n might do. Hadria had begun her studies at
the School of Music, and found the steady work not only a profound,
though somewhat stern enjoyment, but a solid backbone to her new
existence, giving it cohesion and form. Recreation deserved its name,
after work of this kind. Any lurking danger of too great speculative
restlessness disappeared. There had been a moment when the luxurious joy
of mere wandering observation and absorption, threatened to become
overwhelming, and to loosen some of the rivets of the character.

But work was to the sum-total of impulse what the central weight was to
one of Martha's toys: a leaden ballast that always brought the balance
right again, however wildly the little tyrant might swing the creature
off the perpendicular. When Hadria used to come in, pleasantly tired
with her morning's occupation, and the wholesome heat of the sun, to
take her simple _dejeuner_ in the little apartment with Martha, a
frivolous five minutes would often be spent by the two in endeavouring
to overcome the rigid principles of that well-balanced plaything. But
always the dead weight at its heart frustrated their attempts. Martha
played the most inconsiderate pranks with its centre of gravity, but
quite in vain. When a little French boy from the _etage_ above was
allowed to come and play with Martha, she proceeded to experiment upon
_his_ centre of gravity in the same way, and seemed much surprised when
Jean Paul Auguste not only howled indignantly, but didn't swing up again
after he was overturned. He remained supine, and had to be reinstated by
Hadria and Hannah, and comforted with sweetmeats. Martha's logic
received one of its first checks. She evidently made up her mind that
logic was a fallacious mode of inference, and determined to abandon it
for the future. These rebuffs in infancy, Hadria conjectured, might
account for much!

About three weeks passed in almost pure enjoyment and peace; and then it
was discovered that the cost of living, in spite of an extremely simple
diet, was such as might have provided epicurean luxuries for a family of
ten. Hadria's enquiries among her acquaintances elicited cries of
consternation. Obviously the landlady, who did the marketing, must be
cheating on a royal scale, and there was nothing for it but to move.
Hadria suggested to Madame Vauchelet, whose advice she always sought in
practical matters, that perhaps the landlady might be induced to pursue
her lucrative art in moder