The Real Charlotte. y 



anything but what they were, the eyes of cats prowling round 

 a scullery sink. 



The tall, yellow-faced clock gave the gurgle with which it 

 was accustomed to mark the half-hour, and the old woman, 

 as if reminded of her weariness, stretched out her arms and 

 yawned loudly and dismally. 



She put back the locks of greyish-red hair that hung over 

 her forehead, and, crouching over the fireplace, she took out 

 of the embers a broken-nosed tea-pot, and proceeded to pour 

 from it a mug of tea, black with long stewing. She had 

 taken a few sips of it when a bell rang startlingly in the 

 passage outside, jarring the silence of the house with its 

 sharp outcry. Norry the Boat hastily put down her mug, 

 and scrambled to her feet to answer its summons. She 

 groped her way up two cramped flights of stairs that creaked 

 under her as she went, and advanced noiselessly in her 

 stockinged feet across a landing to where a chink of light 

 came from under a door. 



The door was opened as she came to it, and a woman's 

 short thick figure appeared in the doorway. 



" The mistress wants to see Susan," this person said in a 

 rough whisper ; " is he in the house ? " 



" I think he's below in the scullery," returned Norry ; 

 " but, my Law ! Miss Charlotte, what does she want of 

 him ? Is it light in her head she is ? " 



" What's that to you ? Go fetch him at once," replied 

 Miss Charlotte, with a sudden fierceness. She shut the 

 door, and Norry crept downstairs again, making a kind of 

 groaning and lamenting as she went. 



Miss Charlotte walked with a heavy step to the fireplace. 

 A lamp was burning dully on a table at the foot of an old- 

 fashioned bed, and the high foot-board threw a shadow that 

 made it difficult to see the occupant of the bed. It was an 

 ordinary Httle shabby bedroom ; the ceiling, seamed with 

 cracks, bulged down till it nearly touched the canopy of the 

 bed. The wall paper had a pattern of blue flowers on a 

 yellowish background ; over the chimney - shelf a filmy 

 antique mirror looked strangely refined in the company of 

 the Christmas cards and discoloured photographs that 

 leaned against it. There was no sign of poverty, but every- 

 thing was dingy, everything was tasteless, from the worn 



