he
afternoon; you have to stitch them yourself, dear. Tights, which you buy
ready-made and which cost just ten times as much and last only half as
long, are much more convenient, aren't they, Lily? To say nothing of the
absurdity of an ugly girl like you showing yourself in tights!"

"And the troupe," said Pa. "What would the troupe look like? Might as well
not have a troupe; there'd be no one but you!"

"Well, what harm would that do? I _am_ the troupe!" said Lily, tossing her
obstinate forehead. "And all the money you give them you could give me!"

"Lily," said Pa, alarmed, "you deserve to be smacked for that!"

"Oh, Pa, what an idea!" said Lily, who was just arranging her fringe
before the glass. "A Pa to beat his Lily for a little thing like that,
away from work!" And, darting a bright smile at Pa, "You never would, Pa,
would you?" she ventured.

Clifton, taken aback, looked at his Lily, as if to say that she was right,
damn it! But Ma, in her fury, cried:

"Wait a bit! You shall see if _I_ would!"

Bang! A box on the ears, followed by an order to go to her room, on dry
bread and water, impudence! And practise her banjo till the evening!

The blow itself was nothing, but what an humiliation for Lily, who, only
yesterday, had been told that she had the sweetest nose in the world,
cheeks to cover with kisses, eyes, lovely eyes: there wasn't a girl in a
hundred with eyes like that, by Jove! And those lovely eyes were only fit
to cry with! And those pretty cheeks Ma had covered with smacks! When she
thought of it, she felt inclined to kick over the traces. Did they think
her such a kid, then, her Pa and Ma? She'd show Ma if she was fourteen!
She'd be off like the others. Lily, at this idea, felt her heart come into
her mouth: no, no; she would never dare; she never would. She swore it to
herself; took the great oath of the stage: three fingers of her right hand
uplifted, the left hand on her lucky charm. And yet, one day, she would
marry. She didn't lack chances, if she wanted them. And a gentleman, too!
And her Pa and Ma, to disgust her, of course, pretended that he was
married! They must take her for an idiot: how could Trampy be married,
considering that he had suggested ... suggested different things to
her?...

Lily brooded like this, reviewing the tiny events of which her life was
made up. Then a gleam of sunshine came to change her thoughts. She amused
herself by breathing on the window-pane, making a ci