promise I won't be late. Only half an hour.'

She waved her hand and ran off, of a sudden changed to cheerfulness.
Totty received her in the shop with a friendly laugh. Mrs. Bower's
description of Miss Nancarrow as a lad in petticoats was not inapt, yet
she was by no means heavy or awkward. She had a lithe, shapely figure,
and her features much resembled those of a fairly good-looking boy. Her
attire showed little care for personal adornment, but it suited her,
because it suggested bodily activity. She wore a plain, tight-fitting
grey gown, a small straw hat of the brimless kind, and a white linen
collar about her neck. Totty was nineteen; no girl in Lambeth relished
life with so much determination, yet to all appearance so harmlessly.
Her independence was complete; for five years she had been parentless
and had lived alone.

Thyrza was attracted to her by this air of freedom and joyousness which
distinguished Totty. It was a character wholly unlike her own, and her
imaginative thought discerned in it something of an ideal; her own
timidity and her tendency to languor found a refreshing antidote in the
other's breezy carelessness. Impurity of mind would have repelled her,
and there was no trace of it in Totty. Yet Lydia took very ill this
recently-grown companionship, holding her friend Mary Bower's view of
the girl's character. Her prejudice was enhanced by the jealous care
with which, from the time of her own childhood, she had been accustomed
to watch over her sister. Already there had been trouble between Thyrza
and her on this account. In spite of the unalterable love which united
them, their points of unlikeness not seldom brought about debates which
Lydia's quick temper sometimes aggravated to a quarrel.

So Lydia finished her marketing and turned homewards with a perturbed
mind. But the other two walked, with gossip and laughter, to Totty's
lodgings, which were in Newport Street, an offshoot of Paradise Street.

'I'm going with Annie West to a friendly lead,' Totty said; 'will you
come with us?'

Thyrza hesitated. The entertainment known as a 'friendly lead' is
always held at a public-house, and she knew that Lydia would seriously
disapprove of her going to such a place. Yet she had even a physical
need of change, of recreation. Whilst she discussed the matter
anxiously with herself they entered the house and went up to Totty's
room. The house was very small, and had a close, musty smell, as if no
fresh air