would not have liked to see me in, and would seem to offer no chance for
the future, whereas if I went out there it would not matter what I did,
and anything I earned I could send home to you."

The speaker was a lad of sixteen. He and his sister, who was two years
his senior, were both dressed in deep mourning, and were sitting on a
bench near Southsea Castle looking across to Spithead, and the Isle of
Wight stretching away behind. They had three days before followed their
mother to the grave, and laid her beside their father, a lieutenant of
the navy, who had died two years before. This was the first time they
had left the house, where remained their four sisters--Janet, who came
between Carry and Tom; Blanche, who was fourteen; Lucie, twelve; and
Harriet, eight. Tom had proposed the walk.

"Come out for some fresh air, Carry," he had said. "You have been shut
up for a month. Let us two go together;" and Carry had understood that
he wanted a talk alone with her. There was need, indeed, that they
should look the future in the face. Since Lieutenant Wade's death their
means had been very straitened. Their mother had received a small
pension as his widow, and on this, eked out by drafts reluctantly drawn
upon the thousand pounds she had brought him on her marriage, which had
been left untouched during his lifetime, they had lived since his death.
Two hundred pounds had been drawn from their little capital, and the
balance was all that now remained. It had long been arranged that Carry
and Janet should go out as governesses as soon as they each reached the
age of eighteen, but it was now clear that Carry must remain at home in
charge of the young ones.

That morning the two girls had had a talk together, and had settled
that, as Janet was too young to take even the humblest place as a