“Yes, and you mention, I notice, the ‘Good night’ and ‘God bless you,’ of that Salvation Army officer. Did that cheer you? It cheered me more than once when I lay on a tear-drenched pillow night after night; made me feel someone

did

care after all, and there must be many poor down and outs who have derived comfort from that very homely phrase.”

“I happen to know 259, Mare Street, Hackney, rather well. I am still indebted to them for a free and deliciously warm dinner, which came as a veritable gift from the gods, one cold, wet winter’s day, some two years ago, after I, like one of the women you write of, had been walking⁠—walking⁠—till my whole body ached.