he long day
came to an end, there was a certain exhilaration in walking home through
the crowded streets, in looking at historic scenes, and feeling that one
was an inmate of the greatest city, of the capital of the world!

Every evening, too, the flat looked more home-like, as suitable
resting-places were discovered for the old furniture, and the familiar
pictures smiled a welcome from the walls. Madge's paper-hanging had
been a success of which she was justly proud, and the little dining-room
looked both pretty and cosy when the curtains were drawn and the lamps
lighted. The girls were tired but cheerful, and had always amusing
little anecdotes to relate as gleanings from the day's work; the
workmen, the charwoman, the porter at the door downstairs, were all so
different from the country-folk to whom they had been accustomed; and
imitation of the Cockney accent proved an unfailing source of delight.
Madge cultivated special sentences with a view to impressing her sisters
on their arrival, and when they drove up to the door, insisted upon
"p'ying the keb" with a vehemence which left them speechless with
consternation.

Hope and Theo were conveyed upstairs flight after flight--for the lift
had not yet been introduced into these unfashionable mansions--and when
at last they could go no farther, lo! there was an open door, a blaze of
light sending forth a welcome, and the new home all ready to receive
them, even to the very tea on the table, and hot water in the basins in
the bedrooms. It was delightful to meet again, to have the first meal
in the new home, to feel that the step so long contemplated was an
accomplished fact; and if a certain amount of disillusion had to be
endured, the new-comers had enough good feeling to notice only what they
could admire. Dark though it was, it was scarcely seven o'clock when
the evening meal was finished; and in the state of pent-up excitement in
which the travellers found themselves, it seemed impossible to stay
quietly indoors.

"Couldn't we _do_ something?" asked Hope wistfully. "I feel like a
caged lion shut up here, knowing that London lies outside. We need not
go to bed for three hours at least. Oh Steve! the top of an omnibus--a
drive along the streets, with all the lights--past Saint Paul's and the
Abbey, and along the Embankment. Could we do it? Oh, do you think we
might do it?"

The eager voice and pleading eyes raised a general laugh of amusement,
and even the