The Old Wives' Tale

, who had nothing on her tray but a teapot, a bowl of steaming and balmy-scented mussels and cockles, and a plate of hot buttered toast, went directly into the parlour on the left. Sophia ha

rridor. Experience had proved it easier to make this long detour than to round the difficult corner of the parlour stairs with a large loaded tray. Sophia knocked with the edge of the tray at the door of the principal

tea, Mr. Critchl

ow carefully ac

" asked a faint voice from

her," sai

in his own way. Mrs. Baines herself avoided disturbing Mr. Critchlow's ministrations on her husband. She was glad to do so; for Mr. Baines was never to be left alone under any circumstances, and the convenience of being able to rely upon the presence of a staid member of the Pharmaceutical Society for six hours of a given day every week outweighed the slight affront to her prerogatives as wife and house-mistress. Mr. Critchlow was an extremely peculiar man, but when he was in the bedroom she could leave the house with an easy mind. Moreover, John Baines enjoyed these Thursday afternoons. For him, there was 'none like Charles Critchlow.' The two old friends experienced a sort of grim, desiccated happiness, cooped up together in the b

the parlour by the shorter route. She knew that on going up aga

ed a meal with the girls alone. The situation was indubitably unexpected, unforeseen; it was, too, piquant, and what added to its piquancy was the fact that Constance and Sophia were, somehow, responsible for Mr. Povey. They felt that they were responsible for him. They had offered the practical sympathy of two intelligent and well-trained young women, born nurses by reason of their sex, and Mr. Povey had accepted; he was now on their hands. Sophia's monstrous, sly operati

f Sophia, with a large spoon h

" said Sophia

would have some, and had only

ur plate

here remained nothing to say. An irksome silence fell on them all, and no one could lift it off. Tiny clashes of shell and crockery sounded with the terrible clearness of noises heard in the night. Each person avoided the eyes of the others. And both Constance and Sophia kept straightening their bodies at intervals, and expanding their chests, and then

rtling discovery to this impious and disgraceful oath (he, the pattern and

Mr. Povey?" Con

a careful voyage of inspection al

olemnly accepting the inev

to be looking for some place to hide it. C

oose for two years," s

wed it with

nfusion, and added, "There's one good

hurting me. It's an old stump at the back that's up

cheeks seemed to fill out like plump apples. She dashed the cup into its sa

Constance

tly spluttered in the doorway.

o had risen,