o match.

The furniture was white enamel, and both the big chairs in the room had
a brilliant cushion of peacock green.

"It looks--uncommon," so Faith had said slowly, when she was first
introduced to the finished result, but neither she nor the Beggar Man
really liked it, as Peg had been quick to perceive.

"At any rate, I've got to sleep in it, and nobody else," she said in
defiance.

"And she ought to have nightmare every night," so Forrester remarked
afterwards rather grimly to his wife. "Good gracious, what taste! It
shouts at one!"

Faith had defended Peg then, but she knew he was right, and she
understood quite well now what Peg meant when she said she knew that she
did not belong to the house.

"But it's all nonsense," she declared warmly. "I love you. I should hate
the house without you."

Peg stooped and kissed her gratefully.

"You're a nice little kid," she said with a sigh. "But--it's true all
the same what I say. I don't belong. If I wasn't here you'd be living
quite a different life, you and Mr. Forrester. He'd be asking his
friends to the house, and you'd be giving dinner-parties. But you don't
because I'm here, and he's afraid I shall shock them."

"As if it matters what he's afraid of," Faith said sharply, but in her
heart she knew that Peg was right; knew that, no matter how good and
warm-hearted she might be, Peg grated on the Beggar Man forty times a
day.

Over and over again Faith had seen him frown and turn away at one of
Peg's slangy terms, just as she had seen him frown that day when she had
told him that the facts of her marriage were like a novelette, and she
had substituted "fairy story" instead.

Odd that then she had been so willing and anxious to please him, and
that now she never considered him at all.

Peg seemed to guess something of her thoughts, for she caught her by the
arm, twisting her round so that they were face to face.

"Look here," she said. "How long's it going on like this?"

The bright colour rushed to Faith's cheeks.

"What do you mean?"

"You know quite well what I mean," Peg said bluntly. "I mean how long is
that husband of yours going to go on calmly paying out for you and me to
live here, and have everything we want in the world, and get nothing in
return? He's soft to do it, that's what I think. Either soft or an
angel," she added. "And, after all, that's pretty much the same thing,
isn't it?"

Faith laughed nervously.

"You do say such queer