But on Sunday she gladly followed the counsel of her employers.

If the weather were bad, the little room at Lavender Hill offered her a retreat; when the sun shone, she liked to spend a part of the day in free wandering about London, which even yet had not quite disillusioned her.
And to-day it shone brightly.

This was her birthday, the completion of her one-and-twentieth year.

Alice and Virginia of course expected her early in the morning, and of course they were all to dine together--at the table measuring three feet by one and a half; but the afternoon and evening she must have to herself The afternoon, because a few hours of her sister's talk invariably depressed her; and the evening, because she had an appointment to keep.

As she left the big ugly 'establishment' her heart beat cheerfully, and a smile fluttered about her lips.