sion of
appetising meals made the underground kitchen a place of the
pleasantest associations. A loan from Mrs. Peckover had enabled him to
renew his wardrobe. When the last night arrived, Clem and her mother
sat conversing to a late hour, their voices again cautiously subdued. A
point had been for some days at issue between them, and decision was
now imperative.

'It's you as started the job,' Clem observed with emphasis, 'an' it's
you as'll have to finish it.'

'And who gets most out of it, I'd like to know?' replied her mother.
'Don't be such a fool! Can't you see as it'll come easier from you? A
nice thing for his mother-in-law to tell him! If you don't like to do
it the first day, then leave it to the second, or third. But if you
take my advice, you'll get it over the next morning.'

'You'll have to do it yourself,' Clem repeated stubbornly, propping her
chin upon her fists.

'Well, I never thought as you was such a frightened babby! Frightened
of a feller like him! I'd be ashamed o' myself!'

'Who's frightened? Hold your row!'

'Why, you are; what else?'

'I ain't!'

'You are!'

'I ain't! You'd better not make me mad, or I'll tell him before, just
to spite you.'

'Spite _me_, you cat! What difference 'll it make to me? I'll tell you
what: I've a jolly good mind to tell him myself beforehand, and then
we'll see who's spited.'

In the end Clem yielded, shrugging her shoulders defiantly.

'I'll have a kitchen-knife near by when I tell him,' she remarked with
decision. 'If he lays a hand on me I'll cut his face open, an' chance
it!'

Mrs. Peckover smiled with tender motherly deprecation of such extreme
measures. But Clem repeated her threat, and there was something in her
eyes which guaranteed the possibility of its fulfilment.

No personal acquaintance of either the Peckover or the Snowdon family
happened to glance over the list of names which hung in the registrar's
office during these weeks. The only interested person who had
foreknowledge of Clem's wedding was Jane Snowdon, and Jane, though
often puzzled in thinking of the matter, kept her promise to speak of
it to no one. It was imprudence in Clem to have run this risk, but the
joke was so rich that she could not deny herself its enjoyment; she
knew, moreover, that Jane was one of those imbecile persons who scruple
about breaking a pledge. On the eve of her wedding-day she met Jane as
the latter came from Whitehead's, and requested her to call