It was a sight to increase the gusto of Clem's meal, but of a sudden there came into the girl's mind a yet more delightful thought.

I have mentioned that in the back-kitchen lay the body of a dead woman; it was already encoffined, and waited for interment on the morrow, when Mrs.Peckover would arrive with a certain female relative from St.Albans.Now the proximity of this corpse was a ceaseless occasion of dread and misery to Jane Snowdon; the poor child had each night to make up a bed for herself in this front-room, dragging together a little heap of rags when mother and daughter were gone up to their chamber, and since the old woman's death it was much if Jane had enjoyed one hour of unbroken sleep.

She endeavoured to hide these feelings, but Clem, with her Bed Indian scent, divined them accurately enough.

She hit upon a good idea.
'Go into the next room,' she commanded suddenly, 'and fetch the matches off of the mantel-piece.

I shall want to go upstairs presently, to see if you've scrubbed the bed-room well.' Jane was blanched; but she rose from her knees at once, and reached a candlestick from above the fireplace.
'What's that for ?' shouted Clem, with her mouth full.