fiber was so strong that it stood out above his lip like wire.
One expected it to crackle when he touched it, but it never did.

XI

When Mrs. Makebelieve came home that night she seemed very tired, and
complained that her work at Mrs. O'Connor's house was arduous beyond
any which she has yet engaged in. She enumerated the many rooms that
were in the house: those that were covered with carpets, the margins
whereof had to be beeswaxed: those others, only partially covered with
rugs, which had to be entirely waxed: the upper rooms were uncarpeted
and unrugged, and had, therefore, to be scrubbed: the basement,
consisting of two red-flagged kitchens and a scullery, had also to be
scoured out. The lady was very particular about the scouring of
wainscotings and doors. The upper part of the staircase was bare and
had to be scrubbed down, and the part down to the hall had a thin
strip of carpet on it secured by brazen rods; the margins on either
side of this carpet had to be beeswaxed and the brass rods polished.
There was a great deal of unnecessary and vexatious brass of one kind
or another scattered about the house, and as there were four children
in the family, besides Mrs. O'Connor and her two sisters, the amount
of washing which had constantly to be done was enormous and terrifying.

During their tea Mrs. Makebelieve called to mind the different
ornaments which stood on the parlor mantelpiece and on the top of the
piano. There was a china shepherdess with a basket of flowers at one
end of the mantelpiece and an exact duplicate on the other. In the
center a big clock of speckled marble was surmounted by a little domed
edifice with Corinthian pillars in front, and this again was topped by
the figure of an archer with a bent bow--there was nothing on top of
this figure because there was not any room. Between each of these
articles there stood little framed photographs of members of Mrs.
O'Connor's family, and behind all there was a carved looking-glass
with beveled edges having many shelves. Each shelf had a cup or a
saucer or a china bowl on it. On the left-hand side of the fireplace
there was a plaque whereon a young lady dressed in a sky-blue robe
crossed by means of well-defined stepping-stones a thin but furious
stream; the middle distance was embellished by a cow, and the horizon
sustained two white lambs, a brown dog, a fountain and a sun-dial. On
the right-hand side a young gentleman clad in a crimson coat