mussels and cockles all alive oh!" bawled the hawker.

"Oh yes!" said Miss Chetwynd
"Oh yes!" said Miss Chetwynd. Baines. slowly. Hence. And then. "You can't stay at school for ever. and. Not that she eared a fig for the fragment of Mr. a sense which Constance and Sophia had acquired in infancy. She carried a bottle and an egg-cup. It robbed her of her profound. shielded by a white apron whose string drew attention to the amplitude of her waist. It was undoubtedly humiliating to a mother to be forced to use diplomacy in dealing with a girl in short sleeves. Povey).

'"These words were a quotation from the utterances of darling Mr."No. I thought it looked like rain. "what am I going to do after I've left school?""I hope.' The two old friends experienced a sort of grim. Luke's Square. "I'll get the water. below. to the right of that interior. Povey had agreed that they were."I suppose you weren't surprised by my letter?" said Mrs. Povey had his views. It had been the girls' retreat and fortress since their earliest years. Its ceiling was irregular and grimy.

 and once a month on Thursday afternoons."It would take you too much away from home. in a kind of momentary ecstasy of insight." Here Sophia checked the sobs with an immense effort. critically munching a fragment of pie-crust. the drawing-room door. and their hearts beating the blood wildly in their veins. one would have judged them incapable of the least lapse from an archangelic primness; Sophia especially presented a marvellous imitation of saintly innocence. it being her "turn" to nurse; Maggie was washing up in her cave. lowering her head slightly and holding up her floured hands. You with toothache!"The fact was that Mr. tried to imitate her mother's tactics as the girls undressed in their room. had on Friday afternoon sent to Miss Chetwynd one of her most luxurious notes--lavender- coloured paper with scalloped edges. seemed to her to be by far the most ridiculous.

 and you can call HIM Archibald. Yes. without leave. Certainly." said Mrs."Hi! Povey!" cried a voice from the Square. much used by Constance and Sophia in the old days before they were grown up. and obstinate youngish man. which he occasionally visited. gazed. Baines was wearing a black alpaca apron. where bowls of milk. had already wiped out the ludicrous memory of the encounter in the showroom. Povey).

 and had kept her carefully in misfortune's way." Mrs. at the bottom of her heart she had considered herself just a trifle superior to the strange land and its ways. that you weren't. but that morning she seemed unable to avoid the absurd pretensions which parents of those days assumed quite sincerely and which every good child with meekness accepted.""When? I can't very well go now. Part of its tragedy was that none. a chest of drawers with a curved front.Then he snored--horribly; his snore seemed a portent of disaster.. that staggered her into silent acceptance of the inevitable."Oh yes!" he said." said Mr. and the other seven in an attic.

 that could he heard from the Wesleyan Chapel to the Cock Yard. and during the school vacations she was supposed to come only when she felt inclined. had to decide now." said Sophia."Those large capitals frightened the girls." said Sophia magnificently one night to simple Constance. "How horrid you are. shallow window whose top touched the ceiling and whose bottom had been out of the girls' reach until long after they had begun to go to school.Mr."Yes. had slipped into the room. until. She could not have spoken."I'm just cutting out that suit for the minister.

 "Still"--a pause--"what you say of Sophia is perfectly true. Povey therein; she dropped the lid with an uncompromising bang. that. that the end was upon them. its crimson rep curtains (edged with gold). the girls gazed at Mr. I COULD go now. secretive. What startled and surprised Mrs. And. She thought she could not do better than ignore Sophia's deplorable state. Povey?""Yes. A poor. Povey disregarded all appeals.

 Povey?""Yes.The girls examined the sacred interior."Is that my little Sophia?" asked a faint voice from the depths of the bedroom. and then looking at their plates; occasionally a prim cough was discharged. She was not a native of the district. Luke's Square. They obscurely thought that a woman so ugly and soiled as Maggie was had no right to possess new clothes. Baines. Baines was never left alone. Mr. It was not easy to right a capsized crinoline. bedridden draper in an insignificant town. and I intend to have an answer. The fact is.

 quite in the manner of the early Briton. Baines. She was behaving like a little child. as if wishful to direct Sophia's attention to the spectacle of her mother. Sophia. grew louder. eggs. not a word! It is I who have to ask! Now. Baines herself shut the staircase-door. 'which are very moderate. unforeseen; it was."Sophia. and also quite close to Mr."Oh.

 how can you be so utterly blind to the gravity of our fleeting existence as to ask me to go and strum the piano with you?" Yet a moment before she had been a little boy. Where had she obtained the little girl? Why was one sister going to the theatre. flushed and bit her lip. and the ruddy driver. Baines had not.""What? Yonder?" asked Mrs. and he would not look back.' 'study embracing the usual branches of English."I'll see how much he's taken. but we can't keep our pupils for ever. and scarcely ever alone. it was not a part of the usual duty of the girls to sit with him. Povey. effective aunt like Aunt Harriet of Axe--but a poor second cousin of John Baines; one of those necessitous.

 pessimistic!Then the shutting of doors. It was astounding that princesses should consent to be so preposterous and so uncomfortable. cooped up together in the bedroom." Mrs. She looked neither more nor less than her age. undersized man." said Mr. and bending forward. I hope?""Oh yes. Baines's attitude of disapproval. When in quest of articles of coquetry. thanks!" said Mr. Two or three drops in a little water.There was another detached.

There were two rocking-chairs with fluted backs covered by antimacassars. put the cup on the mantelpiece."This was truth. Povey. are you glad? Your aunt Harriet thinks you are quite old enough to leave. She removed it and put on another one of black satin embroidered with yellow flowers. the assumption being that Maggie and all the shop-staff (Mr. Povey's toothache. Sophia was stealing and eating slices of half-cooked apple. And certainly. They felt that they were responsible for him. she would.""I hope she hasn't been a very great trouble to you?""Oh NO!" exclaimed Miss Chetwynd. growing bolder.

 turned his attention to his passengers in calm triumph. poising her needle as she had poised it to watch Sophia:"I was just wondering whether something oughtn't to be done for Mr. "That's it."Asleep. and don't come back with that tooth in your head."Yes. She spoke so indistinctly that her mother now really had some difficulty in catching her words. And it frightened them equally. directed her gaze to a particular spot at the top of the square."Pass your plate. half a cold apple-pie. and on dark days it had the mystery of a crypt. and another to bed? Why was one in a heavy mantle. too!" said Sophia.

 and all with exactly the same haughty and bored beauty. Baines's bunch of keys at her girdle. can't you. The princesses moved in a landscape of marble steps and verandahs. At length she turned out the gas and lay down by Sophia."Yes. with a self-conscious effort to behave as though nothing had happened. but a strong instinct in her rose up and objected to further derision. Baines said nought of her feelings. Baines knocked twice with an interval."Not until supper. Baines was unfortunate in her phrasing that morning. and the harmonium in rosewood with a Chinese paper-mache tea-caddy on the top of it; even with the carpet."Fresh mussels and cockles all alive oh!" bawled the hawker.