‘She’d better go to bed,’ Kate whispered.  ‘I’ll wake her.’

’No, no You needn’t stay, Kate.  I don’t want anything.  Let her sleep as she is.’

The elder sister left the room.  Then Jane approached her head to that of the sleeper, softly, softly, and her arm stole across Emma’s bosom and rested on her farther shoulder.  The fire burned with little whispering tongues of flame; the circles of light and shade quivered above the lamp.  Abroad the snow fell and froze upon the ground.

Three days later Alice Mutimer, as she sat at breakfast, was told that a visitor named Mrs. Clay desired to see her.  It was nearly ten o’clock; Alice had no passion for early rising, and since her mother’s retirement from the common table she breakfasted alone at any hour which seemed good to her.  ’Arry always—­or nearly always—­left the house at eight o’clock.

Mrs. Clay was introduced into the dining-room.  Alice received her with an anxious face, for she was anticipating trouble from the house in Wilton Square.  But the trouble was other than she had in mind.

‘Jane died at four o’clock this morning,’ the visitor began, without agitation, in the quick, unsympathetic voice which she always used when her equanimity was in any way disturbed.  ’Emma hasn’t closed her eyes for two days and nights, and now I shouldn’t wonder if she’s going to be ill herself.  I made her lie down, and then came out just to ask you to write to your brother.  Surely he’ll come now.  I don’t know what to do about the burying; we ought to have some one to help us.  I expected your mother would be coming to see us, but she’s kept away all at once.  Will you write to Dick?’

Alice was concerned to perceive that Kate was still unenlightened.

‘Did Emma know you were coming?’ she asked.

’Yes, I suppose she did.  But it’s hard to get her to attend to anything.  I’ve left her alone, ’cause there wasn’t any one I could fetch at once.  Will you write to-day?’

‘Yes, I’ll see to it,’ said Alice.  ‘Have some breakfast, will you?’

‘Well, I don’t mind just a cup o’ coffee.  It’s very cold, and I had to walk a long way before I could get a ‘bus.’

Whilst Kate refreshed herself, Alice played nervously with her tea-spoon, trying to make up her mind what must be done.  The situation was complicated with many miseries, but Alice had experienced a growth of independence since her return from Wanley.  All she had seen and heard whilst with her brother had an effect upon her in the afterthought, and her mother’s abrupt surrender into her hands of the household control gave her, when she had time to realise it, a sense of increased importance not at all disagreeable.  Already she had hired a capable servant in addition to the scrubby maid-of-all-work who had sufficed for Mrs. Mutimer, and it was her intention that henceforth domestic arrangements should be established on quite another basis.