“Anything?  My dear Lena, there’s scarcely anything that I haven’t found out about them.  They’re both of them moderate Liberal, Evangelical, mildly opposed to female suffrage, they approve of the Falconer Report, and the Stewards’ decision about Craganour.  Thank goodness in this country we don’t fly into violent passions about Wagner and Brahms and things of that sort.  There is only one thorny subject that I haven’t been able to make sure about, the only stone that I have left unturned.  Are they unanimously anti-vivisectionist or do they both uphold the necessity for scientific experiment?  There has been a lot of correspondence on the subject in our local newspapers of late, and the vicar is certain to preach a sermon about it; vicars are dreadfully provocative at times.  Now, if you could only find out for me whether these two men are divergently for or against—­”

“I!” exclaimed Lena; “how am I to find out?  I don’t know either of them to speak to.”

“Still you might discover, in some roundabout way.  Write to them, under as assumed name of course, for subscriptions to one or other cause—­or, better still, send a stamped type-written reply postcard, with a request for a declaration for or against vivisection; people who would hesitate to commit themselves to a subscription will cheerfully write Yes or No on a prepaid postcard.  If you can’t manage it that way, try and meet them at some one’s house and get into argument on the subject.  I think Milly occasionally has one or other of them at her at-homes; you might have the luck to meet both of them there the same evening.  Only it must be done soon.  My invitations ought to go out by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest, and to-day is Friday.

“Milly’s at-homes are not very amusing, as a rule,” said Lena, “and one never gets a chance of talking uninterruptedly to any one for a couple of minutes at a time; Milly is one of those restless hostesses who always seem to be trying to see how you look in different parts of the room, in fresh grouping effects.  Even if I got to speak to Popham or Atkinson I couldn’t plunge into a topic like vivisection straight away.  No, I think the postcard scheme would be more hopeful and decidedly less tiresome.  How would it be best to word them?”

“Oh, something like this:  ’Are you in favour of experiments on living animals for the purpose of scientific research—­Yes or No?’ That is quite simple and unmistakable.  If they don’t answer it will at least be an indication that they are indifferent about the subject, and that is all I want to know.”

“All right,” said Lena, “I’ll get my brother-in-law to let me have them addressed to his office, and he can telephone the result of the plebiscite direct to you.”

“Thank you ever so much,” said Lady Prowche gratefully, “and be sure to get the cards sent off as soon as possible.”

On the following Tuesday the voice of an office clerk, speaking through the telephone, informed Lady Prowche that the postcard poll showed unanimous hostility to experiments on living animals.