ushered; as large as any of the halls in which Aunt Cora spent her
days, and how much more beautiful! They roved about, staring at the
aquarium, and gazing at the rocking-horse, the piano, the drum, the
hanging gardens, with speechless astonishment. Lisa shambled at
their heels, looking at nothing very long; and when Rhoda (one of the
neophytes), full of sympathy at the appearance of the wild, forlorn,
unkempt trio, sat herself down on a sofa and gathered them about a
wonderful picture-book, Mistress Mary's keen eyes saw that Lisa's
gaze wandered in a few minutes. Presently she crept over the floor
towards a table, and, taking a string from it, began to blow it to
and fro as it hung from her fingers. Rhoda's glance followed Mary's;
but it was only a fleeting one, for the four eyes of the twins were
riveted on hers with devouring eagerness, while they waited for her
explanation of the pictures. At the end of half an hour, in which
the children had said little or nothing, they had contrived to reveal
so many sorrowful and startling details of their mental, moral, and
physical endowment, that Mistress Mary put on her hat.

'I will go home with them,' she said. 'There is plenty of work here
for somebody; I could almost hope that it won't prove ours.'

'It will,' replied Rhoda, with a stifled sigh. 'There is an old
Eastern legend about the black camel that comes and lies down before
the door of him upon whom Heaven is going to lay her chastening hand.
Every time I have seen that awful trio on the fence-top, they were
fairly surrounded by black camels in my imagination. Mistress Mary,
I am not sure but that, in self-defence, we ought to become a highly
specialised SOMETHING. We are now a home, a mother, a nursery, a
labour bureau, a divorce court, a registry of appeals, a soup
kitchen, an advisory hoard, and a police force. If we take HER, what