Only by constant watchfulness and energy did she maintain her control over Mrs. Turpin, who was ready at any moment to relapse into her old slatternly ways.  It was not enough to hold the ground that had been gained; there must be progressive conquest; and to this end Miss Rodney one day broached a subject which had already been discussed between her and her clerical ally.

‘Why do you keep both your girls at home, Mrs. Turpin?’ she asked.

’What should I do with them, miss?  I don’t hold with sending girls into shops, or else they’ve an aunt in Birmingham, who’s manageress of—­’

‘That isn’t my idea,’ interposed Miss Rodney quietly.  ’I have been asked if I knew of a girl who would go into a country-house not far from here as second housemaid, and it occurred to me that Lily—­’

A sound of indignant protest escaped the landlady, which Miss Rodney, steadily regarding her, purposely misinterpreted.

’No, no, of course, she is not really capable of taking such a position.  But the lady of whom I am speaking would not mind an untrained girl, who came from a decent house.  Isn’t it worth thinking of?’

Mrs. Turpin was red with suppressed indignation, but as usual she could not look her lodger defiantly in the face.

‘We’re not so poor, miss,’ she exclaimed, ’that we need send our daughters into service,’

’Why, of course not, Mrs. Turpin, and that’s one of the reasons why Lily might suit this lady.’

But here was another rock of resistance which promised to give Miss Rodney a good deal of trouble.  The landlady’s pride was outraged, and after the manner of the inarticulate she could think of no adequate reply save that which took the form of personal abuse.  Restrained from this by more than one consideration, she stood voiceless, her bosom heaving.

‘Well, you shall think it over,’ said Miss Rodney, ’and we’ll speak of it again in a day or two.’

Mrs. Turpin, without another word, took herself out of the room.

Save for that singular meeting on Miss Rodney’s first night in the house, Mr. Rawcliffe and the energetic lady had held no intercourse whatever.  Their parlours being opposite each other on the ground floor, they necessarily came face to face now and then, but the High School mistress behaved as though she saw no one, and the solicitor’s clerk, after one or two attempts at polite formality, adopted a like demeanour.  The man’s proximity caused his neighbour a ceaseless irritation; of all objectionable types of humanity, this loafing and boozing degenerate was, to Miss Rodney, perhaps the least endurable; his mere countenance excited her animosity, for feebleness and conceit, things abhorrent to her, were legible in every line of the trivial features; and a full moustache, evidently subjected to training, served only as emphasis of foppish imbecility.  ’I could beat him!’ she exclaimed more than once within herself, overcome with contemptuous wrath, when she passed Mr. Rawcliffe.  And, indeed, had it been possible to settle the matter thus simply, no doubt Mr. Rawcliffe’s rooms would very soon have been vacant.