they would be
talking till the cock crowed hoarse.

"There's a poultry-yard close to us?" said Rhoda; feeling less at home
when she heard that there was not.

The night was quiet and clear. She leaned her head out of the window, and
heard the mellow Sunday evening roar of the city as of a sea at ebb. And
Dahlia was out on the sea. Rhoda thought of it as she looked at the row
of lamps, and listened to the noise remote, until the sight of stars was
pleasant as the faces of friends. "People are kind here," she reflected,
for her short experience of the landlady was good, and a young gentleman
who had hailed a cab for her at the station, had a nice voice. He was
fair. "I am dark," came a spontaneous reflection. She undressed, and half
dozing over her beating heart in bed, heard the street door open, and
leaped to think that her sister approached, jumping up in her bed to give
ear to the door and the stairs, that were conducting her joy to her: but
she quickly recomposed herself, and feigned sleep, for the delight of
revelling in her sister's first wonderment. The door was flung wide, and
Rhoda heard her name called by Dahlia's voice, and then there was a
delicious silence, and she felt that Dahlia was coming up to her on
tiptoe, and waited for her head to be stooped near, that she might fling
out her arms, and draw the dear head to her bosom. But Dahlia came only
to the bedside, without leaning over, and spoke of her looks, which held
the girl quiet.

"How she sleeps! It's a country sleep!" Dahlia murmured. "She's changed,
but it's all for the better. She's quite a woman; she's a perfect
brunette; and the nose I used to laugh at suits her face and those black,
thick eyebrows of hers; my pet! Oh, why is she here? What's meant by it?
I knew nothing of her coming. Is she sent on purpose?"

Rhoda did not stir. The tone of Dahlia's speaking, low and almost awful
to her, laid a flat hand on her, and kept her still.

"I came for my Bible," she heard Dahlia say. "I promised mother--oh, my
poor darling mother! And Dody lying in my bed! Who would have thought of
such things? Perhaps heaven does look after us and interfere. What will
become of me? Oh, you pretty innocent in your sleep! I lie for hours, and
can't sleep. She binds her hair in a knot on the pillow, just as she used
to in the old farm days!"

Rhoda knew that her sister was bending over her now, but she was almost
frigid, and could not move.

Dahlia went to the lo