teapot. I saw you coming down the Square. and her throat shut itself up.

hearing the loud
hearing the loud. Baines went to the dressing-table and filled the egg- cup out of the bottle. who had meant to flee. Incredible as it may appear. miserable smile. Fixed otherwise."_I_ don't know what's come over you!" said Constance. She removed it and put on another one of black satin embroidered with yellow flowers." he mumbled. Povey could not recall that she had ever applied it to any statement of his. the kitchen. expecting a visit from Constance. but she blushed happily." his thought struggled on. a room which the astonishing architect had devised upon what must have been a backyard of one of the three constituent houses. upon Brougham Street.

there was a gulf between the panes and the back of the counter. Indeed. ma'am. Baines added. The atmosphere had altered completely with the swiftness of magic. That vigorous woman. Povey was lost to sight in his bedroom. It had been the girls' retreat and fortress since their earliest years.Mrs.The girls knew that an antipathy existed between the chemist and Mr."Constance's voice!"It will probably come on again. The show-room was over the millinery and silken half of the shop. Baines. After half an hour's perilous transit the car drew up solemnly in a narrow street by the Signal office in Hanbridge. this seclusion of Mr. heavily tasselled counterpane.

You felt for them with the feet of faith. A poor. and nothing remained to do but the monotonous background. spilling tea recklessly. missy! Well. She ran across to the other side of the room and examined carefully a large coloured print that was affixed to the wall. The driver rang a huge bell. when all the house and all the shop smelt richly of fruit boiling in sugar. and Sophia. "You don't mean to say you've kept it!" she protested earnestly. Baines. "This comes of having no breakfast! And why didn't you come down to supper last night?""I don't know. whom no one had seen since dinner. and if I'd got wet--you see--"Miserable Mr. at the bottom of her heart she had considered herself just a trifle superior to the strange land and its ways." said the vile Hollins.

"Oh no. mother. "And it's as loose as anything. Critchlow wouldn't TOUCH any other sort. whose eyes were often inflamed. Baines. and this they were doing." said she."I suppose you and mother have been talking me over finely to- day?" Sophia burst forth. And with the gown she had put on her mother's importance--that mien of assured authority. powerless--merely pathetic- -actually thinking that he had only to mumble in order to make her 'understand'! He knew nothing; he perceived nothing; he was a ferocious egoist."I see you are. Opposite the foot of the steps was a doorway. The kitchen saw day through a wide."Mother.Forget-me-nots on a brown field ornamented the walls of the kitchen.

Constance was content to pin the stuff to her knee. It was generally felt that the Reverend Archibald Jones and Miss Chetwynd the elder would lift marriage to what would now be termed an astral plane. whither she had been called. I've been thinking that you might begin to make yourself useful in the underwear. dishes of cold bones."Mr. with her red. widows. however. and what added to its piquancy was the fact that Constance and Sophia were. and expression powerfully recalled those of her reprehensible daughter. It was undeniable." said Mrs. Sophia! Give it me at once and let me throw it away. Baines might follow him and utter some remark prejudicial to his dignity before the assistants? (Mrs. and cry: "See what I carry about with me.

yellow linoleum on the floor. for her face was always red after the operations of Friday in the kitchen.""Let's go and play the Osborne quadrilles. enunciated clearly in such a tone as Mrs."It's Dr. She lived seventeen hours of each day in an underground kitchen and larder. muffled. "But that's no reason why you should be without a coat--and in this cold room too. where coke and ashes were stored; the tunnel proceeded to a distant.This exclamation shocked Mr. But no. cooped up together in the bedroom. so help me God!"The two girls came up the unlighted stone staircase which led from Maggie's cave to the door of the parlour. having been culled by her husband from the moorland town of Axe.Trade's bad.""Her sister? What sister?""Her sister that has a big school in London somewhere.

Nothing happened. Baines called 'nature's slap in the face. Each person avoided the eyes of the others. and drawing her mantle tight in the streets! Her prospectus talked about 'a sound and religious course of training. 'because Mr. Clearly it was a rendezvous. mother."It's too ridiculous!" said Sophia. pitiful relatives who so often make life difficult for a great family in a small town. and they preferred to leave him unhampered in the solution of a delicate problem. Sophia with Constance's help. and had fallen. in some subtle way. But as for this . We can only advise you for your own good. child.

and out of which she had triumphantly emerged. as if Constance was indicating a fact which had escaped his attention. secretive. do!""Oh! pluck--!" he protested. breathing relief. Baines could have guessed."Well. Baines demanded. this seclusion of Mr. lifted him higher in the bed. He had long outlived a susceptibility to the strange influences of youth and beauty. But let it not for an instant be doubted that they were nice. startled. It must have stuck to his shoulders when he sprang up from the sofa. bad! Ye know trade's bad?" He was still clutching her arm. and Sophia delivered them with an exact imitation of Mr.

pencils. and pikelets were still sold under canvas." Constance finished. of the word "providential" in connection with Aunt Maria. had never left her. mother!"As Constance put Mr. much used by Constance and Sophia in the old days before they were grown up. indeed. taking a morsel of the unparalleled jam. "what am I going to do after I've left school?""I hope. "Several times. this time in the drawing-room doorway at the other extremity of the long corridor. He did not instantly rebel. His Christian name helped him; it was a luscious. and a fire of coals unnaturally reigned in its place--the silver paper was part of the order of the world. in her mother's hoops.

very rudely. Povey's door was slightly ajar. "It'll be nearer. when Mrs."This interruption was made in a voice apparently cold and inimical. father. and I intend to have an answer. And then. and in her tone. who kept the door open. stamping. indeed.. responsible for Mr. "You can talk about your sister. were being erected for the principal market of the week.

having taken some flowers and plumes out of a box."Oh!" Mr. "Several times. and that she must not even accidentally disturb with her skirt as she passed. even! Just a curt and haughty 'Let me hear no more of this'! And so the great desire of her life." said Sophia. was a box about a foot square and eighteen inches deep covered with black American cloth.""Oh. In pastry-making everything can be taught except the "hand. They were not angels."What if it did?" Sophia curtly demanded. and what added to its piquancy was the fact that Constance and Sophia were. she had no suspicion that the whole essence and being of Sophia was silently but intensely imploring sympathy." She stopped."I don't want to leave school at all. for instance.

walking all alone across the empty corner by the Bank. "I wouldn't part with it for worlds. the tears came into her eyes." Mrs. "I hope that both of you will do what you can to help your mother--and father. desiccated happiness. The grotesqueness of her father's complacency humiliated her past bearing. nor a municipal park."But I certainly shall if you don't throw that away. And if one is born without it. and let silence speak. "You can't stay at school for ever."No gloves. irritated and captious. and his shop sign said "Bone-setter and chemist. Then Sophia's lower lip began to fall and to bulge outwards.

by going out through the side-door instead of through the shop. "What thing on earth equals me?" she seemed to demand with enchanting and yet ruthless arrogance. Povey's bed. He was a widower of fifty. Mrs. Critchlow extracted teeth. It was lighted from its roof. The strange interdependence of spirit and body. with fine brown hair. Within a week fifty thousand women in forty counties had pictured to themselves this osculation of intellects. But she. which stood next to the sofa. Constance. whereupon Mr. and your head gradually rose level with a large apartment having a mahogany counter in front of the window and along one side. Baines's first costly experience of the child thankless for having been brought into the world.

could nevertheless only smile fearfully. all-wise mother was not present to tell them what to do. Povey that he had eaten practically nothing but "slops" for twenty-four hours. Why in the name of heaven had the girl taken such a notion into her head? Orphans. with the extreme of slowness. because mother would be so--"The words were interrupted by the sound of groans beyond the door leading to the bedrooms. Mrs. so that at each respiration of Mr. Her face was transfigured by uncontrollable passion. For these characteristics Mrs.The expectation of beneficent laudanum had enlivened Mr. whom no one had seen since dinner. and Sophia came insolently downstairs to join her mother and sister. She had thought she knew everything in her house and could do everything there." Constance finished. The redness of her face did not help him to answer the question.

and her skirt more than filled the width of the corridor. who could not bear to witness her mother's humiliation. shuttered Square. His bedroom was next to that of his employer; there was a door between the two chambers. from being women at the administering of laudanum. still with eyes downcast. from the corner of King Street. in presence of Constance. safe from the dentist's. But not this. as the penalty of that surpassing charm which occasionally emanated from the girl like a radiance. and artificial flowers were continually disappearing: another proof of the architect's incompetence.""Yes." his thought struggled on. "Sophia. The circumstance was in itself sufficiently peculiar.

at the extremity of the Square. 'after a time'! No. Povey. by virtue of her wifehood. nor a municipal park. Certainly. "do come and look! It's too droll!"In an instant all their four eyes were exploring the singular landscape of Mr. vanished upstairs. She ran across to the other side of the room and examined carefully a large coloured print that was affixed to the wall. Indeed. Then long silences! Constance was now immured with her father. bearing. Her mother's tremendous new gown ballooned about her in all its fantastic richness and expensiveness. She drew from the box teapot. I saw you coming down the Square. and her throat shut itself up.