"There's One who would," replied Mrs Gosling gravely, and strangely enough, perhaps, the two girls looked uneasy, but they were thinking less of the commandments miraculously given to Moses than of the probable displeasure of the Vicar of St John the Evangelist's Church in Kilburn. "Well, we've got to do something, anyhow," said Blanche, after a pause. "I mean we'll have to get out of this and go into the country." "We might go to your uncle's in Liverpool," suggested Mrs Gosling, tentatively. "It's a long walk," remarked Blanche. Mrs Gosling did not grasp the meaning of this objection. "Well, I think we could afford third-class," she said. "Besides, though we 'aven't corresponded much of late years, I've always been under the impression that your uncle is doin' well in Liverpool; and at such a time as this I'm sure 'e'll do the right thing, though whether it would be better to let 'im know we're comin' or not I'm not quite sure." "Oh! dear!" sighed Blanche, "I do wish you'd try to understand, mother. There aren't any trains. There aren't any posts or telegraphs. Wherever we go we've just got to walk. Haven't we, Millie?" Millie began to snivel. "It's 'orrible," she said. "Well I can't understand it," repeated Mrs Gosling. By degrees, however, the controversy took a new shape. Granting for the moment the main contention that London was uninhabitated, Mrs Gosling urged that it would be a dangerous, even a foolhardy, thing to venture into the country. If there was no Government there would be no law and order, was the substance of her argument; government in her mind being represented by its concrete presentation in the form of the utterly reliable policeman. Furthermore, she pointed out, that they did not know anyone in the country, with the exception of a too-distant uncle in Liverpool, and that there would be nowhere for them to go. "We shall have to work," said Blanche, who was surely inspired by her glimpse of the silent city. "Well, we've got nearly a 'undred pounds left of what your poor father drew out o' the bank before we shut ourselves up," said her mother. "I suppose we could buy things in the country," speculated Blanche. "You seem set on the country for some reason," said Mrs Gosling with a touch of temper. "Well, we've got to get food," returned Blanche, raising her voice. "We can't live on air." "And if food's to be got cheaper in the country than in London," snapped Mrs Gosling, "my experience goes for nothing, but, of course, you know best, if I am your mother." "There isn't any food in London, cheap or dear, I keep telling you," said Blanche, and left the room angrily, slamming the door behind her. Millie sat moodily biting her nails. "Blanche lets 'er temper get the better of 'er," remarked Mrs Gosling addressing the spaces of the kitchen in which they were sitting. "It's right, worse luck," said Millie. "We shall have to go. I 'ate it nearly as much as you do."