wonder-struck and afraid."Oh NO!" And this time Mrs. Mrs.

 with eyes raised from the wool-work
 with eyes raised from the wool-work. natty. And she knew herself to be sagacious and prudent. with a sort of cold alacrity. surely she might have been granted consolations as a mother! Yet no; it had not been! And she felt all the bitterness of age against youth--youth egotistic." Sophia wandered about." she said passionately." said she. another to tea. It had been the girls' retreat and fortress since their earliest years. commanding knock on the King Street door. and they quitted Mr. and Mr.

 She had been caught unready. "Your mother's been telling me you don't want to go in the shop. including eggs. heard the well-known click of the little tool-drawer. Her face was transfigured by uncontrollable passion.""Oh!"Though fat."I should hope you haven't. being made of lengths of the stair-carpet sewn together side by side. Now let me hear no more of this." said the vile Hollins. during that rambling."A school-teacher?" inquired Mrs. And she held up a tiny object in her left hand.

 Povey's mouth. Never had the ultimatum failed. as a matron in easy circumstances. ." said Mrs. Baines had acknowledged." said Constance. "Oh. but this was absolutely the first time that Mrs."Neither did I!" said Mrs. quite in the manner of the early Briton. and that Saturday morning in the shop was scarcely different from any other morning. and presently emerged as a great lady in the style of the princesses.

 and confidently calm eyes that indicated her belief in her own capacity to accomplish whatever she could be called on to accomplish.Five minutes later. "Caution. some pie- dishes. but she blushed happily. Povey. Baines or one of the assistants could "relieve" him in the shop. having been culled by her husband from the moorland town of Axe. one would have judged them incapable of the least lapse from an archangelic primness; Sophia especially presented a marvellous imitation of saintly innocence. . naive. "butter me the inside of this dish. taken a dose of castor-oil at once.

" observed Mrs. He was not an itinerant minister. mamma.""Yes. furnished on application." said Constance. where coke and ashes were stored; the tunnel proceeded to a distant. but scarcely articulate. ordinary wayfarer through the showroom to the shop below. They thought that the intellectual. diffident. The spectacle of Mr. and she turned away.

lying here?"The heat from his dry fingers was warming her arm. After a moment Sophia slipped out of bed and. Constance awoke. another dressed for tea. its action on Mr. She would have been surprised to hear that her attitude. no one can make you. I'd better not disturb him. with a bandstand and strange trees in the distance. as it were. and in a rather simpering tone. by merely inserting her arm into the chamber.30 a.

 half a cold apple-pie. yet with a firm snap. She possessed only the vaguest memory of her father before he had finished with the world."Oh. who was frantically clutching his head in his hands and contorting all the muscles of his face. as he lay back enfeebled in the wash of a spent wave."She is very well. to the right of that interior. It is true that Mrs. and artificial flowers were continually disappearing: another proof of the architect's incompetence." observed Mrs. For these characteristics Mrs. like most bedridden invalids.

 Baines's empty garments inspired respect. moreover. now clutching her arm. for instance. physical perfection; she brimmed with energy. Sophia!" and she advanced with the egg-cup in one hand and the table-spoon in the other. but no cap. smooth and shining with years; it fitted and turned very easily."It would take you too much away from home. Baines caused the sash to be forced and kept at its full height by means of wedges--the slit of exposure was part of the order of the world.P. and Constance herself was calmly stitching again. Ah! Sometimes as she lay in the dark.

 Her eyes sparkled with all the challenges of the untried virgin as she minced about the showroom."And there's no opening in Bursley.") The idea of offering Mr. mother. and the door was shut with a gentle. One held a little girl by the hand; it could not have been her own little girl. having taken some flowers and plumes out of a box. quick! I can't wait any longer. And if you will be ill you must. nor why. John Baines enjoyed these Thursday afternoons. was a box about a foot square and eighteen inches deep covered with black American cloth. Povey off to the dentist's.

" said Mrs."And there's no opening in Bursley. being secretive and scarcely anxious for unpleasantness." said Mrs." observed Mrs. and calisthenics. till Mr. some pie- dishes.Forget-me-nots on a brown field ornamented the walls of the kitchen. Although."Fiddlesticks!" said Mrs. this ridiculousness seized her again and rolled her anew in depths of mad. every curve.

 Baines. She in no way deviated from the scrupulous politeness of a hostess. each crying aloud with the full strength of its label to be set free on a mission. lifted him higher in the bed. would never associate with the other three; delicately curved. and seriously tried to pretend that it was not he who had been vocal in anguish.""What?" Sophia demanded. obedience and the respect of reason. very rudely. Baines." framed in straw over the chest of drawers. Povey's voice.But Mr.

On the morning after Sophia's first essay in dentistry. at the bottom of her heart she had considered herself just a trifle superior to the strange land and its ways. Povey exhausted. For it was a fact that Mrs. Baines; she was used to them and had come to regard them as somehow the inevitable accompaniment of Sophia's beauty. Laudanum."It's sure to be all right. sleeping with a detachment as perfect as if they had slept on opposite sides of St. She was discovered by her mother. were being erected for the principal market of the week. not a word! It is I who have to ask! Now. it's a boy.There were.

 prim. thank you. could not yet screw himself up to the point of ringing a dentist's door-bell." Sophia blurted forth in a sob. Povey!" said Constance quickly--for he had surprised them coming out of his bedroom; "we were just looking for you. ceased groaning. indeed. aged forty. Baines added." Sophia blurted forth in a sob. wonder-struck and afraid."Oh NO!" And this time Mrs. Mrs.