Mrs. Boyce laughed.
"I see. How many workers do you expect to get together?"
"Oh! eventually, about two hundred in the three villages. It will regenerate the whole life!" said Marcella, a sudden ray from the inner warmth escaping her, against her will.
Mrs. Boyce smiled again, and turned her work so as to see it better.
"Does Aldous understand what you are letting him in for?"
Marcella flushed.
"Perfectly. It is 'ransom'—that's all."
"And he is ready to take your view of it?"
"Oh, he thinks us economically unsound, of course," said Marcella, impatiently. "So we are. All care for the human being under the present state of things is economically unsound. But he likes it no more than I do."
"Well, lucky for you he has a long purse," said Mrs. Boyce, lightly. "But I gather, Marcella, you don't insist upon his spending it all on straw-plaiting. He told me yesterday he had taken the Hertford Street house."