r proof of their
guilt, nor even find any motive for them abstracting such things.

And after the disappearance of each fresh article, Pip used to ask
whether the corduroy-trousered gentleman had been to the house the
night before. And as it always happened, that he had, Martha could do
nothing but cast a wrathful glance at the boy and flounce from the
room.

One night the little chess-table from the nursery was spirited away.

Pip fell upon Martha's neck the next morning early, as she was
sweeping the carpet, and affected to be dissolved in tears.

"'We never prize the violet,'" he said, in broken tones. "Ah!
Martha, Martha! we never felt what a treasure we had in you till now,
when your days with us are numbered."

"Get along with you," she said, hitting out at him with the broom
handle. "And I ain't a-goin' to leave, so don't you think it. You'd
have it your own way then too much. No; you don't get shut of
Martha Tomlinson just yet, young man."

"But won't he be wanting you, Martha?" he said gently. "His
furnishing must be nearly finished now. He's not taken a saucepan
yet, nor a flat-iron, I know; but there's everything else, Martha;
and I don't mind telling you in confidence I'm thinking of giving you
a flat-iron myself as a wedding present, so you needn't wait till he
comes for that."

"Get out with you!" said Martha again, thrusting the broom-head
right into his face, and nearly choking him with dust. "It's a limb
of the old gentleman himself you are."

Away in the loft things were getting very comfortable.

A couple of rugs hung on the walls kept out the draught. Judy's bed,
soft and warm, was in a corner; she had a chair to sit in, a
table to eat at, even a basin in which to perform her ablutions.
And she had company all day; and nearly always all night. Once Meg
had stolen away, after fastening her bedroom door, and had shared the
bed in the loft; once Nellie had gone, and the other night Pip had
taken a couple of blankets and made himself a shakedown among the straw.
They used to pay her visits at all hours of the day, creeping up the
creaking ladder one after the other, whenever they could get away
unnoticed.

The governess had, as it happened, a fortnight's holiday, to nurse a
sick mother, so the girls and Bunty had no demands on their time. Pip
used to go to school late and come back early, cajoling notes of excuse,
whenever, possible, out of Esther. He even played the truant once