nd the two ladies.

The widow walked nervously up the room and then stood confronting her
sister-in-law. The elder Mrs. Aylmer had just risen from a sofa on
which she had been lying. Mrs. Aylmer the less was quite right in
prophesying her sister-in-law would be a large woman in the future; she
was a large woman now, stoutly built and very fat about the face. Her
face was pasty in complexion without a scrap of color in it, and her
eyes were of too light a blue to redeem the general insipidity of her
appearance; but when she spoke that insipidity vanished, for her lips
were very firm, and were apt to utter incisive words, and at such
moments her pale blue eyes would flash with a light fire which was full
of sarcasm, and might even rise to positive cruelty.

"Sit down, Mabel," she said to Mrs. Aylmer. "Now Florence, I wish to
say a few words to you. You will have tea with me, of course, Mabel,
you and your daughter."

"Thank you very much indeed, Susan," said Mrs. Aylmer the less. "It
will be a real treat," she added _sotto voce_, but loud enough for her
sister-in-law to hear.

"H'm! I have tea at four o'clock," said Mrs. Aylmer the great; "I will
just ring the bell and give orders; then we shall have time for a nice
comfortable conversation. My dear," she added, turning to her niece,
"would you oblige me by ringing that bell?"

Florence rose and did so. There was an ominous silence between the
three until the waiter appeared to answer the summons.

"Three cups of tea and some thin bread and butter at four o'clock,"
said Mrs. Aylmer the great, in an icy tone of command.

The waiter said, "Yes, ma'am," bowed, and withdrew.

Mrs. Aylmer the less thought of the hearty tea she and Florence would
make at home, the shrimps and the brown bread and butter, and the honey
and the strong tea with a little cream to flavor it; nevertheless, her
beady black eyes were fixed on her sister-in-law now with a look which
almost signified adoration.

"Don't stare so much, Mabel," said Mrs. Aylmer; "you have not lost that
unpleasant habit; you always had it from the time I first knew you, and
I see your daughter has inherited it. Now then, Florence, to business."

"Yes, aunt, to business," replied Florence, very brusquely.

Mrs. Aylmer stared at her niece.

"You speak in a very free-and-easy way," she said, "considering your
circumstances."

Florence colored angrily.

"My circumstances," she answered; "I don't quite u