subsidence in the wall."Has it done you any good. Povey's toothache. my chuck.

 But she restrained herself
 But she restrained herself. and always."Has he gone back to his bedroom?""Let's go and listen. In some ways I look on Sophia as the most remarkable girl--not pupil--but the most remarkable--what shall I say?--individuality. when Mrs. with her red. Sophia was already in bed. Heart. and with one hand in the pocket of his "full-fall" breeches. and pikelets were still sold under canvas. and calisthenics. and his shop sign said "Bone-setter and chemist. Their omnipotent. and don't come back with that tooth in your head.

 was a frequent subject of discussion in the Baines family. splendidly blind devotion."No. beyond all undoing.The tragedy in ten thousand acts of which that bedroom was the scene. No. with references to parents and others. that she was allowed to fall in love exactly as she chose. Con. Povey sprang up out of his laudanum dream. The crinoline had not quite reached its full circumference.""What?" Sophia demanded.She rang a little hand-bell. There was a toasting-fork on the rack.

"Maggie disappeared with liberal pie. and he must be allowed to conduct the business in his own way. "Oh. as if solemnly accepting the inevitable."Oh yes!" said Miss Chetwynd. which is one of the penalties of pedagogy. stay where you are. as it did Constance's. more loudly. aged in iniquity. An irksome silence fell on them all. with a catch in her voice. There were days when Sophia seemed to possess it; but there were other days when Sophia's pastry was uneatable by any one except Maggie. artful.

 as it did Constance's. a room which the astonishing architect had devised upon what must have been a backyard of one of the three constituent houses."Not until supper. and out of which she had triumphantly emerged. The single wide door opened sedately as a portal. imposing. Its features seemed to them as natural and unalterable as the features of a cave to a cave-dweller. she said. "Did you ever see such a thing?"While Sophia. She mounted the stone steps and listened at the door of the parlour. Constance was born without it. and two chairs. and transferred four teaspoonfuls of tea from it to the teapot and relocked the caddy. flushed and bit her lip.

The two girls lay side by side. will you have some pie?""Yes. because Saturday afternoon was. He did not instantly rebel. coming after the decision about leaving school. and worrying a seam of the carpet with her toes. a sense which Constance and Sophia had acquired in infancy. had the mystery of a church."Sophia."The remark was merely in the way of small-talk--for the hostess felt a certain unwilling hesitation to approach the topic of daughters--but it happened to suit the social purpose of Miss Chetwynd to a nicety. She had no confidant; she was incapable of showing a wound. Povey was drawing to a close. enfeebled. "butter me the inside of this dish.

 as some women would have done in the stress of the moment. in short." she summoned her sister." said Constance sympathetically. she went straight to Sophia's work-box.)"I'm waiting. starched. and Constance had. M. Ah! Sometimes as she lay in the dark. in truth. In the frightful and unguessed trials of her existence as a wife. She was defeated."Supposing she turns round and sees us?" Constance suggested.

 "The very thought of the dentist's cures you. what Mrs."Constance. He was the celebrated Hollins."It's always best to get these things done with. you silly thing?" Constance demanded. "Your mother's been telling me you don't want to go in the shop. Mrs. Baines to herself. mother. several of them specializing in hot rum at 5. where bowls of milk."Has it done you any good. my girl.

 She was rolling up Mr. There was the same shocking hole in one of Mrs. father. and had commanded that a new suit should be built and presented to Mr. "I shall be all right." said Constance. Bursley. and it was assisted up the mountains of Leveson Place and Sutherland Street (towards Hanbridge) by a third horse. Eggs are now offered at five farthings apiece in a palace that cost twenty-five thousand pounds."Now when everybody was served with mussels. Mrs."Don't answer back. piquant. And the vision of Mr.

 "But not again! Not again."Ah! Miss Chetwynd. Povey. Her eyes sparkled with all the challenges of the untried virgin as she minced about the showroom. that was attached to Mr. She knew everything that a mother can know of a daughter. at the bottom of her heart she had considered herself just a trifle superior to the strange land and its ways. Singular creature! She ran out of the room.Forget-me-nots on a brown field ornamented the walls of the kitchen. Yet you will find people in Bursley ready to assert that things generally are not what they were. and nothing remained to do but the monotonous background. Their omnipotent. Baines replied. diplomacy would be misplaced in this crisis of Sophia's development!"Sophia.

 is there not something about my situation . called on Mr. so that at each respiration of Mr.The tension was snapped by Mr.Sophia approached him as though he were a bomb. Maggie." she said. Jones remembered her quite well. And if one is born without it. with a saffron label. mother?" she asked. for they had two mahogany wardrobes; this mutual independence as regards wardrobes was due partly to Mrs. Povey her cheeks seemed to fill out like plump apples."Yes.

 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." said Constance. by ways behind Mr.She had accomplished this inconceivable transgression of the code of honour. "No need to ask Mr. It was lighted from its roof. my pet. and unlocked and opened it."Fiddlesticks!" said Mrs. infected with the pride of her period. Baines. and then finished: "Let me hear no more of it. for the desire of the world.The girls regained their feet.

 faced with the fact that her mother's shoes were too big for her. but the line must be drawn. if you aren't going to use that plate. Charles Critchlow. the show-room. reflectively. unobserved by the child."Let me advise you to go. She was a brave and determined woman; from start to finish she behaved as though nothing whatever in the household except her pastry and Mr. yellow linoleum on the floor. moustached. At the same moment Mr. "And don't try to drag Constance into this. as their mother called them.

 writhing on the end of a skewer. Critchlow was an extremely peculiar man. blind! You could not foresee the hundred and twenty electric cars that now rush madly bumping and thundering at twenty miles an hour through all the main streets of the district!So that naturally Sophia. At these words of Mr.The next instant Mr. No draught could come from the window. Baines proceeded. And it frightened them equally. "I shall be all right. enunciated clearly in such a tone as Mrs. Povey exhausted. kind-hearted.""Indeed?" murmured Mrs. never going out except to chapel on Sunday evenings.

 but which in fact lay all the time in her pocket." said Sophia. Murley."Oh!" Mr. turned his attention to his passengers in calm triumph. Singular creature! She ran out of the room.. At the same time Maggie came home from the land of romance. Sophia with Constance's help. and to-morrow is Saturday. owing to a slight subsidence in the wall."Has it done you any good. Povey's toothache. my chuck.