"You had to learn carpentering, didn't you?" "Of course, but that's very different to dancing. Anybody can dance--some better than others; but _learn_ dancing--well, there, the ideas some women gets in their heads, it's against all nature." "Have you finished? Because I got my washing to see to. You go and talk it over at the 'Arms.' I reckon they've got more patience than me." Jenny was in bed when her mother told her she should become a pupil of Madame Aldavini. "Aren't you glad?" she asked, as her daughter made no observation. "Yes; it's all right," said Jenny, coldly it seemed. "You are a comical child." "Shall I go to-morrow?" "We'll see." Mrs. Raeburn thought to herself, as she left the room, how strange children were; and, having settled Jenny's future, she began to worry about May, who was just then showing symptoms of a weak spine, and lay awake thinking of her children half the night. Chapter VIII: _Ambition Looks in the Glass_ On Mr. Vergoe's recommendation, Madame Aldavini granted an interview to Mrs. Raeburn and her daughter, and the old clown was to accompany them on the difficult occasion. It was a warm April day when they set out, with a sky like the matrix of turquoise. The jagged purple clouds were so high that all felt the outside of an omnibus was the only place on such a day. Mrs. Raeburn and Jenny sat in front, and Mr. Vergoe sat immediately behind them, pointing out every object of interest on the route. At least, he pointed out everything until they reached Sadlers Wells Theater, after which reminiscences of Sadlers Wells occupied the rest of the journey. They swung along Rosebery Avenue and into Theobald's Road and pulled up at last by Southampton Row. Then they walked through a maze of narrow streets to Madame Aldavini's school, in Great Queen Street. No longer can it be found; whatever ghosts of dead _coryphees_ haunt the portals must spend a draughty purgatory in the very middle of Kingsway. It was a tall, gray Georgian house, with flat windows and narrow sills and a suitable cornice of dancing Loves and Graces over the door, which had a large brass plate engraved with "School of Dancing," and more bells beside it than Jenny had ever seen beside one door in her life. She thought what games could be played with Great Queen Street and its inhabitants, if it were in Islington and all the houses had as many bells. Mr. Vergoe pressed a button labeled "Aldavini," and presently they were walking along a dark, dusty passage into a little paneled room with a large desk and pictures of dancers in every imaginable kind of costume. At the desk sat Madame Aldavini herself in a dress of tawny satin. Jenny thought she looked like an organ-woman, with her dark, wrinkled face and glittering black eyes. "And how is Mr. Vergoe?" she inquired. "How are _you_, Madame?" he replied, with great deference. "I am very well, thank you."