mpty
bottles and people all around thinking you've opened a shooting-gallery,
I should say."

"Now don't go on," said Charlie, "because I want to have a lay down, so
you can just settle as you like."

It was Sunday afternoon and no problems of future arrangements were
serious enough to interrupt a lifelong habit.

"It's no good talking to him," said Jenny scornfully; "what we've got to
do is give notice sharp. I hate this house now," she added, savagely
appraising the walls.

So it was settled that after so many years the Raeburns should leave
Hagworth Street. Charlie made no more attempts to contest the decision,
and acquiesced almost cheerfully when he suddenly reflected that
public-houses were always handy wherever anyone went. "Though, for all
that," he added, "I shall miss the old 'Arms.'"

"Fancy," said Jenny, "who'd have thought it?"

On the following Sunday afternoon Mr. Corin, the remaining lodger, came
down to interview his hostesses.

"I hear you're leaving then, Miss Raeburn," he said. "How's that?"

"It's too hard work for my sister," Jenny answered very politely. "And
besides, she don't care for it, and nor don't I."

"Well, I'm going home along myself in November month, I believe, or I
should have been sorry to leave you. What I come down to ask about was
whether you'd let a bedroom to a friend of mine who's coming up from
Cornwall on some law business in connection with some evidence over a
right of way or something. A proper old mix up, I believe it is. But I
don't suppose they'll keep him more than a week, and he could use my
sitting-room."

Jenny looked at May.

"Yes, of course, let him come," said the housewife. "But when will it
be?"

"October month, I believe," said Mr. Corin. "That's when the witnesses
are called for."

Everything seemed to happen in October, Jenny thought. In October she
would be twenty-two. How time was flying, flying with age creeping on
fast. In the dreariness of life's prospect, even the arrival of Mr.
Corin's friend acquired the importance of an expected event, and, though
neither of the sisters broke through custom so far as to discuss him
beforehand, the coming of Mr. Corin's friend served as a landmark in the
calendar like Whitsuntide or Easter. Meanwhile, Mr. Raeburn, as if aware
of the little time left in which the "Masonic Arms" could be enjoyed,
drank more and more as the weeks jogged by.

Summer gales marked the approach of autumn, and in the gusty