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BREAKING THE ICE.
The cottage from the window of which the Misses Williams had looked out stands, and has stood for many a year, in that pleasant suburban district which lies between Norwood, Anerley, and Forest Hill.

Long before there had been a thought of a township there, when the Metropolis was still quite a distant thing, old Mr.Williams had inhabited "The Brambles," as the little house was called, and had owned all the fields about it.

Six or eight such cottages scattered over a rolling country-side were all the houses to be found there in the days when the century was young.

From afar, when the breeze came from the north, the dull, low roar of the great city might be heard, like the breaking of the tide of life, while along the horizon might be seen the dim curtain of smoke, the grim spray which that tide threw up.