and came to live with Mrs. Peachey. Between them,
these two were the owners of house-property, which produced L140 a year.
They disbursed, together, a weekly sum of twenty-four shillings for
board and lodging, and spent or saved the rest as their impulses
dictated.

CHAPTER 2

Ada brooded over her wrongs; Beatrice glanced over _The Referee_. Fanny,
after twirling awhile in maiden meditation, turned to the piano and
jingled a melody from 'The Mikado.' She broke off suddenly, and, without
looking round, addressed her companions.

'You can give the third seat at the Jubilee to somebody else. I'm
provided for.'

'Who are you going with?' asked Ada.

'My masher,' the girl replied with a giggle.

'Where?'

'Shop-windows in the Strand, I think.'

She resumed her jingling; it was now 'Queen of my Heart.' Beatrice,
dropping her paper, looked fixedly at the girl's profile, with an eyelid
droop which signified calculation.

'How much is he really getting?' she inquired all at once.

'Seventy-five pounds a year. "_Oh where, oh where, is my leetle dog
gone?_"'

'Does he say,' asked Mrs. Peachey, 'that his governor will stump up?'

They spoke a peculiar tongue, the product of sham education and mock
refinement grafted upon a stock of robust vulgarity. One and all
would have been moved to indignant surprise if accused of ignorance
or defective breeding. Ada had frequented an 'establishment for young
ladies' up to the close of her seventeenth year; the other two had
pursued culture at a still more pretentious institute until they were
eighteen. All could 'play the piano;' all declared--and believed--that
they 'knew French.' Beatrice had 'done' Political Economy; Fanny had
'been through' Inorganic Chemistry and Botany. The truth was, of course,
that their minds, characters, propensities had remained absolutely proof
against such educational influence as had been brought to bear upon
them. That they used a finer accent than their servants, signified only
that they had grown up amid falsities, and were enabled, by the help of
money, to dwell above-stairs, instead of with their spiritual kindred
below.

Anticipating Fanny's reply, Beatrice observed, with her air of sagacity:

'If you think you're going to get anything out of an old screw like
Lord, you'll jolly soon find your mistake.'

'Don't you go and make a fool of yourself, Fanny,' said Mrs. Peachey.
'Why, he can't be more than twenty-one, is he?'

'He's