chance."

"Rubbish! She'd have more chance in a cosy little house of your own than
stuck in this rat's hole. You'd have a slap-up time, Flo. A nice little
Ralli cart, if you're fond of horses, and--oh, come along, come now. I
want you."

"No; I've fixed myself up. I was done with life when I married Charlie,
and I'm fixed up."

"You're in a cage here," he argued.

"Yes; but I've got my nest in it," she said.

"Then it's good-bye?"

"Good-bye."

"I'm damned if I can understand why you won't come. I'd be jolly good to
you."

"Good-bye."

"You're a cold woman, aren't you?"

"Am I?"

"I think you are."

"It doesn't always do to show one's feelings."

"You're a regular icicle."

"Perhaps," whispered Mrs. Raeburn.

Jenny stole back to the kitchen greatly puzzled. Whether the florid Mr.
Timpany kissed Mrs. Raeburn before he went out to look for the hansom
cab that was to jingle him out of her life, I do not know; but she waved
to him once as she saw him look round under a lamp post, for Jenny had
crept back and was standing beside her when she did so.

"You come on in, you naughty girl," said Mrs. Raeburn, drowning love in
a copper bubbling with clothes.

"Would you like that man better than father?" Jenny inquired presently,
pausing in the erection of a tower of bricks for the benefit of May, who
watched with somber eyes the quivering feat of architecture.

"What do you mean?" said Mrs. Raeburn sharply.

"Would you like father to go away and never, never come back here along
of us ever again and always have that man?"

"Of course, I shouldn't, you silly child."

"I would."

"You would?"

"Yes," said Jenny; "he smelt nice."

"Ah, miss, when one's married, one's married."

"Could I be married?"

"When you grow up. Of course."

"Could I have little boys and girls?"

"Of course you could if you were married."

"Could I have lots and lots?"

"More than you bargain for, I daresay," declared her mother.

"Did you marry to have a little girl like me?"

"Perhaps."

Encouraged by her mother's unusual amenity to questions, Jenny went on:

"Did you really, though?"

"For that and other reasons."

"Were you glad when you saw me first?"

"Very glad."

"Did I come in by the door?"

"Yes."

"Who brought me?"

"The doctor."

"Did he ring the bell?"

"Yes."

"Did father know I was coming?"

"Yes."

"Was I a present from father?"

"Yes."

"Would you like that gentleman to g