performed for the
cobbler.

"It wasn't, not to say very dirty," she said; "but you'll have to do it
yourself next time, Uncle Joshua."

When she got back to the cottage, she felt a little comforted by the
cobbler's words, although he had not fallen in with her plan. What
could she do at once, she wondered, that would please her mother? She
looked round the room. It had a forlorn appearance. The doorstep,
trodden by so many feet lately, was muddy, there was dust on the
furniture, and the floor had not been swept for days. Mother certainly
would not like that, and Lilac felt she could not leave it so another
minute. With new energy she seized broom, brushes, and pail and went to
work, going carefully into all the corners, and doing everything just as
she had been taught. Very soon it all looked like itself again, bright
and orderly, and with a sigh of satisfaction she went upstairs to put
herself "straight" before her aunt came.

When there another idea struck her, for the moment she looked at the
glass she remembered how Mother had hated the fringe. Surely she could
brush it back now that her hair had grown longer. No, brush as hard as
she would it fell obstinately over her forehead again. But Lilac was
not to be conquered. She scraped it back once more, and tied a piece of
ribbon firmly round her head; then she nodded triumphantly at herself in
the glass. It was ugly, but anyhow it was neat.

She had just finished this arrangement when a noise in the room below
warned her of Mrs Greenways' approach, and running downstairs she found
her seated breathless in the high-backed chair. One foot was stretched
out appealingly in front of her, and she was so fatigued that at first
she could only nod speechlessly at Lilac.

"I'm fairly spent," she said at last, "with that terr'ble hill. I can't
wonder myself that your poor mother was taken so sudden with her heart,
though she was always a spare figure."

Lilac said nothing; the old feeling came back to her that it was someone
else and not Mother who was spoken of.

Mrs Greenways looked thoughtfully round the room; her eye rested on
each piece of furniture in turn. "They're good solid things, and well
kept," she said. "I will say for Mary White as she knew how to keep her
things. We can do with a good many of 'em at the farm," she went on
after a pause; "but I don't want to be cluttered up with furniture, and
the rest we must sell as it stands."

Lilac's