to suffer in health. She fretted through the
nights, and was never really at peace save when she anticipated the servant in
rising early, and had an honest scrub at saucepans or fireirons before
breakfast. Her main discomfort came of the feeling that she no longer had a
house of her own; nothing about her seemed to be her property with the exception
of her old kitchen clock, and one or two articles she could not have borne to
part with. From being a rather talkative woman she had become very reticent; she
went about uneasily, with a look of suspicion or of fear. Her children she no
longer ventured to command; the secret of their wealth weighed upon her, she was
in constant dread on their behalf. It is a bad thing for one such as Mrs.
Mutimer to be thrown back upon herself in novel circumstances, and practically
debarred from the only relief which will avail her - free discussion with her
own kind. The result is a species of shock to the system, sure to manifest
itself before long in one or other form of debility.
    Alice seated herself at the piano, and began a finger exercise, laboriously,
imperfectly. For the first week or two it had given her vast satisfaction to be
learning the piano; what more certain sign of having achieved ladyhood? It
pleased her to assume airs with her teacher - a very deferential lady - to put
off a lesson for a fit of languidness; to let it be understood how entirely time
was at her command. Now she was growing rather weary of flats and sharps, and
much preferred to read of persons to whom the same nomenclature was very
applicable in the books she obtained from a circulating library. Her reading had
hitherto been confined to the fiction of the penny papers; to procure her
pleasure in three gaily-bound volumes was another evidence of rise in the social
scale; it was like ordering your wine by the dozen after being accustomed to a
poor chance bottle now and then. At present Alice spent the greater part of her
day floating on the gentle milky stream of English romance. Her brother was made
a little uneasy by this taste; he had not studied the literature in question.
    At half past six a loud knock at the front door announced the expected
visitor. Alice turned from the piano, and looked at her brother apprehensively.
Richard rose, and established himself on the hearthrug, his hands behind him.
    »What are you going to say to him, Dick?« Alice asked hurriedly.
    »He says he wants to know me. I shall say, Here I am.«