Marcia took Molly's damp, hot little hand in her own cool one, and led the way into the summer parlour. It had been a very ugly and neglected room, but it was so no longer. Marcia, by a very simple arrangement of art muslin had contrived to transform it into a pale green bower of beauty. The tea equipage was on the table, and very pretty did the cups and saucers look. There was fruit, the fruit that happened to be in season; there were flowers; there were hot cakes; there was fragrant tea; there were even new-laid eggs. "Oh, I declare," said Nesta, cheering up, for she was fond of her meals; "this does look good." "Shall I pour out tea?" said Molly. "You may in future, Molly. I hope you will, but wouldn't you like me to do so to-day?" "Yes, please, Marcia." Marcia sat down and helped her sisters, and while she did so she chatted. She was quite bright and cheerful. "I have had your rooms altered a little too," she said. Molly looked up with a frown. "Yes, I hope you will forgive me, but I think they look rather nice. And instead of that sort of lumber room where you always fling everything you don't want to use at the moment, I have made a second little bedroom for Nesta." "For me?" said Nesta. "Golloptious! I did want a bedroom to myself." "I thought you were fearfully crowded, and I wanted besides--" "What is the matter?" said Molly suddenly. "To make things as different as possible from what they were during that night." "I do believe you are kind," said Molly, and something hot came at the back of her eyes, which made them suspiciously bright for a moment. "If you will only believe that, my darlings, I don't care how hard I work," said the elder sister. The meal came to an end, the girls had eaten even as much as Nesta's healthy appetite demanded, and accompanied by Marcia they went upstairs. Did they not know those stairs well--that darn in the carpet, that shabby blind at the lobby window, that narrow landing just above? And mother's room at the far end of the passage--mother's room with the green baize door, which was supposed to shut away sound, but did not. Oh, did they not remember it all, and how it looked on that awful night? And this was the way to their room. What had they not endured during that night in their own room? Molly almost staggered. "Aren't you well, dear?" said Marcia very tenderly. "I--I don't know. Oh, yes, I suppose so. I'm all right--I mean it's just a little overcoming," she said, after a minute's pause. "Past memories, you know." "I quite understand. But see your room, it is quite altered."