ances, my dear, in which, to put it mildly, it is
AWKWARD for two people of OPPOSITE sexes to go on living under the same
roof."

"Sarah!--I mean Sara--do you really mean to say Hempel has made you a
proposal?" cried Polly, wide-eyed in her tears.

"I won't say, my dear, that he has so far forgotten himself as to
actually offer marriage. But he has let me see only too plainly what
his feelings are. Of course, I've kept him in his place--the
preposterous creature! But all the same it's not COMME IL FAUT any
longer for me to be here."

"Did she say where she was going, or what she intended to do?" Mahony
inquired of his wife that night as she bound the strings of her
nightcap.

No, she hadn't, Polly admitted, rather out of countenance. But then
Sara was like that--very close about her own affairs. "I think she's
perhaps gone back to her last situation. She had several letters while
she was here, in that lady's hand. People are always glad to get her
back. Not many finishing governesses can teach all she can"--and Polly
checked off Sara's attainments on the fingers of both hands. "She won't
go anywhere under two hundred a year."

"A most accomplished person, your sister!" said Mahony sleepily.
"Still, it's very pleasant to be by ourselves again--eh, wife?"

An even more blessed peace shortly descended on the house; for the time
was now come to get rid of the children as well. Since nothing had been
heard of John, they were to be boarded out over Polly's illness.
Through the butcher's lady, arrangements were made with a trooper's
wife, who lived outside the racket and dust of the township, and had a
whole posse of little ones of her own.--"Bless you! half-a-dozen more
wouldn't make any difference to me. There's the paddock for 'em to run
wild in." This was the best that could be done for the children. Polly
packed their little kit, dealt out a parting bribe of barley-sugar, and
saw them hoisted into the dray that would pass the door of their
destination.

Once more husband and wife sat alone together, as in the days before
John's domestic catastrophe. And now Mahony said tentatively: "Don't
you think, love, we could manage to get on without that old Beamish
woman? I'll guarantee to nurse you as well as any female alive."

The question did not come as a surprise to Polly; she had already put
it to herself. After the affair with Sara she awaited her new visitor
in fear and trembling. Sara had at least stood in awe o