It was not an easy end to compass. She
was received at first with extreme suspicion; her appearance aroused
that distrust which with the uneducated attaches to everything
novel. In many instances she found it difficult to get it believed'
that she was really the "landlord." But when this idea had been
gradually mastered, and when, moreover, it was discovered that she
brought no tracts, spoke not at all of religious matters, was not
impertinently curious, and showed indeed that she knew a good deal
of what she talked about, something like respect for her began to
spring up here and there, and she was spoken of as "the right sort."
Ida was excellently fitted for the work she had undertaken. She knew
so well, from her own early experience, the nature of the people
with whom she was brought in contact, and had that instinctive
sympathy with their lives without which it is so vain to attempt
practical social reform. She started with no theory, and as yet had
no very definite end in view; it simply appeared to her that, as
owner of these slums, honesty and regard for her own credit required
that she should make them decent human habitations, and give what
other help she could to people obviously so much in need of it.
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