This new vein put him in heart. His fees, towards the end of the year,
were less than last year, because there was no hundred-guinea fee; but
there was a marked increase in the small fees, and the unflagging pen
had actually earned him two hundred pounds, or nearly. So he was in good
spirits.

Not so Mrs. Staines; for some time she had been uneasy, fretful, and
like a person with a weight on her mind.

One Sunday she said to him, "Oh, dear, I do feel so dull. Nobody to go
to church with, nor yet to the Zoo."

"I'll go with you," said Staines.

"You will! To which?"

"To both; in for a penny, in for a pound."

So to church they went; and Staines, whose motto was "Hoc age," minded
his book. Rosa had intervals of attention to the words, but found plenty
of time to study the costumes.

During the Litany in bustled Clara, the housemaid, with a white jacket
on so like her mistress's, that Rosa clutched her own convulsively,
to see whether she had not been skinned of it by some devilish
sleight-of-hand.

No, it was on her back; but Clara's was identical.

In her excitement, Rosa pinched Staines, and with her nose, that went