Ann Smith 
didn’t keep it on. He took a larger farm and 
another house at Frimley ; and Ann went to live 
at Brixton with her youngest sister, Mary, married 
to a builder there. By and by, the builder dying 
and leaving Mary all but penniless (he had been 
speculating heavily), these two sisters had to work 
for their living again. Mary, it’s true, had the 
house they lived in—it was mortgaged, I fancy— 
and was at least nominally the mistress, though 
there was no feeling of superiority or inferiority 
between the sisters. They took life laughingly 
and good-humouredly; they liked their lodgers 
and were liked by them. Only, the builder’s 
debts were now his widow’s; and the worry and 
anxiety arising from them preyed upon her so, 
that after some years—I have no dates—she 
developed heart trouble and soon died. So 
there was Ann (who had played sick-nurse now 
for the third time—first to Susan, then to her 
mother, and now to Mary) left alone again. And 
the family was dwindling fast. She had no sister 
left—my mother at Farnham was dead—and there 
was but one brother left alive—John, at Frimley. 
Both he and Ann were getting on in years 
too. 
What was Ann to do? She couldn’t stay in 
Brixton ; the old house at Farnborough had been 
given up; she had next to no property—about 
ten shillings a week was her income. She was 
too old for employment ; and now she was home- 
189 
