Directly Amelia caught sight of her and she burst into tears.  Mavis, somewhat disconcerted by this evidence of esteem, gave Amelia five shillings, at which the servant wept the more.

“Oh, miss! what shall I do without you?”

“You’ll get on all right.  Besides, you’re going for a holiday to Southend.”

“Moind you let me come to you when you’re married,” sobbed Amelia.

“I shouldn’t count on that if I were you.”

“Do ’ave me, miss.  I’ll always troi and ’and things so no one sees my bad oye.”

“It isn’t that I don’t want you; but it’s so unlikely that I shall ever have a home.”

Mavis offered her hand.  Amelia wiped her wet hand (she had been washing up) upon her apron before taking it.

“Oh, miss, you are good to me, and you a reel lydy.”

“Be a good girl and look after your mistresses.”  “That I will, miss.  Whatever should I sy to that there Mr. Fuskin, when I meet ’im in ’eaven, if I didn’t?”

“Good-bye, Amelia.”

“There!  I forgot,” cried Amelia.  She went to the drawer of the dresser and brought out something wrapped in tissue paper.

Mavis undid this, to find Amelia’s offering to consist of a silver brooch forming the word “May.”

“It’s the nearest I could get to your nime, miss,” she explained.

“Thank you so much.”

“It ain’t good enough for you:  nothin’ ain’t good enough for you.  Wasn’t you loved by the music master, ’im who was so lovely and dark?” wept Amelia.

It was with a heavy heart that Mavis left Brandenburg College, the walls of which had sheltered her for so long:  she did her best to be self-possessed as she kissed the Misses Mee and walked to her new address, to which her two boxes had been taken the first thing by the carriers.

The rest of the morning, and after the simple meal which Mrs Ellis provided, Mavis unpacked her things and made her room as homelike as possible.  While she was doing this, she would now and again stop to wonder if she had heard the postman’s knock; although she could hear him banging at doors up and down the street, he neglected to call at No. 20, a fact which told Mavis that so far no one had troubled to seriously consider her applications for employment.  A cup of tea with Mrs Ellis put a cheerful complexion upon matters; she spent the next few hours in finishing her little arrangements.  These completed to her satisfaction, she leaned against the window and looked hungrily towards the heavens.  It was a blue, summer evening; there was not a cloud in the sky.