trouble, and there is trouble at 'Littlecote,' as sure as my name is
Jane."

"Then, in that case, why don't you go up to the house and
inquire?"--The query suggested a challenge.

"_Mitty_! You know perfectly well that I have never been inside the
door since Mrs. Shafto was so rude to me about the book club, when I
wrote and protested against the 'loose' novels she put upon her list.
Why, you saw her letter yourself!"

Here a pause ensued, during which Miss Jane blew into every separate
finger of her gloves and folded them up with the neatest exactitude.
Presently she murmured with a meditative air:

"I was thinking of asking Eliza to run over."

"Oh, you may ask!" rejoined her sister, with a sniff of scorn, "but
Eliza won't stir. There's a beefsteak pudding for dinner. And that
reminds me that this is the egg woman's day, and I must see if she has
called. I shall want three dozen."

And without another word the elder Miss Tebbs bustled out of the room
and abandoned her relative to solitude and speculation.

Matilda and Jane Tebbs were the elderly orphans of a late vicar, and
still considered the parish and community of Tadpool their special
charge. Miss Jane was organist and Sunday school superintendent; Miss
Tebbs held mothers' meetings and controlled the maternity basket and
funds. Subsequent to their retirement from the vicarage the sisters