'Oh, they think a lot of you! They were rather nervous about doing
anything at first, for fear you mightn't like it; but I told them they
needn't be afraid. "What I like, Ella will like," I said; and, I must
say, no one could wish to see a prettier drawing-room than they've
turned it into--they've a good deal of taste, those two girls.'

Ella stood there in a kind of dreary dream. What had happened to the
world since she came into this house? What was this change in her? She
was afraid to speak, lest the intense rebellious anger she felt should
gain the mastery. Was it she that had these wicked thoughts of
George--poor, kind, unsuspecting, loving George? She felt a little
faint, for the windows were closed and the room stuffy with the odour of
the new furniture and the atmosphere of the workshop; everything here
seemed to her commonplace and repulsive.

'How about those plans of yours now, Ella, eh?' cried George.

This was too much; her overtried patience broke down. 'George!' she
cried impulsively, and her voice sounded hoarse and strange to her own
ear; 'George! I must speak--I must tell you!----' and then she checked
herself. She must keep command of herself, or she could not, without
utter loss of dignity, find the words that were to sting him into a
sense of what he had done and allowed to be done. Before she could go
on, George had drawn her to him, and was patting her shoulder tenderly.
'I know, dear little girl,' he said, 'I know; don't try to tell me
anything. I'm so awfully glad you're pleased; but all the money and
pains in the world wouldn't make the place good enough for my Ella!'

She released herself with a little cry of impotent despair. How could
she say the sharp, cruel speeches that were struggling to reach her
tongue now? It was no use; she was a coward; she simply had not the
courage to undeceive him here, on the very first day of their reunion,
too!

'You haven't been upstairs yet,' said George, dropping sentiment
abruptly; 'shall we go up?'

Ella assented submissively, much as even this cost her; but it was
better, she reflected, to get it over and know the very worst. However,
she was spared this ordeal for the present; as they returned to the
hall, they found themselves suddenly face to face with a dingy man,
whose face was surrounded by a fringe of black whiskers and crowned by a
shock of fleecy hair.

'Who on earth are you?' demanded George, as the man rose from the
kitchen-stairs.