n ironworks where
hydraulic machinery was made. The second child was a girl, upon whom had
been bestowed the names Alice Maud, after one of the Queen's daughters;
on which account, and partly with reference to certain personal
characteristics, she was often called 'the Princess.' Her age was
nineteen, and she had now for two years been employed in the show-rooms
of a City warehouse. Last comes Henry, a lad of seventeen; he had been
suffered to aim at higher things than the rest of the family. In the
industrial code of precedence the rank of clerk is a step above that of
mechanic, and Henry--known to relatives and friends as 'Arry--occupied
the proud position of clerk in a drain-pipe manufactory.

CHAPTER IV

At ten o'clock on the evening of Easter Sunday, Mrs. Mutimer was busy
preparing supper. She had laid the table for six, had placed at one
end of it a large joint of cold meat, at the other a vast flee-pudding,
already diminished by attack, and she was now slicing a conglomerate
mass of cold potatoes and cabbage prior to heating it in the frying-pan,
which hissed with melted dripping just on the edge of the fire. The
kitchen was small, and everywhere reflected from some bright surface
either the glow of the open grate or the yellow lustre of the gas-jet;
red curtains drawn across the window added warmth and homely comfort to
the room. It was not the kitchen of pinched or slovenly working folk;
the air had a scent of cleanliness, of freshly scrubbed boards and
polished metal, and the furniture was super-abundant. On the capacious
dresser stood or hung utensils innumerable; cupboards and chairs had a
struggle for wall space; every smallest object was in the place assigned
to it by use and wont.

The housewife was an active woman of something less than sixty; stout,
fresh-featured, with a small keen eye, a firm mouth, and the look of
one who, conscious of responsibilities, yet feels equal to them; on the
whole a kindly and contented face, if lacking the suggestiveness which
comes of thought. At present she seemed on the verge of impatience; it
was supper time, but her children lingered.

'There they are, and there they must wait, I s'pose,' she murmured to
herself as she finished slicing the vegetables and went to remove the
pan a little from the fire.

A knock at the house door called her upstairs. She came down again,
followed by a young girl of pleasant countenance, though pale and
anxious-looking. The