e
would have thought that these girls of seventeen to twenty were South Sea
pirates, talking of hangings and tortures, or, rather, children playing at
frightening one another. Lily, for instance, in India: two eyes glaring at
her in the dark, gee! And, in New York, a fall into a mirror; all over
blood; half dead. She grew excited, in her desire to outdo Laurence and
Crack-o'-Whip: the steel-buckled belt, the kicks in the ribs! Stories of
brutal treatment picked up on every side--from the Gilson girl, from Ave
Maria, from all the boys and all the girls and all the monkeys who had
been through the mill--she made every one of them her own, served them up
hot and hot to the astounded Graces, talked of whole days spent in
practising on rough, uneven boards--"And given no food, was I,
Glass-Eye?"--so much so that she would sometimes get up in the night and
go and pick up the crusts under the table, gee! Lily reveled in the
pitying expressions of the Three Graces and her heart swelled with pride
when Thea, greatly touched, remarked that, in such cases, it would have
been better not to be born.

"You're quite right," said Lily, with a drooping air; but she burst into a
peal of fresh, young laughter when she saw Glass-Eye overcome with
emotion. "What's that?" asked Lily, giving her a thump in the ribs.
"Crying? You silly cuckoo!"

If it hadn't been for her Ma's insults and Jimmy's and Trampy's--when it
all came back to her, it was like a needle stuck in her heart!--Lily would
have been in the seventh heaven! No more Pa, no more Ma, no more anybody;
no boss, no prof, no husband, nothing, all alone ... with her maid!
Certainly, there would be the worry of business, looking for her "digs,"
seeing the agents, writing letters and so on; but she would know how to
put herself forward, how to make the most of her work; and she smiled as
she reflected how little all those worries meant, compared with her past
life: and she would be free, free, free at last. She was going to earn
money, to enjoy life.

And the train rushed on, rushed on through the fields. Glass-Eye, with her
nose glued to the window, was astonished to find everything so large
outside of London: red villages decked the green country-side; and then
came empty railway stations. Sometimes the train slowed down:--a large
silent town lay spread in the valley, white smoke rose from the endless
roofs; homes, more homes; the air of rest, the empty streets and the
indistinct ch