Mrs.Holmes and myself join in, and our worthy trustee, bachelor and Quaker though he be, laughs merriest of all.
Aye! but this laughter was sweet music, but somehow it brought tears to my eyes.
Now just look at my friend over there beside one of the palms, her feet resting so naturally on the Turkey carpet! You observe she sits majestically in a commodious chair; she needs one! For she is five feet eleven inches in height, and weighs sixteen stone.

I call her "The Queen," for when she stands up she is erect and queenly with a noble head and pleasing countenance.
She makes no secret about her age; "I am sixty, and I have been here four times, and, please God, I'll come forty-four more times," and she looks like it.

But what if there had been no Singholm to look forward to year by year?
Why, then she would have been heavy in heart as well as in body, and her erect form would have been bent, for she is a hard worker from Bethnal Green.
The idea of coming forty-four more times to Singholm, and she sixty-six, was the signal for more laughter, and again Singholm was tested; but our builder had done his work well.
"Turn on the electric light, matron!" There is a transformation scene for you! Now you see the delicate art colours in the Turkey carpets, and the subdued colours in the Medici Society's reproduced pictures.
See how they have ranged their chairs all round by the walls, and the centre of the room is unoccupied, saving here and there maidenhair ferns and growing flowers.

Now look at the picture in its fulness! and we see poor old bent and feeble bodies bowed with toil, and faces furrowed by unceasing anxiety; but the sun, the east wind, the sea air and Singholm have brightened and browned them.
There is my poor old friend, long past threescore and ten, to whom Singholm for a time is verily Heaven; but--"Turn on the gramophone, please, matron." Thanks to a kind friend, we have a really good one, with a plentiful supply of records.

The matron, in the wickedness of her heart, turns on an orchestral "cakewalk." The band plays, old bodies begin to move and sway, and seventy pair of feet begin unconsciously to beat the floor.