accept this little book from us. It may be a comfort to you from
time to time.'

'You are good, kind dears!' replied Monica, kissing the one on the
lips and the other on her thinly-tressed head. 'It's no use saying
you oughtn't to have spent money on me; you _will_ always do it.
What a nice "Christian Year"! I'll do my best to read some of it now
and then.'

With a half-guilty air, Virginia then brought from some corner of
the room a very small but delicate currant cake. Monica must eat a
mouthful of this; she always had such a wretched breakfast, and the
journey from Walworth Road was enough to give an appetite.

'But you are ruining yourselves, foolish people!'

The others exchanged a look, and smiled with such a strange air that
Monica could not but notice it.

'I know!' she cried. 'There's good news. You have found something,
and better than usual Virgie.'

'Perhaps so. Who knows? Eat your slice of cake like a good child,
and then I shall have something to tell you.'

Obviously the two were excited. Virginia moved about with the
recovered step of girlhood, held herself upright, and could not
steady her hands.

'You would never guess whom I have seen,' she began, when Monica was