out the tea, looked quickly up at the
mention of Mrs Greenways. She would not ask, but her very soul longed
to know what had been said.

"She was talkin' about Lilac as I was in at Dimbleby's getting a bunch
of candles," continued Mrs Wishing, "sayin' how her picture was going
to be took; an' says she, `It's a poor sort of picture as she'll make,
with a face as white as her pinafore. Now, if it was Agnetta,' says
she, `as has a fine nateral bloom, I could understand the gentleman
wantin' to paint _her_.'"

"I s'pose the gentleman knows best himself what he wants to paint," said
Mrs White.

"Lor', of course he do," Mrs Wishing hastened to reply; "and, as I said
to Mrs Greenways, `Red cheeks or white cheeks don't make much differ to
a gal in life. It's the upbringing as matters.'"

Mrs White looked hardly so pleased with this sentiment as her visitor
had hoped. She was perfectly aware that it had been invented on the
spot, and that Mrs Wishing would not have dared to utter it to Mrs
Greenways. Moreover, the comparison between Lilac's paleness and
Agnetta's fine bloom touched her keenly, for in this remark she
recognised her sister-in-law's tongue.

The rivalry between the two mothers was an understood thing, and though
it had never reached open warfare, it was kept alive by the kindness of
neighbours, who never forgot to repeat disparaging speeches. Mrs
White's opinions of the genteel uselessness of Bella and Gusta were
freely quoted to Mrs Greenways, and she in her turn was always ready
with a thrust at Lilac which might be carried to Mrs White.

When the widow had first heard of the artist's proposal, her intense
gratification was at once mixed with the thought, "What'll Mrs
Greenways think o' that?"

But she did not express this triumph aloud. Even Lilac had no idea that
her mother's heart was overflowing with pleasure and pride because it
was _her_ child, _her_ Lilac, whom the artist wished to paint. So now,
though she bit her lip with vexation at Mrs Wishing's speech, she took
it with outward calmness, and only replied, with a glance at her
daughter:

"Lilac never was one to think much about her looks, and I hope she never
will be."

Both the look and the words seemed to Lilac to have special meaning,
almost as though her mother knew what she intended to do to-morrow; it
seemed indeed to be written in large letters everywhere, and all that
was said had something to do with it. This made her feel