dinner in a flannel shirt; Lilias
wore her best clothes, and went up to town to see and be seen; and Maud
dreamt dreams at her ease, without the disturbing consciousness of work
undone.

By the end of the week the carpets were cleaned and ready to put down,
and it was decided that the drawing-room felting should be laid first of
all, because in itself it was a more lengthy task than the mere laying
of squares, and also because the after work of arranging pictures and
china would be greater here than elsewhere. The three maids shut
themselves in the room together for an hour or more, and at the end of
the time adjourned in a body to the library, where the young mistresses
were busy arranging books. They looked flushed and discouraged, and
each of the three had her own comments to make upon the situation. Cook
reported that "that there felting wouldn't come right nohow." Mary put
her hand to her heart, and said her inside ached with dragging the
tiresome thing; and bright-eyed Jane smiled cheerfully, and vowed that
"she didn't believe it never would meet no more." The girls adjourned
into the drawing-room to investigate the difficulty, and found the
felting neatly fastened at three sides, but steadily refusing to come
within inches of the fourth wall.

"Seems as if it's shrunk itself somehow in the cleaning," said cook
dolefully; but Maud only laughed, and went forward to the rescue in her
cheery, capable manner.

"Oh, nonsense, cook! If the cleaning did anything, it would stretch it
and make it bigger. It is purposely made rather a tight fit, or it
would go into wrinkles, which would never do. It only wants a little
coaxing. Nan and Agatha, you have the strongest arms, go over there and
pull as hard as you can, while Elsie and I push towards you."

No sooner said than done. Maud and Elsie went down on their knees, and
travelled slowly across the floor, pushing infinitesimal creases before
them, while the others pulled and strained to make the most of the
advantage thus given. It was a lengthy business, and the crawling
operation was repeated several times over before the first ring could be
induced to catch over its nail; but when this was done hope began to
revive, and the pushing and tugging was carried on with such vigour that
presently the last fastening was secured, and the workers rested from
their labours, weary, yet triumphant.

"My back!" groaned Elsie, straightening herself with a groan; "it's