. So Mr. Pond told me the other night. You must meet Mr. Pond, Hugo, the Director of the Settlement you gave all that money to last year. He can be as horrid as anybody on earth, but is really nice in a rude interesting way. He's packed full of quarrelsome ideas. You know, he doesn't believe in giving money to the poor under any circumstances. Harmful temporizing, he calls it ..." A rather wide sweep here gave Mr. Pond's views on poor relief in detail ... "Are you listening, Hugo? This information is being given for your benefit. And oh, he wants me to learn millinery from Mme. Smythe (Jennie T. Smith, née) and help him start a class in hat-trimming, to train girls for shop assistants. Or perhaps I'll learn cooking instead...."
"He seems to have aired his views to you pretty thoroughly," said Canning, dryly.
He rose to go, a little later, rather amused by the skill with which he had been held off. He admired the piquancy of spirit with which she took advantage of the altered positions. For him tameness was the great disillusionizer; his undefined ideal was a woman who must be won anew every day. Still, he had been rubbed a little the wrong way by the new-woman catch-phrases she had picked up somewhere, by the faintly argumentative note in her conversation....
"Plans for to-morrow!... By the way," said Cally, glancing away to conceal a smile as she rose, "how long shall you be in town?"
"Just as long, Miss Heth, as my business here makes necessary."
"What can I say to that?... If I say I hope you won't be with us long, it sounds quite rude. And if I say I hope it will be very, very long ..."