e is none left? Promise
that you will never blame me."

But Madge lay back in her chair and folded her arms out of reach of the
trembling hands.

"I will, though!" she replied bluntly. "I'll make an awful row; and
quite right, too, for it _will_ be your fault. If you lose heart the
very first night, and fall to crying and groaning, how do you expect to
get on? If _you_ get low in your mind, Steve will be indigo, and Hope
and Theo will have no spirit left in them. As for me, I'm not _going_
to fail, nor fall ill, nor starve, nor throw myself over London Bridge,
nor anything else interesting or melodramatic I've always longed to come
up to town, and now that I am here I am going to enjoy myself in the
best way I can. It is ripping to work hard when you feel you are
getting on, and a little taste of success now and then will be a
wonderful fillip. There must be some compensations for being poor, and
I mean to find them out, and see if I can't get as much fun for sixpence
as Avice Loftus does for a sovereign."

"I--I believe you will," said Philippa, with a feeble laugh. "You
mustn't think me a coward, Madge; I could be brave for myself; but it is
the awful feeling of responsibility that weighs upon me. All this day I
have been saying to myself, `Now we are here. What is the next step?
What ought we to do next?'"

"Go to bed, I should say. You look as if you needed it," came the curt
rejoinder; and at that Philippa was obliged to laugh outright.

"Oh, Mr Dick, Mr Dick! your common-sense is invaluable. Come along,
then; let us go. We shall need all the rest we can get to prepare us
for our hard work to-morrow."

CHAPTER FIVE.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

A week after the girls had taken possession of the flat Stephen joined
them, and spent his evenings carpentering, hanging up pictures, and
laying carpets, as a pleasant relaxation after a day's work in the City.
He had been unpleasantly surprised to discover that, though the firm
for which he worked was of long standing and first-class position, its
offices were by no means so large or so comfortable as those which he
had left behind in the little country town. The room in which he worked
was so dark that the gas seemed to be burning all day long; the windows
looked out on a narrow side-street; there was a continual roar of
traffic, a rumbling from the trains underground. His head ached, and he
found it impossible to concentrate his thoughts. But when t