e
herself to allow of the existence of any sympathy between them.
Maggie, even before Mrs. Howland met Martin the Shepherd's Bush
grocer, had been more or less a thorn in the flesh to her mother.

Laburnum Villa was furnished, as James Martin expressed it, with an
eye to comfort. There were solid arm-chairs with deep seats and good
springs, and these were covered with maroon-colored leather. There
were thick, maroon-colored curtains to the dining-room windows, and
all the furniture of the room was of solid oak. There was a rich
Turkey carpet on the floor, and prints of different hunting scenes--by
no means bad in their way--hanging on the walls. The paint-work of the
room was of dull red, and the paper was of the same tone. It was a
small room, and the furniture was large and heavy, but it represented
in Martin's eyes the very essence of comfort. The fireplace was
modern, and when it was piled up with goodly lumps of coal it caused a
warmth to pervade the whole room which, as Mrs. Martin expressed it,
was very stimulating. The house had electric light, which both Mr. and
Mrs. Martin considered distinguished.

They spent most of their time in the dining-room, although Mrs.
Martin, with some faint instinct still left of her own life, would
have preferred to use the drawing-room in the evenings; but when she
suggested this Bo-peep said, "No, no, Little-sing; I can smoke here
and sit by the fire, and enjoy the rest which I have rightly earned. I
hate rooms full of fal-lals. You can keep your drawing-room for the
time when I am out, Little-sing."

Mrs. Martin knew better than to oppose her husband. She recognized her
own weakness, and knew that against his fiat she could no more
exercise her puny strength than a babbling stream can disturb a great
rock. She used her drawing-room when Bo-peep was out, and regarded it
with intense satisfaction. It is true that the colors were crude, for
James Martin would have screamed at any Liberty tints. But the carpet
was good of its kind, the pictures on the walls not too atrocious.
Although they were in gilt frames, the large mirrors over the
mantelpiece and at one end of the room were first rate; in short, the
drawing-room was fairly presentable, and Mrs. Martin had some traces
of her old life still lingering about her which gave a look of
domesticity and even repose to the place. Her little work-basket, with
its embroidery, was home-like and pleasant. She had forgotten how to
play,