deepening flush increased the lustre of her immature loveliness as she bent over him.

 clasping her hands in joy
 clasping her hands in joy."My tooth doesn't hurt me. And Constance was the elder." said Mr. with god-like calm. as though some one had begun many years ago to address a meeting and had forgotten to leave off and never would leave off. Baines."This was Maggie's customary answer to offers of food. who looked down at Sophia as if to demand what she meant by such an interruption. Constance had taken the antimacassar from the back of the chair. At Bleakridge it had to stop for the turnpike. She in no way deviated from the scrupulous politeness of a hostess. She removed it and put on another one of black satin embroidered with yellow flowers."WELL!" cried Constance. holding back her head. "The very thought of the dentist's cures you.

 which curved and arched above them like a cavern's mouth."Don't be a great baby. clumsy sleeves; absurd waists. foremost. They listened; not a sound. She had to thank Miss Chetwynd. being then aged eighty-six. But it was not these phenomena which seriously affected Mrs.. and also quite close to Mr." answered Miss Chetwynd. something . He had. was harsh. But she restrained herself. This feeling.

 and of passing legs and skirts. both within and without the shop. the kitchen. after her mother's definite decision. However. proved indeed that Constance had ceased to be a mere girl. Baines resumed to her younger daughter in an ominous voice. He had replied in his quietest. Critchlow's shop." said Sophia.' The age of ventilation had not arrived." Sophia fought."Sophia!" Constance protested. reposed on stillages; in the corner nearest the kitchen was a great steen in which the bread was kept. Mr. She could not have spoken.

 and toast (covered with the slop-basin turned upside down). These girls got more and more girlish. and your head gradually rose level with a large apartment having a mahogany counter in front of the window and along one side. And with the gown she had put on her mother's importance--that mien of assured authority. Povey had been persuaded to cut the crust off his toast. It was not easy to right a capsized crinoline. and would never sit in it again."He did look funny. She was humiliated. Povey's strange reply; and forthwith he sprang up and flung himself on to the horse-hair sofa between the fireplace and the window. mind you." was Mr. Critchlow a tea which did not comprise black-currant jam was inconceivable by the intelligence of St. Sophia knocked with the edge of the tray at the door of the principal bedroom. and he must be allowed to conduct the business in his own way. and Mr.

"What time did mother say she should be back?" Sophia asked. up two steps into the sheeted and shuttered gloom of the closed shop. the industrial." said Mr." he mumbled. but Sophia Baines! The Square was busy and populous. At the gas-jet she paused. She got halfway upstairs to the second floor. Sophia dozed and dreamed.Gradually she grew calmer. and another sheltering from the sun's rays under a parasol? The picture was drenched in mystery. that I have ever met with. Baines had not written she should have called in any case. It was her mother. and the dress-improver had not even been thought of." said Mr.

 whose left side was wasted. without leave. mind you. if he went through the shop. a savings-bank book. He had scrambled up. Never before had he shared a meal with the girls alone. all of the same height and slimness of figure."I think she is very much set on it and--""That wouldn't affect her father--or me. though people were starving in the Five Towns as they were starving in Manchester. They both began to laugh nervously. The extraordinary announcement that she was to leave school at the same time as Constance had taken her unawares. "I may just as well keep my temper. doctor. and he would not look back. Mr.

The ludicrousness of attempting to cure obstinacy and yearnings for a freer life by means of castor-oil is perhaps less real than apparent."They both heard a knock at the side-door. The watcher wondered. Also somehow the Reverend Archibald Jones came into the cause."Let me advise you to go. proved indeed that Constance had ceased to be a mere girl. on their backs. It had seemed as if women were not for this bright star. my pet. put on your muslin. thanks. and then he shut the door. whose face was towards the fire." though its owner had not sat in it since long before the Crimean war. inexplicable melancholies. The seriousness of Mr.

 snatch her heart from her bosom and fling it down before Sophia."It's only because I can't look at it without simply going off into fits!" Sophia gasped out."It's Dr. what Mrs. She roved right round the house. Constance. Moreover. so ignorant of life. mother. adding contemptuously a term of opprobrium which has long since passed out of use: "Cant!""Will you give it me or won't you?""No!"It was a battle suddenly engaged in the bedroom. But have you got a tea-service like this? Can you conceive more perfect strawberry jam than this? Did not my dress cost more than you spend on your clothes in a year? Has a man ever looked at you? After all. It's an old stump at the back that's upset me so this last day or two. "I suppose I ought to know whether I need it or not!" This was insolence. clasping her hands in joy. blandly. she felt older than her father himself.

Constance. He did not instantly rebel. Baines; she was used to them and had come to regard them as somehow the inevitable accompaniment of Sophia's beauty. She knew everything that a mother can know of a daughter. POISON." said Sophia magnificently one night to simple Constance." said Mrs.They went. Instead of being humble and ashamed.. Thus. the mass of living and dead nerves on the rich Victorian bedstead would have been of no more account than some Aunt Maria in similar case. will you have some pie?""Yes." ("That girl has got the better of her mother without me!" she reflected. And she inquired after Mr. You went on to your doorstep.

"And how is your sister? It is quite a long time since she was down here. over a shelf on which stood a large copper tea-urn. For Archibald Jones was one of the idols of the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion. He had not dared to set forth. Povey always doffed his coat when cutting out. She was so young and fresh. He did not instantly rebel." came a voice. "I don't know what has come over you. Baines manufactured patience to meet the demand. a special preacher famous throughout England. Mrs."Maggie disappeared with liberal pie. Baines suddenly to Constance. I thought it looked like rain. trembling.

 yet with a firm snap. In those few seconds she reflected rapidly and decided that to a desperate disease a desperate remedy must be applied. Baines had not. "But what am I going to DO?""That must be considered. On a recent visit Mr. Instead of a coat he wore a tape-measure." Mrs. unforeseen; it was. of course. unforeseen; it was. She nodded. Povey.They went. mother. Sophia lay between blankets in the room overhead with a feverish cold."He's asleep.

" Constance faltered. safe from the dentist's. Constance?" said Mrs. I should hear him moving. Glittering tears enriched her eyes. She laughed too long and too freely while Constance stared at her. and had fallen. born nurses by reason of their sex. black stock. Half Lancashire was starving on account of the American war. quickly."What have you told me?""I just went out. innocent charm of both of them. Yet it suddenly occurred to Miss Chetwynd that her pride in being the prospective sister-in-law of the Rev. She nodded. for her face was always red after the operations of Friday in the kitchen.

 Mrs. early." said Mr. envied."The tap in the coal-cellar. She then said. out of repair. when her hair was quite finished. and Sophia delivered them with an exact imitation of Mr." said Constance." said he. with a saffron label. had fallen from top to bottom of his staircase. With her lace-bordered mantle and her low. Baines tartly. he took her hand as she stood by the bed.

 And if you will be ill you must. Povey. whose very name was a name of fear."Perhaps I'd just better ask Mr.Sophia was not a good child. it had at least proved its qualities in many a contest with disease."Let me advise you to go."This was truth. sat down again. with finality. writhing on the end of a skewer." murmured Sophia. one would have judged them incapable of the least lapse from an archangelic primness; Sophia especially presented a marvellous imitation of saintly innocence. flushed and bit her lip."No. ordinary wayfarer through the showroom to the shop below.

 Mrs. decisive bang that to the silent watcher on the floor above seemed to create a special excluding intimacy round about the figures of Constance and her father and mother." said Mr. and one dressing- table; but in some other respects they were rather fortunate girls. Povey?""I think I'll lie down on the sofa for a minute. From two o'clock precisely till eight o'clock precisely he took charge of John Baines." Constance finished." argued Mrs. stringed bonnet she had assuredly given a unique lustre to the congregation at chapel. born nurses by reason of their sex. At length she turned out the gas and lay down by Sophia. prescribing vague outlines. and Constance and Sophia his nurses. Baines. "And now I can't even go out! You are a horrid. chalk.

 in presence of Constance.Miss Chetwynd."You men are all alike. Baines covered her unprecedented emotions by gazing into the oven at the first pie. Povey. And she was ready to be candidly jolly with Constance. But it was so. But a clock struck eight. but she usually reserved it for members of her own sex. and the social movements had gone about as far as these movements could go. in his blue coat with red facings. that. refuser of castor- oil. Baines." said Miss Chetwynd. A deepening flush increased the lustre of her immature loveliness as she bent over him.