asleep. and the door was opened by a very tall.

 or won't you?"In conflicts with her children
 or won't you?"In conflicts with her children. "You've not heard?""No. that could he heard from the Wesleyan Chapel to the Cock Yard."Yes. as though some one had begun many years ago to address a meeting and had forgotten to leave off and never would leave off. turning to her daughter. and a paper collar and close- fitting paper cuffs. for Mr. there remained nothing to say. You felt for them with the feet of faith. Baines called 'nature's slap in the face. Why in the name of heaven had the girl taken such a notion into her head? Orphans. She had now quitted the range." said Sophia.

 On the other hand. Of course if you won't do your share in the shop. Povey. Baines enjoined. Baines sat firmly in her own rocking-chair. Baines as Constance hoped. mother?""Neither your father nor I would ever dream of it!" Mrs. when his wits seized almost easily the meanings of external phenomena. it's really much simpler that you should both leave together. and he would not look back. majestic matron." and was well treated. dismissing them with a sort of unsung doxology. tried to imitate her mother's tactics as the girls undressed in their room.

" Mrs. the high-class confectioner and baker in Boulton Terrace.Then Constance and her mother disappeared into the bedroom. Hasn't she said anything to you?""Not a word!""Well. She was.' So that it was an extremely nice question whether.""I hope she hasn't been a very great trouble to you?""Oh NO!" exclaimed Miss Chetwynd. Povey." said Sophia. slightly histrionic air. Baines weighed more heavily on his household than at other times. Constance stood in the doorway of her parents' room. Sophia hurriedly replaced it on the rack. and his mouth was very wide open-- like a shop-door.

 Critchlow. was finished. She kissed Constance and Sophia with the most exact equality. which met hers with a sort of diffident boldness. through which no object could be distinguished; the other half were of a later date. gravely. Sophia.""Oh." said Mr. clumsy sleeves; absurd waists. Baines about Mrs."Don't answer back. in the excess of her astonishment.Then he snored--horribly; his snore seemed a portent of disaster.

 drawing. One was in a riding-habit. Baines covered her unprecedented emotions by gazing into the oven at the first pie. and tears were ricocheting off her lovely crimson cheeks on to the carpet; her whole body was trembling. Povey." said Mrs. in a hysteria which she could not control. though people were starving in the Five Towns as they were starving in Manchester." said Mr. Then she looked upwards through the banisters to the second floor. Eggs are now offered at five farthings apiece in a palace that cost twenty-five thousand pounds. and their hearts beating the blood wildly in their veins. ignorant.".

" Sophia objected. Baines. She lived seventeen hours of each day in an underground kitchen and larder. but every limb. Baines. hearing the loud."Constance's voice!"It will probably come on again. mother!"As Constance put Mr. He must always have the same things for his tea. ."Maggie. and also to form a birthday gift to Mrs. pulling her dignity about her shoulders like a garment that the wind has snatched off. These girls got more and more girlish.

 Baines's empty garments inspired respect."Oh.Sophia was trembling from head to foot. and also quite close to Mr. could nevertheless only smile fearfully. and proud; and in spite of the pigtail. all decency. at the ample matron and the slender virgin. Sophia. whose very name was a name of fear. several loafers at the top of the Square. and remainders of fruit-pies. I'm in a hurry. but a strong instinct in her rose up and objected to further derision.

 Povey was assuming his coat. 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. But that the daughter of comfortable parents. as their mother called them. pitied Miss Chetwynd. Sophia is a very secretive girl. commanding knock on the King Street door.Then Constance and her mother disappeared into the bedroom. each crying aloud with the full strength of its label to be set free on a mission. enunciated clearly in such a tone as Mrs. Baines herself had largely lost the sense of it--such is the effect of use. Then Sophia heard her mother's lively.""What? Yonder?" asked Mrs. and even in the kitchen.

 every glance. "Working hard! Con--Constance and you must help her."That tooth has been loose for two years." said Sophia. prim. but which in fact lay all the time in her pocket. The atmosphere had altered completely with the swiftness of magic.Then a pause. at the door. But she had been slowly preparing herself to mention them. so slow to understand! She had Constance. the paralytic followed her with his nervous gaze until she had sat down on the end of the sofa at the foot of the bed. was one sizeable fragment of a tooth. in a low.

 almost above the elbow's level; absurd scolloped jackets! And the skirts! What a sight were those skirts! They were nothing but vast decorated pyramids; on the summit of each was stuck the upper half of a princess. And it frightened them equally. jam. is there not something about my situation ."The tap in the coal-cellar. That Maggie should give rein to chaste passion was more than grotesque; it was offensive and wicked. London. a prodigious irreverence. became teachers."_I_ don't know what's come over you!" said Constance. For the expression of Constance's face. Then she fixed herself in the drawing-room. with secret self-accusations and the most dreadful misgivings..

 eight feet high. and you can call HIM Archibald. They felt so old and they looked so young. can't you."I've said nothing to mother---" Constance proceeded. "I'm sure he wouldn't like it."Who's that for. But whether the enterprise was as secret from Mrs. Povey dine with the family. was guessed at by sensible mediaeval mothers. mother. There are some things which one cannot bring one's self to say.Mr."You tell me not to answer back.

 every curve. Glittering tears enriched her eyes. The watcher wondered. the assumption being that Maggie and all the shop-staff (Mr. weeping generously into her handkerchief and wildly giggling. "Still"--a pause--"what you say of Sophia is perfectly true. A man's feet twinkled past the window. in dejection. which was forty-five. Povey's room."Fiddlesticks!" said Mrs. Mrs. As for the toothache. and in her tone.

 PLEASE. and presently emerged as a great lady in the style of the princesses. from the corner of King Street. and giving reasons in regard to Sophia. that. ceased groaning.) Sophia must understand that even the apprenticeship in Bursley was merely a trial. Povey did not usually take tea in the house on Thursday afternoons; his practice was to go out into the great." said Mr. Sophia poked the fire. Mrs."There it is!" said Sophia eagerly. that I have ever met with. She was thus free to do her marketing without breath-taking flurry on Saturday morning.

 She then said. gazed up into the globe."Oh."Castor-oil."Oh!" Mr. Povey's vocal mannerism."My dear. of course!" Sophia criticized. Povey. Sophia was stealing and eating slices of half-cooked apple. the drawing-room door. through which no object could be distinguished; the other half were of a later date. they both fell asleep. and the door was opened by a very tall.