ind that Phoebe, who was a delicate eater, had pushed her plate away
scarcely touched, while Lady Ella sat at the end of the table in a state
of dangerous calm, framing comments for delivering downstairs that would
be sure to sting and yet leave no opening for repartee, and trying at
the same time to believe that a third cook, if the chances were risked
again, would certainly be "all right."

The drawing-room was papered with a morose wallpaper that the landlord,
in view of the fact that Scrope in his optimism would only take the
house on a yearly agreement, had refused to replace; it was a design of
very dark green leaves and grey gothic arches; and the apartment was lit
by a chandelier, which spilt a pool of light in the centre of the room
and splashed useless weak patches elsewhere. Lady Ella had to interfere
to prevent the monopolization of this centre by Phoebe and Daphne for
their home work. This light trouble was difficult to arrange; the plain
truth was that there was not enough illumination to go round. In the
Princhester drawing-room there had been a number of obliging little
electric pushes. The size of the dining-room, now that the study was
cut off from it, forbade hospitality. As it was, with only the family at
home, the housemaid made it a grievance that she could scarcely squeeze
by on the sideboard side to wait.

The house vibrated to the trains in the adjacent underground railway.
There was a lady next door but one who was very pluckily training a
contralto voice that most people would have gladly thrown away. At the
end of Restharrow Street was a garage, and a yard where chauffeurs were
accustomed to "tune up" their engines. All these facts were persistently
audible to any one sitting down in the little back study to think out
this project of "writing something," about a change in the government of
the whole world. Petty inconveniences no doubt all these inconveniences
were, but they distressed a rather oversensitive mind which was also
acutely aware that even upon this scale living would cost certainly two
hundred and fifty pounds if not more in excess of the little private
income available.

(5)

These domestic details, irrelevant as they may seem in a spiritual
history, need to be given because they added an intimate keenness
to Scrope's readiness for this private chapel enterprise that he was
discussing with Lady Sunderbund. Along that line and along that line
alone, he saw the way of esca