ble. Let's be weak--be weak, Jug.
It's much nicer to be weak than to be strong."

And then she did one of those amazingly bold things that she'd done
about twice before in their lives: she marched over to the wardrobe,
turned the key, and took it out of the lock. Took it out of the lock and
held it up to Josephine, showing Josephine by her extraordinary smile
that she knew what she'd done--she'd risked deliberately father being in
there among his overcoats.

If the huge wardrobe had lurched forward, had crashed down on
Constantia, Josephine wouldn't have been surprised. On the contrary,
she would have thought it the only suitable thing to happen. But nothing
happened. Only the room seemed quieter than ever, and the bigger flakes
of cold air fell on Josephine's shoulders and knees. She began to
shiver.

"Come, Jug," said Constantia, still with that awful callous smile, and
Josephine followed just as she had that last time, when Constantia had
pushed Benny into the round pond.

Chapter 3.VII.

But the strain told on them when they were back in the dining-room. They
sat down, very shaky, and looked at each other.

"I don't feel I can settle to anything," said Josephine, "until I've had
something. Do you think we could ask Kate for two cups of hot water?"

"I really don't see why we shouldn't," said Constantia carefully. She
was quite normal again. "I won't ring. I'll go to the kitchen door and
ask her."

"Yes, do," said Josephine, sinking down into a chair. "Tell her, just
two cups, Con, nothing else--on a tray."

"She needn't even put the jug on, need she?" said Constantia, as though
Kate might very well complain if the jug had been there.

"Oh no, certainly not! The jug's not at all necessary. She can pour
it direct out of the kettle," cried Josephine, feeling that would be a
labour-saving indeed.

Their cold lips quivered at the greenish brims. Josephine curved her
small red hands round the cup; Constantia sat up and blew on the wavy
steam, making it flutter from one side to the other.

"Speaking of Benny," said Josephine.

And though Benny hadn't been mentioned Constantia immediately looked as
though he had.

"He'll expect us to send him something of father's, of course. But it's
so difficult to know what to send to Ceylon."

"You mean things get unstuck so on the voyage," murmured Constantia.

"No, lost," said Josephine sharply. "You know there's no post. Only
runners."

Both paused to watch a