figure", and put its owner down for years older than herself--Lilith
Gordon neither fell on her knees nor sank through the floor. Her lashes
were lowered, in a kind of dog-like submission, and her face had gone
very red when Laura ventured to look at her again; but that was all. And
Mrs. Gurley having swept Jove-like from the room, this bold girl
actually set her finger to her nose and muttered: "Old Brimstone Beast!"
As she passed Laura, too, she put out her tongue and said: "Now
then, goggle-eyes, what have you got to stare at?"

Laura was deeply hurt: she had gazed at Lilith out of the purest
sympathy. And now, as she stood waiting for Mrs. Gurley, who seemed to
have forgotten her, the strangeness of things, and the general
unfriendliness of the people struck home with full force. The late
afternoon sun was shining in, in an unfamiliar way; outside were strange
streets, strange noises, a strange white dust, the expanse of a big,
strange city. She felt unspeakably far away now, from the small, snug
domain of home. Here, nobody wanted her . . . she was alone among
strangers, who did not even like her . . . she had already, without
meaning it, offended two of them.

Another second, and the shameful tears might have found their way out.
But at this moment there was a kind of preparatory boom in the distance,
and the next, a great bell clanged through the house, pealing on and on,
long after one's ears were rasped by the din. It was followed by an
exodus from the rooms round about; there was a sound of voices and of
feet. Mrs. Gurley ceased to give orders in the passage, and returning,
bade Laura put on a pinafore and follow her.

They descended the broad staircase. At a door just at the foot, Mrs.
Gurley paused and smoothed her already faultless bands of hair; then