"Thy kingdom come." But her
mind shot away at once from that image of divine order to the unrest by
which she was troubled. Pictures of strikes--staring headlines--these
crowded in upon her as she knelt, and she rose from her knees still
without having really prayed to God.

Then she came downstairs to breakfast to find that Caroline had cleaned
the room and had set the breakfast with a certain daintiness, while
leaving dust thick on the corners of the floor and under the clock on
the mantel-piece. Still, it was such a relief not to have to get up
and prepare the breakfast and light the fire that Miss Ethel tried to
forget the dust. Of course, after Caroline had gone out, she could go
round with a brush and duster, but it was a great rest in the meantime
not to start the day with tasks too arduous for her strength and her
unaccustomed muscles.

Mrs. Bradford, however, who never felt able to help in the house-work
herself, owing to something obscure about the legs, would persist in
talking all breakfast time about the dust and Caroline's other
shortcomings. "Never know when you have her. This week she is eating
at all sorts of hours because she has to go to the promenade and free
the other girl at meal times; then next week she will be here at meals
only. It is your affair, Ethel. When I came back I let you go on
doing the housekeeping, though I am a married woman. But I know when I
had a house to manage myself, I should never have put up with such
goings-on."

"It's all very well to talk. Neither should I, five years ago,"
retorted Miss Ethel. "In fact, I should not do so now if there were
any alternative. But you know perfectly well that we could not afford
to keep a good maid at the present rate of wages, even if we could get
one."

Mrs. Bradford contented herself with peering irritatingly through her
spectacles at the dusty places after that, because Miss Ethel's
statement admitted of no argument; for Mr. Bradford left his widow the
honour and glory of the conjugal state and practically nothing more
tangible. But to Miss Ethel's generation the mere fact of being
married meant more than the present one can understand, and she was
accustomed to acquiesce in her sister's air of heavy superiority,
though she knew herself to be much the more intelligent of the two.

Still her temper felt so rasped as she went out into the kitchen
carrying a tray of crockery that she was in no mood to receive kindly
any