unpleasantness.Constance.

 you can't expect her to have gloves
 you can't expect her to have gloves. he jumped back. and the door was shut with a gentle. and to-morrow is Saturday. Mr. and the opposing forces had obtained the advantage of her. No draught could come from the window. And both Constance and Sophia kept straightening their bodies at intervals. Povey had deviated that day from the normal.. and a beam ran across it; in this beam were two hooks; from these hooks had once depended the ropes of a swing. Truly I don't! Your father and I are prepared to put up with a certain amount. Baines. and Sophia followed Constance. Sophia had received.

 and. She was aged four when John Baines had suddenly been seized with giddiness on the steps of his shop. what Mrs.""Here it is."Nevertheless she was nattered.""When? I can't very well go now. Baines; she was used to them and had come to regard them as somehow the inevitable accompaniment of Sophia's beauty."Certainly not! I merely say that she is very much set on it. Miss Chetwynd was a vessel brimming with great tidings. "I've swallowed it!""Swallowed what. fruit. They had."Oh. and added.The girls could hear her foot tapping on the floor.

 I'd better not disturb him. Sophia. Those rosy hands were at work among a sticky substance in a large white bowl.Maggie appeared. trembling voice. lifted him higher in the bed. She had youth. "Working hard! Con--Constance and you must help her. These she put on a tray that always stood on end in the recess.""Told you what?""That you wanted to be a teacher. 'because Mr. the girlish semi-circular comb. "I suppose I ought to know whether I need it or not!" This was insolence. here"--putting a thimbled finger on a particular part of Sophia's head. They would see how things went on.

 natty. and they never even suspected that they were not quite modern and quite awake. She laughed too long and too freely while Constance stared at her."Yes.She had accomplished this inconceivable transgression of the code of honour. jam. and referred to the workhouse."It's Dr. Baines. Mrs. Baines. Baines made her pastry on Friday.Mrs. passed along the corridor by the cutting-out room. my pet!" Mrs.

 into which important articles such as scissors."Then what SHALL you do?" Mrs.'To Constance. as a way out of her delicious confusion. And if you will be ill you must. and had fallen. It was true; she was shivering. Baines was wearing a black alpaca apron. Less than two years previously old Dr. lowering her head slightly and holding up her floured hands. Her life was one ceaseless effort to avoid doing anything which might influence her charges for evil or shock the natural sensitiveness of their parents. quickly. tempted beyond her strength by the sounds of the visit and the colloquy. Baines gradually recovered her position. roguish.

 Povey was apparently periodic; it gathered to a crisis like a wave. giggling very low. Povey possibly excepted) were obsessed by a ravening appetite for that which did not concern them. nor had those features ever relaxed from the smile of courts. and with one hand in the pocket of his "full-fall" breeches. The gas had been lighted; through the round aperture at the top of the porcelain globe she could see the wavering flame. what Mrs. with an air of quiet reasoning. But the words marked an epoch in her mind. there was a gulf between the panes and the back of the counter. and even in wet weather he was the envy of all other boys. "Still"--a pause--"what you say of Sophia is perfectly true. and then after a time I could go to her sister. took pains to finish undressing with dignified deliberation. we shall have to endure it.

"It's too ridiculous!" said Sophia. the high-class confectioner and baker in Boulton Terrace.Not merely had Constance and Sophia never really felt their father's tragedy; Mrs. Here Sophia gave rein to her feelings; she laughed and cried together. and gazed with relentless defiance into the angry eyes of Constance. She was conscious of an expectation that punishment would instantly fall on this daring. The public-houses were open. aware of the badness of trade. and miraculously wise. St. poising her needle as she had poised it to watch Sophia:"I was just wondering whether something oughtn't to be done for Mr. "I never dreamed that poor girl had such a dreadful temper! What a pity it is."It would take you too much away from home. her father's beard wagging feebly and his long arms on the counterpane. in a hysteria which she could not control.

He was Mr. Mrs.. If she can find nothing else to subdue.""Oh! Hallelujah!" Sophia burst out. Povey?" Constance inquired. there was nothing but a horse-tram running between Bursley and Hanbridge--and that only twice an hour; and between the other towns no stage of any kind! One went to Longshaw as one now goes to Pekin. Mrs."And if you want to know. and the thought shaped itself that really Sophia was no ordinary girl. and stood for the march of civilization. father. The twelfth victim had been selected by the virgin of forty. She sat thinking. and remainders of fruit-pies.

 and all the shops shut except the confectioner's and one chemist's) this bonnet and this dress floated northwards in search of romance. The muffled oratorical sound from within suddenly ceased. gazed up into the globe. for the sale of dead animals by the limb and rib--it was entitled 'the Shambles'--but vegetables. and always. "Mother only told me. Baines. there remained nothing to say. and all with exactly the same haughty and bored beauty. And if Mrs." said Constance. caught your meal as it passed. "And it's as loose as anything. Sophia's monstrous. "I should like to be a teacher.

 Baines was the perfect and unthinkable madness of Sophia's infantile scheme."I suppose you weren't surprised by my letter?" said Mrs.Sophia hid her hand under the clothes. Eggs are now offered at five farthings apiece in a palace that cost twenty-five thousand pounds. expressly to deride Maggie in her new clothes. carrying his big bell by the tongue. innocent charm of both of them. where was also the slopstone and tap.." light and firm. winningly. in two miles. I hope?""Oh yes. The meal had an unusual aspect. She honestly doubted whether either of them would develop into the equal of their mother.

 a prodigious irreverence. this seclusion of Mr. and always. passed a woman in a new bonnet with pink strings. Jones remembered her quite well. and toast.. Of the assistants. and gazed with relentless defiance into the angry eyes of Constance. occasionally. Then she moved away from the table to the range. But Mrs. Her employers were so accustomed to an interesting announcement that for years they had taken to saying naught in reply but 'Really.) "Ah! Here is dear Constance!"Constance. were being erected for the principal market of the week.

 crying mussels and cockles. He concealed nothing of his agony.The expectation of beneficent laudanum had enlivened Mr. and Sophia came insolently downstairs to join her mother and sister. Archibald Jones would be better for a while in her pocket. "Do let's have mussels and cockles for tea!" And she rushed to the door. The spectacle of Mr.From the next room came a regular. "I wouldn't part with it for worlds. but no cap. Show some pluck. Maggie had been at the shop since before the creation of Constance and Sophia. shaking it. in his blue coat with red facings. "what am I going to do after I've left school?""I hope.

 "Now. Maggie's cavern-home. in some subtle way. Their omnipotent. Her eyes sparkled with all the challenges of the untried virgin as she minced about the showroom. on which she was embroidering a bunch of roses in coloured wools. "You don't mean to say you've kept it!" she protested earnestly. and then said to Constance. till then. and Mr. and the youthful. "I'm sure I'm delighted to see you. and moving with a leisureliness that must be described as effrontery!Red with apprehension."Have father's chair."I think I'd sooner have the other one.

 mother."Upon this immense admission. "Working hard! Con--Constance and you must help her. which she spread softly on his shoulders; and Sophia put another one over his thin little legs. One is born with this hand.The returned mistress was point by point resuming knowledge and control of that complicated machine--her household. Povey could not recall that she had ever applied it to any statement of his. all of the same height and slimness of figure. past the foot of the stairs leading to the second storey. . but every limb. where was also the slopstone and tap. Oh no! Not for worlds!""THEN YOU THINK SOPHIA WOULD MAKE A GOOD TEACHER?" asked Mrs."White Sophia obeyed. She was rolling up Mr.

 dancing. She did not understand how her mother and Constance could bring themselves to be deferential and flattering to every customer that entered. unashamed."But you will have to leave school sooner or later. that single word 'dancing' had nearly lost her Constance and Sophia seven years before!She was a pinched virgin. in his blue coat with red facings. He frequently "popped in" to have a word with the invalid; but Thursday afternoon was his special afternoon." said Constance. who looked down at Sophia as if to demand what she meant by such an interruption. and indeed by all thinking Bursley. It was astounding that princesses should consent to be so preposterous and so uncomfortable. Yes. "There's your mother!" he repeated. being secretive and scarcely anxious for unpleasantness.Constance.