'Well, it's if _you_ can manage, mum,' she replied. 'I don't see as
I could have any fault to find, if you thought you could both live
in that little room. And as for the rent, _I_ should be quite
satisfied if we said seven shillings instead of five and six.'

'Thank you, Mrs. Conisbee; thank you very much indeed. I will write
to my sister at once; the news will be a great relief to her. We
shall have quite an enjoyable little holiday together.'

A week later the eldest of the three Miss Maddens arrived. As it was
quite impossible to find space for her boxes in the bedroom, Mrs.
Conisbee allowed them to be deposited in the room occupied by her
daughter, which was on the same floor. In a day or two the sisters
had begun a life of orderly tenor. When weather permitted they were
out either in the morning or afternoon. Alice Madden was in London
for the first time; she desired to see the sights, but suffered the
restrictions of poverty and ill-health. After nightfall, neither she
nor Virginia ever left home.

There was not much personal likeness between them.

The elder (now five-and-thirty) tended to corpulence, the result of
sedentary life; she had round shoulders and very short legs. Her
face would not have been disagreeable but for its spoilt complexion;
the homely features, if health had but rounded and coloured them,
would have expressed pleasantly enough the gentleness and sincerity
of her character. Her cheeks were loose, puffy, and permanently of
the hue which is produced by cold; her forehead generally had a few
pimples; her shapeless chin lost itself in two or three fleshy