big as a good-sized
walnut; she wore a discarded black skirt of Ruth's, which reached down
to her ankles, a blue blouse, white sailor-hat, and brown shoes. Ruth's
heart contracted with pain when she saw her, and even Mollie felt a pang
of dismay. So shabby, so unkempt, so obviously poverty-stricken! Was
it really possible that Trix had looked like this six weeks before, and
that the sight had caused no consternation?

Plainly Miss Trix was rather pleased than otherwise with her appearance,
and was decidedly patronising to her half-sisters, ordering them about,
and treating them with the lenient forbearance which a busy worker might
be expected to show to two elderly, incapable drones. She interviewed
the porter as to sending home the luggage, and only consented to the
hire of a cab when it was proved to her own satisfaction that the cost
would be about equal. She took Ruth's purse from her hand to tip the
porter, looking at him the while with such a severe and determined air
that his grumbles died upon his lips; finally, she gave the cabman
instructions to stop at a certain shop, where--as she informed her
sisters triumphantly--potatoes could be bought three-halfpence a peck
cheaper than in more fashionable neighbourhoods.

"Good gracious, Trix, you don't mean to take home potatoes in the cab!"
gasped Ruth, fresh from the delightful luxury of the Court, where no one
thought what anything cost, and every luxury of the season appeared of
its own accord upon the table; but Trix smiled at her benignly, and
replied--

"Certainly; two pecks! And any other vegetables I can pick up cheap.
It will help to pay for the cab-fare. Not that you will get any of them
to-night, for we have knocked off late dinner and afternoon-tea, and
have one late tea instead. Cold tongue for you to-night, as you have
had a journey. Mother wanted to have a chicken. The idea! `No,
indeed,' I said; `let them begin as they must go on. Our chicken days
are over!'"

"I think yours are, any way. You seem to have grown into a very old
hen," cried Mollie disconsolately. She looked across the cab at the
businesslike young woman, and wondered if a few weeks of home under the
new conditions would work a similar transformation in herself and Ruth.
It was a comfort to remember that Trix's vocation kept her out of the
house for the greater part of the day, for it would be distinctly trying
to be "bossed" as a permanent thing.

Perhaps Trix's tho