the corner where there is a square inset--or
outset--in which they crack stones with a hammer to mend the bad
places, I slackened a little. There was such an interesting piece in
the French grammar--all about the rules for the conversational use of
"en" and "y"--that I went a bit slower, just to make it out. The sense
was difficult to follow, you know.

Besides, I heard a noise like the sound of footsteps behind me. I knew
that it could only be that donkey Joe, broke loose from his rookery;
so, of course, I did not turn round, nor make the least sign. Why
should I, indeed? I am not Harriet Caw.

But I heard a voice, which I knew in a minute was not Joe's, calling
out--

"Miss Stennis! Miss Stennis!"

That made me turn, as, of course, it would any one, just to see who it
could be.

And it was Miss Orrin--the elder one they call Aphra. You never saw
such a change in any woman. She looked like a minister's widow, or
some one of good family, living quietly and dressed in mourning. She
had a black dress--fine silk, it was, quite real--of an old fashion,
certainly, but no more so than you see at hydropathics and other places
to which old solitary ladies come for the purpose of talking over their
infirmities with one another. I was once at the Clifton one with
mother--oh, so long ago, before leaving Wood Green! But I seem to
remember these times better than things more recent. I really can't
help telling about it, though I am wasting my paper, I know. I used to
think there was nothing funnier in the world than to see two very deaf
old ladies, neither taking the trouble to listen to the other,
lecturing away to each other--only agreeing with the nods of each
other's head. One would be talking about the Primrose League at her
native Pudley-in-the-Hole, and the other--the learned one--about the
internal state of South Nigeria, as illustrated by the fact that her
grandson had not seen an ordained clergyman for four years!

"Think what his spiritual condition must be by this time, my dear!
Such things ought not to be allowed in a Christian country, under the
flag of England!"

"No, indeed," agreed the other, who had not heard a word. "Of course,
it was all the doing of that Gladstone. Even one of the lecturers who
came to speak to us, he was all for work among the lower classes. As
if we could admit the like of them into our League--people who have
strikes, wear red ties, and read Socialist papers! Really