They were called the Inevitables.
No one ever thought of them by any other name. They were quite aware of
it and rather liked it. It was something to be in constant evidence.
What other five sisters would live together in such harmony? Well, these
five ladies were for ever running in her head. For a long time past she
had felt like all five ladies rolled into one. She was one great
Inevitable. Fate was a little cruel. Her movements might be compared to
those of the elephant. As for her husband, he could still run up and
down stairs like a lamplighter--almost pass through a keyhole--but it
took her five minutes to get up a dozen steps. Soon it would take her
ten. And then she wanted pulling up in front and pushing up behind. It
was quite a ceremony. She had serious thoughts of having a crane and
pulley adjusted to her windows, and of being hoisted up and down, but
the question was whether a hempen rope would bear her weight, or
anything under a cast-iron chain. Was it true that Queen Victoria was
carried wherever she went, because she suffered from rheumatism? Ah! it
was a great thing to be a queen. No ledgers to post up; no anxiety as to
whether the balance would be on the right side at the end of every
month. What a blessing to have a good, solid, comfortable margin at
one's bankers to draw upon for contingencies, which was only another
word for the unexpected. This year it was painting inside, next year
painting outside. If there was no painting, it was chairs, tables or
linen. The extras went on for ever and swallowed up all the profits."

We thought the old lady, like the extras, would also have gone on for
ever, but to our infinite relief a piercing shriek was heard from an
upper region. Madame turned pale and mildly echoed the scream.

"My dear daughter!" she cried. "Something has frightened her, or she is
suddenly taken worse. She is always being taken worse, though worse from
what I cannot possibly imagine. Sometimes I think it is fancy or
hysteria. She is really perfectly well all the time."

At this moment the mysterious daughter appeared upon the scene, running
downstairs at a speed that testified to the soundness of her limbs,
whatever her state of nerves.

"A dreadful mouse," she moaned, throwing herself into her mother's
capacious protection. "It ran right over my feet, across the room, and
went into my little cupboard."

"Perhaps you have some cake there?" said this sensible mamma.

"A mere fragmen