ter so
signed, announcing that, subject to a variety of fulfilments--among
which the Will of God had quite a conspicuous place--she and her
son would make their appearance next Monday, as our text has already
hinted. On which day the immature legs of Miss Gwendolen Arkwright
were to be released from a seclusion by which some religious object,
undefined, had been attained the day before.

But the conditions which had to be complied with by the lodgings it
would be possible for this lady to occupy were such as have rarely
been complied with, even in houses built specially to meet their
requirements. Each window had to confront, not a particular quarter,
but a particular ninetieth, of the compass. A full view of the sea
had to be achieved from a sitting-room not exposed to its glare, an
attribute destructive of human eyesight, and fraught with curious
effects on the nerves. But the bedrooms had to look in directions
foreign to human experience--directions from which no wind ever came
at night. A house of which every story rotated on an independent
vertical axis might have answered--nothing else would. Even then space
would have called for modification, and astronomy and meteorology
would have had to be patched up. Then with regard to the different
levels of the floors, concession was implied to "a flat"; but,
stairways granted, the risers were to be at zero, and the treads at
boiling-point--a strained simile! As to cookery, the services of a
_chef_ with great powers of self-subordination seemed to be pointed
at, a _cordon-bleu_ ready to work in harness. Hygienic precautions,
such as might have been insisted on by an Athanasian sanitary
inspector on the premises of an Arian householder, were made a
_sine qua non_. Freedom from vibration from vehicles was so firmly
stipulated for that nothing short of a balloon from Shepherd's Bush
could possibly have met the case. The only relaxation in favour of
the possible was a diseased readiness to accept shakedowns, sandwiches
standing, cuts off the cold mutton, and snacks generally on behalf
of her son.

Mrs. Iggulden, who was empty both sets on Monday, didn't answer in any
one particular to any of these requisitions. But a spirit of overgrown
compromise crept in, making a sufficient number of reasons why no one
of them could be complied with an equivalent of compliance itself.
Only in respect of certain racks and tortures for the doctor was Mrs.
Iggulden induced to lend herself t