Page:The Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman.djvu/94

 moment and throwing him to the wolves the next. . . We are not all of us like that in England. “Well, for Heaven’s sake, don’t ask him when I’m here,” was the utmost encouragement I got from my husband.

Truly honestly, I think this stubborn oppoition drove me perhaps farther than I had first intended to go. A day or two later I found myself in the same house as Sir Adolphus and I spoke to him. . . “You,” I said, “do not know me; and I only know you by sight, though I have long been acquainted with your record of generous support to the cause of music. Will you allow a total stranger to tell you her disgust with the venomous attacks which have been made on you since the beginning of the war?”

Little enough, you may think; but I believe those were the first kind words that he had heard for three or four years. The man is not prepossessing, but we formed quite a friendship. . . “Will not you and Lady Erskine,” I said, “come and dine with me some night? I am not in a position to entertain in any sense of the word; my boy is at the front, my husband is away on business; but perhaps, if a family party would not bore you. . .”