ghtened.... Anyhow, he would not be at home for Christmas--since
Martin's death he had sub-let the farm and was a good deal away; people
said he had "come into" some money, left him by a former mistress, who
had died more grateful than he deserved.

"I'll do the best I can for you, duck," said Joanna, "you shall have
your bit of dancing--and anyways I've got a fine, big surprise for you
when we're home."

"What sort of a surprise?"

"That's telling."

Ellen, in spite of her dignity, was child enough to be intensely excited
at the idea of a secret, and the rest of the drive was spent in baffled
question and provoking answer.

"I believe it's something for me to wear," she said finally, as they
climbed out of the trap at the front door--"a ring, Joanna.... I've
always wanted a ring."

"It's better than a ring," said Joanna, "leastways it's bigger," and she
laughed to herself.

She led the way upstairs, while Mrs. Tolhurst and old Stuppeny waltzed
recriminatingly with Ellen's box.

"Where are you taking me?" asked her sister, pausing with her hand on
the door-knob of Joanna's bedroom.

"Never you mind--come on."

Would Mene Tekel, she wondered, have remembered to set the lamps, so
that the room should not depend on the faint gutter of sunset to display
its glories? She opened the door, and was reassured--a fury of light and
colour leapt out--rose, blue, green, buff, and the port-wine red of
mahogany. The pink curtains were drawn, but there was no fire in the
grate--for fires in bedrooms were unknown at Ansdore; however, a
Christmas-like effect was given by sprigs of holly stuck in the
picture-frames, and a string of paper flowers hung from the bed-tester
to the top of the big woolly bell-rope by the mantelpiece. Joanna heard
her sister gasp.

"It's yours, Ellen--your new room. I've given it to you--all to
yourself. There's the spare mahogany furniture, and the best pictures,
and poor father's Buffalo certificate."

The triumph of her own achievement melted away the last of her
uneasiness--she seized Ellen in her arms and kissed her, knocking her
hat over one ear.

"See, you've got new curtains--eighteenpence a yard ... and that's
mother's text--'Inasmuch....' and I've bought a new soap-dish at
Godfrey's--it doesn't quite go with the basin, but they've both got
roses on 'em ... and you won't mind there being a few of my gowns in the
wardrobe--only the skirts--I've got room for the bodies in my drawers
...