men in their clock-department?"

"He told you all that?"

"Why, yes. I think he'd a' told me everything ever happened
to him if I'd had the time to stay and listen. I tell you he's
dead lonely, Ann Eliza."

"Yes," said Ann Eliza.


III


Two days afterward, Ann Eliza noticed that Evelina, before
they sat down to supper, pinned a crimson bow under her collar; and
when the meal was finished the younger sister, who seldom concerned
herself with the clearing of the table, set about with nervous
haste to help Ann Eliza in the removal of the dishes.

"I hate to see food mussing about," she grumbled. "Ain't it
hateful having to do everything in one room?"

"Oh, Evelina, I've always thought we was so comfortable," Ann
Eliza protested.

"Well, so we are, comfortable enough; but I don't suppose
there's any harm in my saying I wisht we had a parlour, is there?
Anyway, we might manage to buy a screen to hide the bed."