al is
supper and tea combined.

If you tot all this up, you will find it has now reached the not
inconsiderable sum of fifteen shillings and tenpence. This is how the
rich person like Celia lives. There still remains a balance of four
shillings and twopence to be expended on clothing, bus fares, insurance
and amusement. Quite an adequate--indeed, an ample sum. At any rate, it
seemed so to Celia, who, at present, was well set up with clothes, and
found sufficient amusement in the novelty of her life and her
surroundings; for, only a few months back, she had been living in
comfort and middle-class luxury, with a larger sum for pocket-money than
had now to suffice for the necessaries of existence.

The kettle was boiling, she set the tea; and while she was arranging in
a vase--"Given away with every half-pound of our choice Congo!"--the
penny bunch of violets which she had been unable to resist, her lips
were moving to the strains of the hackneyed but ever beautiful
intermezzo in "Cavalleria Rusticana," which floated up from the room
immediately underneath hers; but as she drew her chair up to the fire,
the music of the violin ceased, and presently she heard footsteps
ascending the stairs slowly. There came a knock at the door, and she
opened it to an old man with a frame so attenuated that it appeared to
be absolutely fleshless. His hair was white and almost touching his
shoulders, and his face so colourless and immobile that it looked as if
it were composed of wax; but the dark eyes under the white, shaggy brows
were full of life, and piercing.

"Oh, good evening, Mr. Clendon!" said Celia, in the tone a woman uses
when she is really pleased, and not affecting to be pleased, at the
advent of a visitor. "Come in."

"Thank you, Miss Grant," said the old man, in a peculiar voice that was
quite low and yet strangely vibrant, like the note of a muted violin. "I
have come to ask you if you could oblige me with a couple of pieces of
sugar. I have run out, and somehow--one has one's foolish weaknesses--I
dislike my tea without sugar."

"Why of course," said Celia, with a touch of eagerness. "But--but won't
you come in and have your tea with me?"

The old man shook his head; but his eyes, taking in the comfort of the
tiny, fire-lit room, the aspect of home, grew wistful; besides, there
was a note of entreaty in the invitation; and "Thank you," he said,
simply.

With a nod of satisfaction Celia insisted upon his taking the