yment, when she had first decided to leave Brandenburg College.
Beyond her little store of ready money, she owned a few trinkets which,
at the worst, she could sell for a little; but this was a contingency
on which she would not allow her mind to dwell just now. One or two
things she was determined not to part with; these were her mother's
wedding ring, a locket containing a piece of her father's hair, and a
bracelet which he had given her. The two old ladies would be leaving
for Worthing on the morrow; Amelia was going to Southend-on-Sea for a
fortnight. As Mavis had resolved to sever her long connection with the
college, it was necessary for her to seek lodging elsewhere.

A few minutes later, she set out upon this wearisome quest: she had
never looked for London lodgings before. Although nearly every window
in the less frequented streets displayed a card announcing that
apartments were to let, she soon discovered how difficult it was to get
anything remotely approaching her simple needs. She required a small
bedroom in a house where there was a bathroom; also, if possible, she
wanted the use of a sitting-room with a passable piano on which she
sought permission to give lessons to any pupils whom she might be
successful in getting.

Most of the doors she knocked at were answered by dirty children or by
dirtier women; these, instinctively, told Mavis that she would get
neither cleanliness nor comfort in a house frequented by such folk.
When confronted with these, she would make some excuse for knocking at
the door, and, after walking on a few yards, would attack the knocker
of another house, when, more likely than not, the door would be opened
by an even more slatternly person than before. Now and again she would
light upon a likely place, but it soon appeared to Mavis that good
landladies knew their value and made charges which were prohibitive to
the girl's slender resources.

Tired with running up and down so many steps and stairs, Mavis turned
into a milk-shop to buy a bun and a glass of milk. She asked the
kindly-faced woman who served her if she happened to know of anyone who
let clean rooms at moderate charges. The woman wrote down two
addresses, said that she would be comfortable at either of these, and
told her the quickest way of getting to them. The first name was a Mrs
Ellis, who lived at 20 Kiva Gardens. This address proved to be a neat,
two-storied house, by the side of which was a road leading to stabl