Mrs. Day's Daughters

sa

-room fire, she, in the midst of her children at their several occupations but attentive to

and stitching round them, for the adornment of the elder daughter's petticoat. She was a timid woman, in spite of her fine and handsome appearance, with a

xertion of their morning on the ice. Even Deleah, the reader of the family, neglected her book to lie back in her chair and gaze into the fire, the music of galop, and

ed from the crackers on last night's supper table, now held them in turn before his eyes. "Mama, you're all red-all lovely red, like roses,

d; a circumstance not to be regretted, since Bessie generally played a losing game in tears, and sign

ossing topic for several weeks before it had come o

ff and shot across the slippery floor in the last waltz; and she

shoes too b

ir of Bessie's last year's ones

smaller than mine, mama. If you're a little weed of a thing like Deda, of co

h danced her silk st

me up most beautifully; so that after the shoe

have been the finish of poor Frost to h

rd, and ask him not to be alwa

nard, my dear, do try to be

ter I rather like i

most admi

yes of lov

eman had pulled the cracker with you? Because

e passed it o

it on to me, pray, miss. My eyes a

," from a Bernard ev

in! Bernard is at me again!

oo bad, Bernard. Now then, we have not yet dec

d, an hour before his time, his mother going up to hear him say his prayers, as was her nightly custom. She was crossing the hall

thing furtive in his manner, and that his voice, wont to sound alarmingly through the hous

ted, and gazed upon him

e for ten pounds on Monda

ly about thirty shillings left, William." Without knowing

me, the

rfully questioning

t. Get all you can lay

s. There was not quite so much in it as she had reckoned; she slipped

ernard, and Be

money," he said. "This

Lond

ng up by

in this

ghtened her. He came a step further into the hall and picking up a dark muffler from a chair, wound it rou

e whispered.

, she laid a hand on his

evening. Tell me, have

oking at her. "That's

uld have

. You'll hear abou

. Is it very bad? Is it-" the word that stood for the worst business mis

e, his hat lower upon his brow: "Yo

ed down the three white steps which led to the silent street. Then, as white, half-st

he said. "Boult will tell you what to

orrow, William? You can't leave

rosty sky. How white the steps shone! For all her life she remem

urtive eyes on her as she stood in the open door, the brightly-lit hall of home behind her. "Shut the door," he said with somet

he performed himself every night of his life as he went up to bed. The door was bolted with him on the wrong side of it, now. Never, he knew, in all the yea

to realise, but totally unable to do so, that ruin had come upon her home, her children, herself. Ruin which she had seen

nnual dance last night, all the nicest, most desirable people of the town pres

e stood there, dazed, in the gas-lit hall. T

e, and had no sympathy with cheese-paring ways. The house was well and handsomely furnished, she and the children had plenty of dress, their table was an excellent one, all of them indulging in an amused contempt of the domestic economies of their friends.

pleasant, natural order of things-the only order t

what wou

st-room chair-covers which were shabby, there was no good in denying it; and with her not by to explain they preferred them so. No more expensive paint-boxes and toys for Franky; Bessie and darling Deleah

; she stretched a hand blindly for support, and pulled o

t. "What on earth are you doing, mama

," she got out, and looked strangely round upon them all. Her gaze wandered lingeringly from object to object in t

Deleah was round her waist. The stairway was broad, there was room for a

anything, mother?

hem till they had undressed her and put her to bed. Until they themselves went to bed they kept coming back and

te Bessie asked. "Because he is sure to come to-morrow-you think so, don't you?-an

aming down her back, a suspensive ear to the keyhole of her mother's door. People fainted because they had heart disease. Of heart disease

and dark rings about her deeply-set large eyes. She could not smil

That their father was not in the house they did not perceive, but put down hi

fore it. Fish, and broiled kidneys were on the table; a ham, and a brawn, and a glazed tongue on the sideboard

t it. Was this lavish amount of food "extravagance"? she asked herself, for the first time. Was it possible she, with her well-filled table on which she had prided herself,

hat morning. "Mama, there was some game-pie

pie. "If there are any oyster patties we mi

ve denied them, that morning-her poor children who were

ith an enjoyable sense of freedom because papa, who was so often irritable at that meal, had not ye

d been a school-fellow of William Day's at the Brockenham Grammar School; a kind of comradeship had existed between the two from that time till now. George Boult had assumed for years the habit of dropping in at Q

s friend frequently declared; it had been a standing grievance of his against his wife

shop the professional people won't come to meet him," Mrs. Day pointed out, and remained obdurate on the point. But because he, who did not in the least wis

cheeks, a common, up-turned, broad-nostrilled nose, a wide, thick-lipped mouth; quick, observant, but by no means beautiful eyes, a protruding chin, and a roll of flesh which showed above his coll

to meet him. "I got a verbal message from your husband last night, asking me to look you up the

ind her tea-cups again, lac

in a tone, muffled indeed, but qui

head. "But they m

marmalade with an inquiring glance. Perhaps the circus was coming, and there would be another procession, with

n the edge of the tea-tray, the cups and saucers jingled with their shaking. "Poor papa is

red blue. She was the eldest, the only one who could really be said to be grown up.

ith papa? Where is pa

ort time until we can bail him out-you

, which the jog-trot profession of law alone could never have brought him in, had been spent: more than once the suspicion of what would be the end of his old school-friend had crossed his mind. But that the possibil

a place for play rather than hard work, who frequented theatres and concert-rooms, and dances. It

. The children met the news of its appearance among them by a loud yell of ter

my husband! No! No

orge Boult said. The woman hurt him by her g

pa! Papa!" Be

er, who, white, and shaking like a leaf, took the child in her arms. Bernard had risen, ashen

n who was shaking him by the force of her trembling as she c

ptcy," she got out betwe

as-disgrace. Are yo

is not true. A police officer brought me a mess

uld find no comfort in Deleah's embrace, left her, and still screaming

ernard. "Oh, Bernard, w

ught we

, only laid his arms upon the table,

t possible to help people who behaved like this! He was a widower, but had no children of his own. If he had been more fortunate in that respect what serious-minded, well-conducted boys and girls they would have been: not squeaking over

e said again. "But it's a thing that had to be known-and perhaps as well one ti

wards in her chair, the screaming Franky in her arms; Bessie had flung herself upon the floor and was beating it with her palms and calling up

said; and Bernard, openly blubbering, got up, and followed his father's friend from the room. In the hall George Boult laid a steadyi

boy asked. He blew his nose and wiped his eye

f some money belon

client

ey for her, then sold the shares, and di

e done-in time. H

has got to

will do it,

e need not go into now. Her signatur

er-will

shall attend, and shall offer myself to go bail for him

him even to think. "I can ask my mother," he said. He was s

as to be done with material so soft as this! "I am sorry I have been the bearer of such ill news, but there is no good in my stopping now. I'll drop in, tell your mother, when you're all more used to it. Wonder

glistening white steps into the quiet street. "Hysterical, useless, helpless set!

al to be for ever unfinished-stood about, and told them they had, there and then, to fi

d tightly in her two hands as if she really feared her head would split. "Le

nce-the Challises, the Hollingsbys, the Buttifer

f them would do it.

ten here-to din

t ask

than the others, and there was about her an air of purpose, l

should like you t

ust ask s

e one we do no

Francis Forcus?

aid; but, trying to stand, she fell back in her chair

d over her prostrate body ren

st go," De

and sobbed and choked and screamed

rd mus

etter from a wom

d never gone before on any errand of more moment than for the matching of Ber

ed like a corpse beneath the cloths soaked in eau-de-cologne-and-water which Bessie

oom for her hat and jacket; and lest they should catch and stop her, she would not stay in the house to put them on, but flung them anyhow upon her when once outside the door. Then, with her little wild white face almost lost in

aying over to herself her French poetry, perhaps, as she went, or taking a last peep in her geography book, to make sure onc

little daughter, her hand tucked within his arm. With her he was never savage, and rarely irritable; on these walks his mood would be playful

father was in prison-in prison!-and she was runn

ould say to him. The difficulty of asking such a favour of such a stranger d