ed out. She felt quite unequal, in her present condition, to
facing Sarah, who was so sensitive, so easily shocked; and she was
deeply averse from her fine-lady sister discovering the straitness of
Richard's means and home.

But it was hard for Polly to secure a moment's privacy.

"An' so this is w'ere you're 'idin', is it?" said Long Jim
snappishly--he had been opening a keg of treacle and held a sticky plug
in his hand. "An' me runnin' my pore ol' legs off arter you!" And
Hempel met her on her entry with: "No further bad news, I 'ope and
trust, ma'am?"--Hempel always retained his smooth servility of manner.
"The shopman PAR EXCELLENCE, my dear!" Richard was used to say of him.

Polly reassured her attendants, blew her nose, re-read her letter; and
other feelings came uppermost. She noticed how scribbly the writing
was--Richard had evidently been hard pushed for time. There was an
apologetic tone about it, too, which was unlike him. He was probably
wondering what she would say; he might even be making himself
reproaches. It was unkind of her to add to them. Let her think rather
of the sad state poor John had been found in, and of his two motherless
babes. As for Sarah, it would never have done to leave her out.

Wiping her eyes Polly untied her cooking-apron and set to reviewing her
resources. Sarah would have to share her bed, Richard to sleep on the
sofa. The children ... and here she knitted her brows. Then going into
the yard, she called to Tom Ocock, who sat whittling a stick in front
of his father's house; and Tom went down to Main Street for her, and
bought a mattress which he carried home on his shoulder. This she
spread on the bedroom floor, Mrs. Hemmerde having already given both
rooms a sound scouring, just in case a flea or a spider should be lying
perdu. After which Polly fell to baking again in good earnest; for the
travellers would be famished by the time they arrived.

Towards ten o'clock Tom, who was on the look-out, shouted that the
coach was in, and Polly, her table spread, a good fire going, stepped
to the door, outwardly very brave, inwardly all a-flutter. Directly,
however, she got sight of the forlorn party that toiled up the slope:
Sarah clinging to Hempel's arm, Mahony bearing one heavy child,
and--could she believe her eyes?--Jerry staggering under the other: her
bashfulness was gone. She ran forward to prop poor Sarah on her free
side, to guide her feet to the door; and it is doubtful whe