t of sharing the kitchen with Sukey," she said; "but she won't
stand any disarrangement of her habits, so there was nothing but the
table, and if you think that it isn't worth that small discomfort for
the sake of having you two bright young things about the house, and the
neighbours remarking on you and wondering how I am managing, and I with
fifteen shillings a week to the good in my pocket, why, you don't know
your mother, Florence Aylmer."

"Well, Mummy, and what was that thought you said you had in the back of
your head?" continued Florence.

"Oh, that," said Mrs. Aylmer--here she looked at both girls. "I wonder,
Kitty Sharston," she said, "if you can keep a secret?"

"Try me, Mrs. Aylmer," replied Kitty.

"Well, I was thinking things over in the night, and it struck me that
the very best possible way to punish my sister-in-law, Susan Aylmer, and
have everything that was wrong put right, is for you, Florence, to
secure the young man, Maurice Trevor, as your husband."

"Oh, mother, how can you talk such nonsense?" said Florence. "As if I
would," she added, jumping to her feet and shaking the crumbs from her
dress.

"There," said Mrs. Aylmer, "that's just like you. I have been planning
it all. You have but to show the fascinations which all women ought to
possess, and you will soon twist him round your little finger."

"I could never, never think of it, mother; and I am distressed that you
should say it, and more particularly before Kitty," was Florence's
answer.

Mrs. Aylmer laughed.

"Girls always say that," she remarked, "but in the end they yield to the
inevitable. It would be a splendid _coup_; it would serve her right.
She would be forced to have you living with her after all. I am told she
has made the young man the heir of all she possesses, and--but what is
the matter, my dear?"

"I really won't listen to another word," cried Florence, and she jumped
up and ran out of the room.

Mrs. Aylmer's eyes now filled with tears. She looked full at Kitty.

"I don't know what is the matter with Florence," she said. "I had hoped
that that dreadful thing which happened years ago had subdued her spirit
and tamed her a trifle, but she seems just as obdurate as ever. It was
such a beautiful idea, and it came over me in the night, and I thought I
would tell Florence at once, and we might put our heads together and
contrive a means by which the young folks could meet; but if she takes
it up in that dreadful spi