The hostess thrilled and upset her cup.
“How exciting—how splendid! I can guess, yes, what you are going to do. And you will be able to stay the night here? How nice. The people here are such barbarians; so narrow. I try to spread the great ideal, but they don’t seem to care.”
At all events she treated them nobly, and Eve was able to enjoy the sensuous delight of a good hot bath. She went to bed early, leaving her hostess and the two pioneers of progress sitting well forward in their chairs, and debating the conversion of those women who clung sentimentally to the old traditions.
Their hostess was curious about Eve.
“A probationer, a novice, I suppose?”
“She is learning the discipline.”
“I have very quick instincts. I don’t think I quite trust that young woman.”
Lizzie Straker, who was always ready to argue about anything, simply because she had a temperament that disagreed, rushed to defend Eve.
“Why, what’s the matter with her? She came down to starving point, anyhow, for a principle. If that isn’t being sincere, what is?”
Their hostess was not accustomed to being met and attacked with such impetuosity.