Mrs. Farthing pointed out the beauty of the view, a recommendation to
which Mavis subscribed.

The girl's acquiescence emboldened Mrs Farthing to say:

"Did you say that your mother would sometimes visit you?"

Mavis trembled with indignation.

"I did nothing of the kind, and you know it," she cried. "If you wish
to know, I'm employed by Mr Devitt, and should probably have stayed
here for years. If you can't see at a glance what I am, all I can say
is that you've been used to a tenth-rate lot of lodgers."

Mrs. Farthing capitulated.

"Wouldn't you like to see the bedroom?"

"If you don't ask any more silly questions."

"It's hard to forget my father was a sea captain," explained Mrs
Farthing.

A door in the passage opened on to winding stairs, up which vanquished
and victor walked.

From the first floor, a sort of gangway led to the door of a room that
was raised some three feet from the level of where the two women stood.

"Now we ascend the Kyber Pass," cried Mrs Farthing gaily, as she set
foot on the gangway.

As Mavis followed, it occurred to her how this remark might be
invariably retailed to prospective lodgers by Mrs Farthing.

The bedroom's neat appointments made it even more attractive in Mavis'
eyes than the sitting-room.

Mrs. Farthing wanted eight shillings a week for a permanency, but Mavis
stuck out for seven. The issue was presently compromised by the
landlady's agreeing to accept seven and sixpence.

"There's only one thing," said Mrs Farthing, as she sat on the bed;
"and that's my husband."

"What about him?" asked Mavis, who had believed that everything was
settled.

"He simply can't abide my letting rooms; he's on to me about it
morning, noon, and night."

"I'm sorry."

"To think," as he says, "the daughter of a sea captain--" Here Mrs
Farthing caught Mavis' eye, to substitute for what she was about to
say: "But there," he says, "work your fingers to the bone; go and
commit suicide by overdoing it; kill yourself outright with making
other people comfortable, so long as you get your own way."

"Really!"

"That's what he says every minute of the time that he's at home."

When Mavis left Mrs Farthing to walk to the station, she could not help
noticing how the rough and tumble of her experiences had had a
hardening effect upon her once soft heart. It was not so long ago that,
although presumption on a landlady's part would have goaded Mavis into
making an apposite retort, s