Posy exclaimed excitedly: "I’m dying to see them." Susan sighed. Nine hundred pounds would have bought another Dream Cottage, with a small garden. Miss Dredge continued in her monotonous voice: "Mr. Quinney left orders that they were to be brought up here." "Very good," said Susan. "Tell Mr. Miggott to bring them up." "Yes, madam." The typist moved slowly towards the door. Susan glanced at her keenly, contrasting her with Posy. In her usual kind voice she murmured: "You don’t look very well, Miss Dredge." "I am perfectly well, thank you, madam." She went out, closing the door. Susan said reflectively: "Crossed in love, I dare say." "Poor dear, I hope not." "Six months ago I did think that she and James Miggott might make a match of it." "What?" "Why shouldn’t they? Very suitable, I’m sure." "Oh yes," Posy murmured hastily. Changing the subject briskly, she went on: "If the Christopher chairs are to be placed in this room, I suppose that father means to keep them." "Till he gets a big price." Presently James appeared, followed by two men carrying the chairs. They were arranged side by side in a double row. Posy examined them with the keenest interest. Susan glanced at them and sniffed: "Fancy paying nine hundred pounds for those!" "They’re simply lovely,"’said Posy. She stroked the needlework and glanced at James’s impassive face. "It’s funny, but there’s something familiar about them to me. I must have seen them before." "Quite impossible," said James. "They came out of an old house in Ireland. They’re almost replicas of the famous Pevensey set, which Lark and Bundy bought." Susan had moved to one of the windows overlooking the dingy square. She never beheld the trees and grass without thinking of her beloved flower-garden in Melchester. The sight of the chairs annoyed her tremendously. More false gods! Would the day ever conic when her Joe, with his keen love of beauty, would turn his eyes and heart to what grew, to what was alive? She heard Posy saying: "It’s the needlework I seem to recognize." "Bother the needlework!" exclaimed Susan. "Why, mumsie, what is it?" "It worries me to see you kneeling and gloating over stupid old furniture, that’s all. Here’s your father coming. Good-looking young fellow with him, too. Much better worth looking at than them chairs." James retired. Posy joined her mother at the window. Just below stood her father and a tall stranger. Quinney was pointing out the pediment, and expatiating volubly upon the solid qualities of Georgian houses. "Father is swanking," said Posy. The two men entered the shop below. *II*