of whom the family is proud
without daring to acknowledge him.

It fell to Gertie's lot to enlighten Victoria further on the current
outlook of life. It came about in this way. One Saturday afternoon
Victoria and Bella were alone on duty upstairs, for the serving of lunch
is then at a low ebb; the City makes a desperate effort to reach the
edge of the world to lunch peacefully and cheaply in its homes and
lodgings. Lottie and Gertie were taking the smoking room below.

It was nearly three o'clock. At one of the larger tables sat two men,
both almost through with their lunch. The elder of the two, a stout,
cheery-looking man, pushed away his cup, slipped two pennies under the
saucer and, taking up his bill, which Victoria had made out when she
gave him his coffee, went up to the cash desk. The other man, a
pale-faced youth in a blue suit, sat before his half emptied cup. His
hand passed nervously round his chin as he surveyed the room; his was
rather the face of a ferret, with a long upper lip, watery blue eyes,
and a weak chin. His forehead sloped a little and was decorated with
many pimples.

Victoria passed him quickly, caught up the stout man, entered the cash
desk and took his bill. He turned in the doorway.

'Well, Vic,' he said, 'when are we going to be married?'

'29th of February, if it's not a leap year,' she laughed.

'Too bad, too bad,' said the stout man, looking back from the open door
out of which he had already passed, 'you're the third girl who's said
that to me in a fortnight.'

'Serve you right,' said Victoria, looking into the mirror opposite,
'you're as bad as Henry the . . . .'

The door closed. Victoria did not finish her sentence. Her eyes were
glued to the mirror. In it she could only see a young man with a thin
face, decorated with many pimples, hurriedly gulping down the remains of
his cup of coffee. But a second before then she had seen something which
made her fetch a quick breath. The young man had looked round, marked
that her head was turned away; he had thrown a quick glance to the right
and the left, to the counter which Bella had left for a moment to go
into the kitchen; then his hand had shot out and, with a quick movement,
he had seized the stout man's pennies and slipped them under his own
saucer.

The young man got up. Victoria came up to him and made out his bill. He
took it without a word and paid it at the desk, Victoria taking his
money.

'Well, he didn't steal it,