Bradshaw, and an odd volume of
Plumridge's Commentary on Thessalonians. There were--but I cannot
dwell longer on this painful picture. It was indeed, as Jane said, very
different.

'Let's have a palaver,' said Anthea again.

'What about?' said Cyril, yawning.

'There's nothing to have ANYTHING about,' said Robert kicking the leg of
the table miserably.

'I don't want to play,' said Jane, and her tone was grumpy.

Anthea tried very hard not to be cross. She succeeded.

'Look here,' she said, 'don't think I want to be preachy or a beast in
any way, but I want to what Father calls define the situation. Do you
agree?'

'Fire ahead,' said Cyril without enthusiasm.

'Well then. We all know the reason we're staying here is because Nurse
couldn't leave her house on account of the poor learned gentleman on the
top-floor. And there was no one else Father could entrust to take care
of us--and you know it's taken a lot of money, Mother's going to Madeira
to be made well.'

Jane sniffed miserably.

'Yes, I know,' said Anthea in a hurry, 'but don't let's think about how
horrid it all is. I mean we can't go to things that cost a lot, but we
must do SOMETHING. And I know there are heaps of things you can see in
London without paying for them, and I thought we'd go and see them. We
are all quite old now, and we haven't got The Lamb--'

Jane sniffed harder than before.

'I mean no one can say "No" because of him, dear pet. And I thought
we MUST get Nurse to see how quite old we are, and let us go out by
ourselves, or else we shall never have any sort of a time at all. And I
vote we see everything there is, and let's begin by asking Nurse to give
us some bits of bread and we'll go to St James's Park. There are ducks
there, I know, we can feed them. Only we must make Nurse let us go by
ourselves.'

'Hurrah for liberty!' said Robert, 'but she won't.'

'Yes she will,' said Jane unexpectedly. '_I_ thought about that this
morning, and I asked Father, and he said yes; and what's more he told
old Nurse we might, only he said we must always say where we wanted to
go, and if it was right she would let us.'

'Three cheers for thoughtful Jane,' cried Cyril, now roused at last from
his yawning despair. 'I say, let's go now.'

So they went, old Nurse only begging them to be careful of crossings,
and to ask a policeman to assist in the more difficult cases. But they
were used to crossings, for they had lived in Camden Town and kne