tone of one who might be enquiring after a prison or worse.

"They'd a nice big fire," said Anne, "and until you came to look at the
people, it looked quite comfortable. But when you came to look at those
poor things, and thought that that was all they had to expect, it made
your heart ache."

"She's a good matron I've heard," said Mrs Hankworth.

"She's a kind woman," returned Anne, heartily, "and I suppose it's a
good thing they've got such a place to shelter them. But it seems a poor
end somehow, and not a place for young people. There seems to be no hope
in it, and yet it's clean, and they've got good food."

"Other people's bread doesn't taste like your own to them that's been
used to having any," returned Mrs Hankworth. "I expect, if you've never
had any of your own, you're glad to get anything. I suppose Burton's out
of the country."

"Nobody seems to know rightly," said Anne. "Jane says not a word. I
don't suppose she really knows anything."

"She'll come to see that she's better without him," said Mrs Hankworth,
taking up the prints and working the butter emphatically. "But she must
work like the rest of us. It's generally the long clothes that gets left
over," she added, "the short ones get worn out by some of them, but I'll
look and see what I can find. It'll be rather nice to be looking out
baby-things again. There's nothing you miss more than a baby, when
you've had one or other about for a good many years. But she'd never do
any good with that Burton about."