quite so often as he believed)--"but two crocks in a household are twice
as inconvenient as one. And now there has been this unpleasant jar with
the Urquharts. Peter, by his rudeness to them, has finally severed the
connection, and we can hope for nothing from that quarter in future. And
I am not sure that I choose to have living with me a much younger brother
who has influential friends of his own in whom he insists that we shall
have neither part nor lot. I strongly object to the way Peter spoke to us
on that occasion; it was extremely offensive."

"Oh, don't be such a goose, Hilary. The boy only lost his temper for a
moment, and I'm sure that happens seldom enough. And as to the rest of
it, I don't like the way you speak of him, as if he was the cause of our
mischances, and as if his being so mischancey himself wasn't a reason why
we should all stick together, and him with that scrap of a child, too;
though I will say Peter's a handier creature with a child than anyone
would think. I suppose it's the practice he's had handling other costly
things that break easy.... Well, have it your own way, Hilary. Only mind,
if Peter _wants_ to come with us, he surely shall. I'm not going to leave
him behind like a left kitten. And I'd love to have him, for he makes
sunshine in the house when things are blackest."

"Lately Peter has appeared to me to be rather depressed," said Hilary,
and Peggy too had perceived that this was so. It was something so new in
Peter that it called for notice.

There was needed no further dispute between Peggy and Hilary, for Peter
said that he and Thomas preferred to stay in London.

"I can probably find a job of some sort to keep us. I might with luck
get a place as shop-walker. That always looks a glorious life. You merely
walk about and say, 'Yes, madam? This way for hose, madam.' Something
to live on and nothing to do, as the poet says. But I expect they are
difficult places to get, without previous experience. Short of that,
I could be one of the men round stations that open people's cab doors
and take the luggage out; or even a bus-conductor, who knows? Oh,
there are lots of openings. But in Dublin I feel my talents might be
lost.... Thomas and I will move into more modest apartments, and go in
for plain living and high thinking."

"You poor little dears," said Peggy, and kissed both of them. "Well,
it'll be plain living for the lot of us, that's obvious, and lucky too
to get that.... I'd