purposely ordered more than she and Miss Everard could eat, but the
butcher's bill and the milk bill were not paid so regularly as
heretofore. Worse than privation, worse than debt, was the vain
watching for inquiries and answers to her advertisement. What would
become of her? Where could she go? Three more boarders she must
have or she could not live, and there was no prospect of one. If by
great good luck she could obtain three, they might not stay and the
dismal struggle would begin again. Lodging-house keepers are not
the heroines of novels and poems, but if endurance, wrestling with
adversity, hoping in despair, be virtues, the eternal scales will
drop in favour of many underground basements against battlefields.
At last, after one or two pressing notices from landlord and rate-
collector, Mrs. Mudge and Miss Everard were informed that Russell
House was to be given up. She and Helen must seek situations as
servants.

Mrs. Mudge and Miss Everard went away at the end of the month. On
the dining-room table after they had gone Miss Toller found two
envelopes directed to her. Inside were some receipts. Mrs. Mudge
had paid all the rent due to the end of Miss Toller's term, and Miss
Everard the taxes. Next week Miss Toller had the following letter
from her father


'MY DEAR MARY,--This is to tell you that your stepmother departed
this life last Tuesday fortnight. She was taken with a fit on the
Sunday. On Tuesday morning she came to herself and wished us to
send for the parson. He was here in an hour and she made her peace
with God. I did not ask you to the funeral as you had been so long
away. My dear Mary, I cannot live alone at my age. I was sixty-