e was no boiling water, of course, and the kitchen fire was raked
out; and Dorothy was sitting in solitary state, looking very grim.

"It is time for folks to be in their beds, Miss Phillis," she said,
very crossly. "I don't hold with tea myself so late: it excites
people, and keeps them awake."

"Mother is not just the thing, and a cup of tea will do her good.
Don't let us keep you up, Dorothy," replied Phillis, blandly. "I have
lighted the drawing-room-fire, and I can boil the kettle in there. If
mother has got a chill, I would not answer for the consequences."

Dorothy grew huffy at the mention of the fire, and would not aid or
abet her young lady's "fad," as she called it.

"If you don't want me, I think I will go to bed, Miss Phillis. Susan
went off a long time ago." And, as Phillis cheerfully acquiesced in
this arrangement, Dorothy decamped with a frown on her brow, and left
Phillis mistress of the situation.

"There, now, I have got rid of the cross old thing," she observed, in
a tone of relief, as she filled the kettle and arranged the little
tea-tray.

She carried them both into the room, poising the tray skilfully in her
hand. Nan looked up in a relieved way as she entered. Mrs. Challoner
was stretching out her chilled hands to the blaze. Her face had lost
its pinched unnatural expression; it was as though the presence of
her girls fenced her in securely, and her misfortune grew more shadowy
and faded into the background. She drank the tea when it was given to
her, and even begged Nan to follow her example. Nan took a little to
please her, though she hardly believed its solace would be great; but
Phillis and Dulce drank theirs in a business-like way, as though they
needed support and were not ashamed to own it. It was Nan who put down
her cup first, and leaned her cheek against her mother's hand.

"Now, mother dear, we want to hear all about it. Does Mr. Trinder say
we are really so dreadfully poor?"

"We have been getting poorer for along time," returned her mother,
mournfully; "but if we had only a little left us I would not complain.
You see, your father would persist in these investments in spite of
all Mr. Trinder could say, and now his words have come true." But this
vague statement did not satisfy Nan; and patiently, and with
difficulty, she drew from her mother all that the lawyer had told
her.

Mr. Challoner had been called to the bar early in life, but his career
had hardly been a successf