er own way in the house--her bedroom was no longer a
compulsory bower of roses, but softly cream-coloured and purple-hung.
She had persuaded Joanna to have a bathroom fitted up, with hot and cold
water and other glories, and though she had been unable to induce her to
banish her father's Bible and the stuffed owls from the parlour, she had
been allowed to supplement--and practically annihilate--them with the
notorious black cushions from Donkey Street. Joanna was a little proud
to have these famous decorations on the premises, to be indoors what her
yellow waggons were outdoors, symbols of daring and progress.

On the whole, this substantial house, with its wide lands, respectable
furniture and swarming servants, was one to be proud of. Ellen's
position as Squire Joanna Godden's sister was much better than if she
were living by herself in some small place on a small income. Her brief
adventure into what she thought was a life of fashionable gaiety had
discouraged and disillusioned her--she was slowly slipping back into the
conventions of her class and surroundings. Ansdore was no longer either
a prison or a refuge, it was beginning to be a home--not permanent, of
course, for she was now a free woman and would marry again, but a good
home to rest in and re-establish herself.

Thanks to Ellen's contrivance and to the progress of Joanna's own
ambition--rising out of its fulfilment in the sphere of the material
into the sphere of style and manners--the sisters now lived the lives of
two well-to-do ladies. They had late dinner every night--only soup and
meat and pudding, still definitely neither supper nor high tea. Joanna
changed for it into smart, stiff silk blouses, with a great deal of lace
and guipure about them, while Ellen wore a rest-gown of drifting black
charmeuse. Mene Tekel was promoted from the dairy to be Ansdore's first
parlourmaid, and wore a cap and apron, and waited at table. Ellen would
have liked to keep Mene Tekel in her place and engage a smart town
girl, whose hands were not the colour of beetroots and whose breathing
could not be heard through a closed door; but Joanna stood firm--Mene
had been her faithful servant for more than seven years, and it wasn't
right that she should have a girl from the town promoted over her.
Besides, Joanna did not like town girls--with town speech that rebuked
her own, and white hands that made her want to put her own large brown
ones under the table.

Sec.3

E