13S MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 



been a Badsworth if she hadn't taken up the cudgels on her 

 own behalf on occasion. Beneath the becoming coiffure in 

 which she appeared there lay the evidences of self-sacri- 

 fice. It had not been without a bitter pang that she had 

 uttered the death warrant of her own curly locks. Recalci- 

 trant they had ever been ; no driving mist upon the moors, 

 no salt-laden gale upon the coast, had ever succeeded in 

 reducing them to the abject condition of " out of curl " ; no 

 water-spaniel's coat could have been more defiant of the 

 elements. And now they were gone, to a certain extent at 

 least, and what remained was in a charming state of insur- 

 rection, steadfastly refusing to conform to the tyranny of 

 being parted upon one side. Lavvy turned to the mirror 

 over the fiower-decked fireplace, and put her hand to a hairpin 

 upon which, had it been known, much depended. 



It has been said that to touch the hand or features of one 

 who has passed the gloomy portal destroys for ever the bar- 

 rier of horror which stands so naturally between the living 

 and the dead. It may be so ; certainly, to fall overboard out 

 of a punt in endeavouring to withdraw a pole from a patch of 

 mud takes the shine out of the most " superior " Palinurus. 



The reason ? I cannot say ; perhaps it has to do with 

 the survival of the fittest. If not, let those decide whose 

 business it is to probe mysteries and invent what they are 

 unable to discover. 



The touch of that hairpin had a peculiar effect ; it was 

 not withdrawn but pushed more securely into its place 

 before Lavvy seated herself and confronted her audience of 

 two. Though the traces of defiance were still upon her face 

 the tone of her voice was changed. 



" I wish you hadn't taken me this afternoon, auntie," she 

 said. 



"My dear child, why?" Miss Badsworth asked, all the 

 while feeling that her pedestal was a trifie out of repair. 



" Because everything that I heard was theoretical and not 

 practical, except the quarrelling, that was practical enough. 

 Do you take sugar, Mr. Morgan ? " 



