ANGEL PAVEMENT

thought you might have started that headache since I
came, because you've just been as rotten as you could
be, and I didn't ask to come-I've been travelling half
the day and I'm as tired as you are— and I wouldn't
have come at all if my father hadn't told me to, and I
thought you were friends of his, but from the minute I
came in, you've not said a decent word to me or given
me a decent look — "

"Hoy!" roared her father, seizing her by the arm and
shaking her a little. "What the blazes is all this?
What's the matter with you, girl? That's not the way
to behave — "

"No, and that's not the way to behave either," cried
Lena, shaking herself free. "What have I done? I didn't
want to push myself into her beastly house." And then
she grabbed her father's arm and burst into tears. "I'm
going," she sobbed. "Take me home."

Mr. Golspie put an arm round her and she continued
her sobbing on his shoulder, "Sorry about this/' he said,
over her head. "My fault, I expect. I oughtn't to have
told her to come. The kid's a bit nervy-tired, y'know."
"Yes, of course-travelling and all that," said Mr,
Dersingham, feeling that some reply was expected.

This was Mrs. Dersingham's chance, but she did not
take it. She might have accepted the apology if her
husband had not been so ready to accept it and make
an excuse for the girl. But now she turned her back on
Mr. Golspie and his terrible daughter, and said to Mrs
Pearson: "Must you really go? It's quite early, you
know Oh Mrs. Trape, you're not going, are you?
Why? And it was well done, bravely done, but it was
a mistake, perhaps the biggest mistake she ever made
Mr. Gome's face changed its expression, all the good