t week there was borne in upon her a
realisation of the loneliness of the great city which was never
obliterated. A girl like herself, coming to London without
introductions, might lead this desert life, not for a week alone, but
for _years_! Her youth might fade, might pass away, she might grow
middle-aged and old, and still pass to and fro through crowded street,
unnoted, uncared for, unknown beyond the boundaries of the schoolroom or
the office walls. A working-woman was as a rule too tired and too poor
to join societies, or take part in social work which would lead to the
making of friends; she was dependent on the thoughtfulness of her
leisured sisters, and the leisured sisters were too apt to forget. They
invited their own well-off friends, exhausted themselves in organising
entertainments which were often regarded as bores pure and simple, and
cast no thought to the lonely women sitting night after night in
lodging-house parlours. "If I am ever rich--if I ever have a home, I'll
remember!" Claire vowed to herself. "I'll take a little trouble, and
_find out_! I couldn't do a hundredth or a thousandth part of what
ought to be done, but I'd do my share!" Cecil announced her return for
the evening of January 2nd, and remindful of the depressing influence of
her own arrival, Claire exerted herself to make the room look as
homelike as possible, and arranged a dainty little meal on a table
spread with a clean cloth and decorated with a bowl of holly and
Christmas roses. At the first sound of Cecil's voice she ran out into
the hall, hugged her warmly, and relieved her of a bundle of packages of
all sorts and sizes.

"You look a real Mother Christmas hidden behind parcels. What are they
all? Trophies? You _have_ come off well! It is lovely to see you
back. If you'd stayed away the whole time I think I should have grown
dumb. My tongue would have withered from sheer lack of use. I never
realised before how much I love to talk. I do hope you feel sociable.
I want to talk and talk for hours at a time, and to hear _you_ talk,
too."

"Even to grumble?"

Claire grinned eloquently.

"Oh, well--if you _must_, but it would be rather mean, wouldn't it,
after a holiday, and when I've got everything so nice? I am driven to
praise myself, because _you_ take no notice."

"You have given me no time. You chatter so that no one else can get in
a word." Cecil took off hat and gloves, and threw them down on the
so