f an extra sovereign?"

"You can't possibly--"

"Yes, I can. I can buy a self-coloured paper for next to nothing--a
pretty soft blue, I think, to make a good background for the pictures--
and hang it myself, to save the expense of the workman."

"You can't possibly--"

"Nonsense! I did my own room at home, and there's no matching about a
plain paper. I could not face Theo with that atrocity on the walls.
And besides, think of my _salon_!"

"Oh, well! have it your own way," Philippa cried, with affected disgust.

It was impossible not to feel more interest in the room now that it
could be imagined in its pretty new dress, and the discussion of how it
should be arranged and decorated occupied an hour out of a dreary wait.
The sisters had slept the night before at a boarding-house, and had
hurried to the flat directly after breakfast, so as to be ready to
receive the furniture at ten o'clock as agreed. At eleven o'clock there
was no sign of the vans; but no one expects furniture-vans to be
punctual within an hour or two, and until noon the girls managed to
possess themselves in patience, and to find amusement in wandering from
room to room. But when one o'clock drew near the matter became serious.
They had brought a tea-basket with them, but there were no chairs on
which to sit, no table to hold the cups and saucers. They were growing
tired, and were longing to get to work while daylight lasted, and to
have a bed to sleep on before night fell. It was two o'clock before the
first van arrived, and seven before the men departed, leaving the two
young mistresses to thread their way between stacks of furniture,
unopened crates, and boxes of luggage. There was no room for a servant
to sleep in the flat, and the charwoman who was engaged to help could
not come until the following day, so it was hopeless to try to do more
than get one bedroom in tolerable order. By Hope's forethought the
necessary blankets and linen had been packed in one box and plainly
labelled, so preparations were soon made, and by eight o'clock the tired
workers were already longing for bed. Downstairs in the basement was a
public dining-room where dinner could be obtained for a shilling a head;
but they were too dishevelled and footsore to feel inclined to appear in
public, so they refreshed themselves instead with more tea, more cakes,
more dried-up sandwiches. Philippa leant back in her chair and sighed
heavily as she looked first at her r