glad to go.
And nobody can save me!"

And Miss Gailey's excellent silk dress, and her fine apron, and her
primness and dignified manners, and her superb pretence of being
undamaged struck Hilda as intolerably pathetic--so that she was obliged
to look away lest she might weep at the sight of that pathos. Yes, it
was a fact that she could not bear to look! Nor could she bear to let
her imagination roam into Miss Gailey's immediate past! She said to
herself: "Only yesterday morning perhaps she didn't know where her next
meal was coming from. He must have managed somehow to give her some
money. Only yesterday morning perhaps she didn't know where her next
meal--If I say that to myself once more I shall burst out crying!" She
balanced her spoon on her teacup and let it fall.

"Now, Miss Fidgety!" her mother commented, with good humour. And then
they all heard a knock at the front door.

"Will Florrie have heard it?" Mrs. Lessways asked nervously. What she
meant was: "Who on earth can this be?" But such questions cannot be put
in the presence of a newly reconciled old friend. It was necessary to
behave as though knocks at the front door were a regular accompaniment
of tea.

CHAPTER XI
DISILLUSION

I

The entrance of George Cannon into the parlour produced a tumult greatly
stimulating the vitality and the self-consciousness of all three women.
Sarah Gailey's excitement was expressed in flushing, and in
characteristic small futile movements of the head and hands, and in
monosyllables that conveyed naught except a vague but keen apprehension.
Mrs. Lessways was perturbed and somewhat apprehensive also; but she was
flattered and pleased. Hilda was frankly suspicious during the first
moments. She guessed that Mr. Cannon was aware of his sister's visit,
and that he had come to further his own purposes. He confirmed her idea
by greeting his sister without apparent surprise; but as, in response to
Mrs. Lessways' insistence, he took off his great overcoat, with those
large, powerful gestures which impress susceptible women and give
pleasure even to the indifferent, he said casually to Sarah Gailey, "I
didn't expect to meet you here, Sally. I've come to have a private word
with Mrs. Lessways about putting one of her Calder Street tenants on to
the pavement." Sarah laughed nervously and said that she would retire,
and Mrs. Lessways said that Sarah would do no such thing, and that she
was very welcome to hear all that Mr.