widdling her thumbs! Had Mr. Clifton thought of that?

Yes, Mr. Clifton had thought of it. He was too tired to explain his
reasons; but take it from him, it was best like that. Pa, in fact, feared
lest that smashed eye might prove a worry to him: the papers weren't in
order. He had made no declaration to the police; there was the Workmen's
Compensation Act.... Much better keep Maud safe in the house, for a while
...

"Lily won't sit twiddling her thumbs for all that, will you, Lily?"
continued Pa, smiling to his star.

A touch of the brush and comb, a stroll through the streets with the
girls, by leave of Pa, who wished Lily to take the air, then home again,
more housework.... The apprentices, who did not yet perform in public,
were sent to bed early, while Lily, escorted by Pa, went off to East,
West, South or North London. An hour to get there; then undress, dress,
appear on the stage under Pa's eye, undress and dress again; another hour
to get back; a morsel of cold Irish stew, a cup of tea; and drowsily up to
her room and bed....

CHAPTER II

"Lily!"

Ma's voice woke her with a start in the morning. Lily dressed quickly and
quickly ran down-stairs to the kitchen, where Maud had gone before her;
and it was the same thing every day, except on tour, when discipline was
less strict. It had gone on for months and months, for two years, ever
since they came to London. Pa, with his iron will, had overcome
everything. He felt at home in the old country, at last. After his
engagements in the London suburbs, he had obtained a triumph at the
Castle, a Bill and Boom tour of forty weeks, a season at Blackpool, the
Harrasford tour now, successes everywhere. Before his boyish little girls,
before his own particular troupe, the fat freaks trembled in their
knickers! For Clifton, the new-comer, but yesterday unknown, it was an
unhoped-for success and fame and fortune.

Ma nearly always remained in London with Maud. Lily was not big enough yet
to need the supervision of a Ma. Therefore, on tour,--when she was not
practising with her Pa,--Lily did the catering, saw to the porridge and
the Irish stew; Pa was not hard to please. Provided Lily was "great" on
the stage, he asked for nothing more. Dishes burned for want of butter,
salad mixed in the wash-hand basin: he swallowed everything with an
appetite, ate standing, with his plate on the trunk, or else seated with
the girls round a little table hardly large enough for