s ...

"Pack of lies!" thought Lily.

And pages of "Wanted ... Wanted ..."

Lily ran her eye down the columns: artistes' boarding-houses,
_costumiers_, scene-painters, dancing-schools, every town, every theater.
Hullo!--she had turned the page--Tom, the dancer--Hullo! At Milan!

"Bravo, Tom!"

Jimmy at the Hippodrome next week; private address, Whitcomb Mansions.

"Pooh, he's well off! What's fifty pounds to him?"

Hullo! Miss Lily--Berlin--Permanent address, Rathbone Place, London, W.

"Well done, Pa! Serve him right, the tramp cyclist!" said Lily, throwing
down the paper and jumping out of bed.

Quite a business, her toilet. She was two hours titivating herself. She
wanted Pa and Ma to be proud of her, of her successes on the continent.
And, when the apprentices came in from practice, you should have seen her
walk into the dining-room. A little air of simplicity, her forehead put
out for her delighted Pa to kiss, hands all round--"Hullo, girls! Hullo,
Daisy!" And she sat down like a lady accustomed to smart restaurants, who
does not despise dinner at home, however, with a boiled leg of mutton to
recruit her inside after those champagne suppers, those truffled
pheasants, that damned continental cooking! She accepted everything, and
thought it all very nice, simple life, simple joys, the only ones!

She set a good example to the new apprentices, who eyed her stealthily,
instead of eating, for Miss Lily's presence turned their heads entirely.
My! A star like that, a real one! Lily Clifton, the New Zealander on
Wheels! And dressed ... dressed like a lady in the front boxes! Cousin
Daisy was green with jealousy. Lily talked of her travels, her successes
and the crossing, gee! Waves "miles high," the boat standing on end! Glass
Eye Maud devoured her with her one eye, screwed up her fat red cheeks in a
fixed and motionless laugh, scared before Lily, who came from over the
sea, from countries where savages live. Glass-Eye, in her perturbation,
served Lily first. Pa made no objection, asked Lily's permission to light
his pipe: was she sure she didn't mind smoke? Lord, you never knew, with
those ladies! He swelled with pride. If it had been Christmas-time, he
would have ordered a pudding, my, a real wedding-cake three feet across!
His ideas of grandeur returned, his triumphal tour round the world, the
definite extermination of the fat freaks ... if Lily remained with him
...

After dinner, the apprentices retired, t