y the Miss Mees who're so
particular."

"Dear gentleman," continued Amelia. "Next to being always with you,
miss, I should like to have been with 'im."

"I'm afraid you can't even be with me. I have to earn my own living."

"Yes, miss; but when you marry a rich gentleman, I should like to come
with you as 'general.'"

"Don't talk nonsense, Amelia."

"But it ain't, miss; didn't the music master, 'im with the lovely,
long, shiny 'air, promise me a shillin' to give you a note?"

"Did he?" laughed Mavis. "It's nearly eight: you'd better take in the
breakfast things."

"Oh, well, if I can't be here, or with you, I'd sooner be with that
dear Mr--"

"Ruskin, Amelia," interrupted Mavis. "Try and get it right, if only for
once."

Amelia took no notice of the interruption, but went on, as she dusted
the cups, before putting them on the tray:

"Dear Mr Fuskin! 'Ow I would have looked after 'im, and 'ow carefully
I'd 'ave counted 'is washing!"

Punctually, as the clock struck eight, the two Miss Mees entered the
breakfast room; they kissed Mavis on the cheek before sitting down to
the meal. They asked each other and Mavis how they had slept, as was
their invariable custom; but the sensitive, observant girl could not
help noticing that the greetings of her employers were a trifle less
cordial than was their wont. Mavis put down this comparative coldness
to their pride at the success of yesterday's festival.

To the indifferent observer, the Miss Mees were exactly alike, being
meagre, dilapidated, white-haired old ladies, with the same beaked
noses and receding chins; both wore rusty black frocks, each of which
was decorated with a white cameo brooch; both walked with the same
propitiatory shuffle. They were like a couple of elderly, moulting,
decorous hens who, in spite of their physical disabilities, had
something of a presence. This was obtained from the authority they had
wielded over the many pupils who had passed through their hands.

Nearer inspection showed that Miss Annie Mee was a trifle stouter than
her sister, if this be not too robust a word to apply to such a wisp of
a woman; that her eyes were kinder and less watery than Helen's; also,
that her face was less insistently marked with lines of care.

The Miss Mees' dispositions were much more dissimilar than their
appearance. Miss Helen, the elder, loved her home and, in her heart of
hearts, preferred the kitchen to any other part of the house. It was
s