ew her nose and wiped her eyes. All this time they did not speak to each other, and when Emmy turned blindly away Jenny mechanically took hold of the kettle, filled it, and set it to boil upon the gas. Emmy watched her curiously, feeling that her

he miserably asked,

voice. She, too, was ashamed. "You'd better go up and lie down for a bit. I'll stay with Pa, in case he

s too cold. I'll sit

chen, where the old man was

" he inquired after a moment, becoming

e news in the Sunday papers: I suppose people are all extra wicked on Saturday

nder her breath. "It

oor old soul. Now, about this hat: the girls all go on at me.... Say I dress like a broker's-man.

ken by an impul

mnly shook her head. She did not thank her sister. Thanks were never given in that household, be

, and it suits you. Not my style at all. I'll just get out my b

f her associates; but she was affected, as all such must be, by the prevailing wind. Strangely enough, it was not her habit to wear very smart hats, for business or at any other time. She would have told you, in the event of any such remark, that when you had been fiddling about with hats all day you had other things to do in the evenings. Yet she had good taste and very nimble fingers when occasion arose. In bringing her box from the bedroom she brought also from the stand in the passage her drooping hat, against which she proceeded to lay various materials, trying them with he

ng for long periods without speech. Pa's broodings were as customary to them as the absorbed contemplativeness of a baby. "Give him his pipe," as Jenny said; "and he'll be quiet for hours-till it goes out. Then there's a fuss! My word, what a racket! Talk about a fire alarm!" And on such occasions she would mimic him ridiculingly, to diminish his complaints, while Emmy roughly relighted the hubble-bubble and patted her father once more into a contented silence. Pa was to them, al

, Emmy, now quite quiet again, continued to sit by the fire, staring at the small glowing strip that showed under the door of the kitchen grate. Every now and then she would sigh, wearily closing her eye

am. Pa heard it as something far away, like a distant salvationists' band, and pricked up his

za, swe

d you'll have only yo

ing. There was once more an air of oblivion over all things. The old man sank back in his chair, puffing slowly, blue smoke from the bowl of the pipe, grey smoke from between his lips. Emmy looked again at the clock. She had the listening air of one who awaits a bewildering event. Once she shivered, and bent

ing on?" she aske

Can't you whiff it? Don

ll r

l right. Near

g and swearing. Anybody would have thought the kid had laid down on the line. I expect she was frightened out of her wits-all those men shoutin

those streamers, or

but the kids round here are always a season late. Same

as she said. She couldn't help laughing at them. It made her think of the tales of savages wearing top hats with strings of beads and thinking they were all in the latest European fashion. That is the constant amusement of the expert as sh

w a lot," Emm

" Jenny was not to be g

m g

dded, as though she ha

spread to the very edges of her bodice. The two girls looked at one another, a deliberate interchange of glances that

fixedly away from her sister. Her air of gravity was unchanged. Emmy, hesitating, made as if to speak, to implore something; but, being repelled, she turned, and went thoughtfully across the

i

had been in the habit of saying, "cost him nothing." They were paid by his societies. Similarly, when he had himself been attacked by the paralytic seizure which had wrecked his life, the societies had paid; and now, in addition to the pension allowed by his old employers, he received a weekly dole from the societies which brought his income up to fifty shillings a week. The pension, of course, would cease upon his death; but so long as life was kept burning within him nothing could affect the amounts pa

d to check in her the same complacent selfishness that distinguished her mother. She had been frustrated all along, first by her mother, then by her mother's preference for Jenny, finally (after a period during which she dominated the household after her mother's death) by Jenny herself. It was thus not upon a pleasant record of personal success that Emmy could look back, but rather upon a series of chagrins of which each was the harder to bear because of the history of its precursors. Emmy, between eighteen and nineteen at the time of her mother's death, had grasped her opportunity, and had made the care of the household her lot. She still bore, what was a very different reading of her ambition, the cares of the household. Jenny, as she grew

anchard, whom he touched lightly and familiarly upon the shoulder. Alf was a rather squarely built young man of thirty, well under six feet, but not ungainly. He had a florid, reddish complexion, and his hair was of a common but unnamed colour, between brown and grey, curly and crisp. He was clean-shaven. Alf was obviously one who worked with his hands: in the little kitchen he appeared to stand upon the tips of his toes, in order that his walk might

d!" he cried boisterously.

der to recognise the new-comer. It was plain that as a personal matter

"Getting a bit warm. It's cold to-n

nothing. You can't help wondering what causes these fires when they're heavily insured. Eh? Blazing all night, it was. Twenty-five engines. Twenty-five, mind you! That shows it was pretty big, eh? I saw the red in the sky, myself. 'Well,' I thought to myself, '

rply, brightening.

turned his face towards the mantelpiece. "And ... a ... let's see, what else is there?" Alf racked his brains, puffing a little and arching his brows at the two girls, who seemed bot

told him an hour ago. He wants a murder, or a divorce. All these little tin-pot accidents aren'

ntration upon memory which had brought his eyebrows together there appeared in his express

he table, in spite of the physical effort which Emmy involuntarily made to will that he should not do so. Emmy's eyes grew tragic at his intimate, possessive manner

hair opposite to Pa. He took it, his shoulder to Jenny, whil

g his head at Pa. "Perked up w

e and little amused crouching of the shoulders caught her eye. "Well, so he did!" she insisted. Jenny took no notice. "He's

said Alf, incau

the cry of one who had been malig

ls, simultaneously. Jenny

e yet!" But Emmy went t

ss the yearning that

Alf. "Hold me han

itty bottle," explained Emmy

contretemps had unnerved him

Jove, I'm late. That's telling Mr. Blanchard all the news. The fact is, I've got a co

n an amused flurry at Emmy's anguished face opposite. It was as though a chill had struck ac

lf nodded his head deeply and reprovingly. "Given to me, they were, by

gainst the side of her hat, watching it with a zealous eye, once again to test the effect. He thought she was coqu

of fact ease suddenly ousting her panic. "That's very good.

blankly at Jenny, until she thought he looked like the bull on the hoardings who has "heard that they want more." Emmy stared at her also, quite

deways glance at him that made Alf tame with helplessness. "Poor old Em hasn't

ny's profile, judicial in its severity. Then some kind of tact got the better of his first im

Her pride was unaroused; the other thought, the triumph of the delicious moment, was overwhelming. Afterwards-ah,

hands quickly, immediately again taking up her work so as to continue it. Into her eyes had come once more that strange expr