"Then that is excellent--excellent," said Mrs Moore. She looked at me wistfully, as though she meant to say something, but her next remark was, "It is a very nice, suitable arrangement." When tea was over I said I thought I ought to be going home. I had a hunger which was filling my heart. My body had been well fed-- surprisingly well fed for me--that day. Had not Hannah supplied me with mutton-chops and potatoes, and Mrs Moore with hot cakes and fragrant tea? But I was hungry in another sort of way. I wanted to look at my mother's picture. I wanted to gaze at the face of my very own mother. I meant to do so when I was quite alone in my bedroom that night. So I said hastily, "I must go back now;" and Mrs Moore went to put on her bonnet. While she was away I knocked at Augusta's door. "Who's there?" she called out. "It's I. I want to say good-bye." "Don't come in, I beg of you. Good-bye." "Good-bye," I answered, feeling somewhat offended. I heard her muttering words inside the room. They became louder: "And like a dying lady, lone and pale, Who totters forth wrapped in a gauzy veil." Mrs Moore opened her door. "What is the matter with Augusta?" I said. "Nothing; she is only reciting. She is mad on Shelley at present.-- Good-bye, Gussie; I am going to see your friend, Miss Grant, to the Twopenny Tube." Augusta replied in a still louder rendering of the words: "Art thou pale from weariness Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth--" We went into the street. Mrs Moore took me to the station, and saying she had something to do in another part of the street, she bade me on affectionate good-bye. I returned to our own house, and when I got there I found Alex and Charley and Von Marlo, as we always called him, waiting for me. "Then it's quite true," said Alex, "that we are to have the whole evening to ourselves? I have brought some grub in, and we are going to cook it ourselves in the parlour. You must help us, Dumps. It doesn't matter how shabby your frock is; you have got to be the cook." "Oh, how scrumptious!" I cried. I felt just in the humour. "And we can be as noisy as ever we like," said Charley. "Only we won't do anything to hurt your feelings, Miss Rachel," said Von Marlo. "The main thing of all is," said Charley, "that Hannah isn't to know." "Oh, we can easily manage that," I said. "She won't come upstairs unless we ring for her. She never does." "I've taken precious good care that she doesn't come upstairs," said Alex, "for I've locked the door at the top of the kitchen stairs;" and he produced the key in triumph from his pocket. "Oh Alex, suppose by any sort of manner or means she wanted to come! Why, she would never forgive us." "Serve her right. She won't answer our rings of late, so now we'll keep her downstairs in that sweet spot in which she so loves to dwell." "But," I said, "our dinner?"