ch, and has a lovely big
house and heaps of people to wait upon her, and nice things, and--
everything! You can't think how I hate her!"

Pam leant her thin arms on the table, and meditated for a long,
thoughtful moment. When she spoke, it was, as usual, to deliver herself
of the unexpected.

"That's what you call `envy, hatred, and malice,' I s'pose," she said
thoughtfully, and Betty's head came up with a jerk to turn upon her a
glance of suspicious inquiry.

No! The round, grey eyes were as clear, as innocent, as guilelessly
adoring as she had ever seen them. They gazed into her own without a
shadow of self-consciousness, and as she met that gaze Betty flushed,
and the irritable lines disappeared from her face as if wiped out by a
sponge.

"One for you, Pam," she cried, laughing. "I _am_ a pig! A nice big
elder sister I am, to set you such an example! I'm cross, dear.
Everything has gone wrong the whole day long. You had better run off
and leave me alone, or I'll snap again. I feel all churned up inside!
This is only a temporary lapse."

"There's scones for tea; I saw the bag in the pantry. S'pose I went
downstairs and coaxed cook to toast them? You said yourself toasted
scones were soothing. If Miles smells them he's sure to come," said Pam
shrewdly, and Betty leant forward and kissed her impetuously on the
cheek.

"There's one comfort," she cried; "I've got you, and the Pet hasn't!
You are the comfort of my old age, Pamela, my child. Yes, toasted! And
lots of butter, and leave the door wide open, so that the smell may get
out, and lure Miles back."

CHAPTER TWO.

THE PEOPLE OF THE SQUARE.

Brompton Square is situated on the north side of Hyde Park, between the
Marble Arch and Lancaster Gate, and is as stiff and, for the greater
portion of the year, as gloomy in appearance as most of the regions in
the neighbourhood. The different sides of the Square differ widely in
social status, the northern side being the most, and the eastern side
the least, aristocratic and roomy. The largest house of all was a great
grey stone edifice, having a stretch of three windows on either side of
the heavy oak door. The smallest and shabbiest stood at right angles to
it, showing a shabby frontage of two windows to the gardens, and having
its front entrance in a side street. Really and truly it could barely
claim to belong to the Square at all, though the landlord claimed, and
the doctor tenant felt it