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.