place, as they only took enough furniture for their
small house, and Nannie had taken a tender and sad farewell of her
charges.

'I feel,' said Gwen, after they had watched her driven away in a cab
with all her little belongings, 'that Nannie does not expect to see any
of us again. She has given us her dying blessing, like Jacob did to
his sons. I wonder if her verses will prove prophetic.'

Captain Knox went with them to the station, to see the last of Clare.
He cheered her up by saying he would run down and see them before he
went abroad, and the sisters were all doing their best to be cheerful.
They had sent down two young maids the day before to get things
comfortable, and both Agatha and Gwen had been backwards and forwards
arranging their furniture, so that they did not feel they were going
into a comfortless house.

'I always like everything new,' asserted Elfie. 'I feel quite excited
to see what it will be like.'

'I think it is a dear little place,' Agatha said. 'I am sure we shall
be happy there.'

But their arrival at Brambleton station was in the midst of steady,
driving rain, and a wind that threatened instant destruction to open
umbrellas. A fly was found, and they were soon driving along the
country road, all distant scenery being obliterated by mist and wet.
Clare's spirits sank at once.

'What a dreadful day, and what miserable country!'

'I hope the house won't be damp,' Agatha said anxiously.

Then Gwen laughed.

'Oh, for pity's sake, don't all begin to croak! We do have wet days in
London. If Jane and Martha have done their work properly, we shall
soon forget the wet when we are inside.'

Slowly the fly lumbered along, and darkness had set in when they at
last reached their new home.

Mrs. Tucker, who was keeping the maids company, came bustling to the
door, and when they saw the cheerful little dining-room with its
blazing fire and well-spread table for their evening meal, the wind and
wet outside were forgotten.

Elfie ran in and out of the rooms, delighted with the quaintness of it
all, and Clare grew quite enthusiastic over the carved wood decorations.

'He must be an artist,' she exclaimed. 'How could he go off and leave
it all to strangers?'

The rooms, though lacking as yet in all the details of comfort, were
quite habitable, and the late dinner was a merry meal.

'We shall be a community of women, with no opportunities of getting
away from one another occasionally