pans or fireirons before breakfast. Her main discomfort
came of the feeling that she no longer had a house of her own; nothing
about her seemed to be her property with the exception of her old
kitchen clock, and one or two articles she could not have borne to part
with. From being a rather talkative woman she had become very reticent;
she went about uneasily, with a look of suspicion or of fear. Her
children she no longer ventured to command; the secret of their wealth
weighed upon her, she was in constant dread on their behalf. It is a
bad thing for one such as Mrs. Mutimer to be thrown back upon herself in
novel circumstances, and practically debarred from the only relief
which will avail her--free discussion with her own kind. The result is
a species of shock to the system, sure to manifest itself before long in
one or other form of debility.

Alice seated herself at the piano, and began a finger exercise,
laboriously, imperfectly. For the first week or two it had given her
vast satisfaction to be learning the piano; what more certain sign
of having achieved ladyhood? It pleased her to assume airs with her
teacher--a very deferential lady--to put off a lesson for a fit of
languidness; to let it be understood how entirely time was at her
command. Now she was growing rather weary of flats and sharps, and much
preferred to read of persons to whom the same nomenclature was very
applicable in the books she obtained from a circulating library. Her
reading had hitherto been confined to the fiction of the penny papers;
to procure her pleasure in three gaily-bound volumes was another
evidence of rise in the social scale; it was like ordering your wine by
the dozen after being accustomed to a poor chance bottle now and then.
At present Alice spent the greater part of her day floating on the
gentle milky stream of English romance. Her brother was made a little
uneasy by this taste; he had not studied the literature in question.

At half-past six a loud knock at the front door announced the expected
visitor. Alice turned from the piano, and looked at her brother
apprehensively. Richard rose, and established himself on the hearthrug,
his hands behind him.

'What are you going to say to him, Dick?' Alice asked hurriedly.

'He says he wants to know me. I shall say, "Here I am."'

There were voices outside. 'Arry had opened the door himself, and now he
ushered his acquaintance into the drawing-room. Mr. Keene proved to be
a man