"It _is_ dull for her, I know," said Gertrude, really distressed; "but what is to be done?" "And she has been so good all these months," answered Lucy. "She has had none of the fun, and all the anxiety and pinching, and this is the first complaint we have heard from her." "Yes, she has come out surprisingly well through it all." Gertrude sighed as she spoke, secretly reproaching herself that there was not more love in her heart for poor Fanny. Mrs. Maryon appeared at this point to offer the young ladies her own copy of the _Waterloo Place Gazette_, a little bit of neighbourly courtesy in which she often indulged, and which to-night was especially appreciated, as creating a diversion from an unpleasant topic. "'A woman shot at Turnham Green,'" cried Phyllis, glancing down a column of miscellaneous items, while the lamplight fell on her bent brown head. "'More fighting in Africa.' Ah, here's something interesting at last.--'We understand that the exhibition of Mr. Sidney Darrell, A.R.A.'s pictures, to be held in the Berkeley Galleries, New Bond Street, will be opened to the public on the first of next month. The event is looked forward to with great interest in artistic circles, as the collection is said to include many works never before exhibited in London.' _I_ shall go like a shot; sha'n't you, Gerty?" "Yes, and slip little dynamite machines behind the pictures. Let me look at that paper, Phyllis." Phyllis pushed it towards her, and, as she took it up, her eye fell on the date of the month printed at the top of the page. "Do you know," she said, "that it is a year to-day that we finally decided on starting our business?" "Is it?" said Lucy. "Do you mean from that day when Aunt Caroline came and pitched into us all?" "Yes; and when Mr. Russel's letter appeared on the scene, just as we were thinking of rushing in a body to the nearest chemist's for laudanum." "And when we made a lot of good resolutions; do you remember?" cried Phyllis. "What were they?" said Gertrude. "One was, that we would be happy." "Well, I think we have kept that one at least," observed Lucy, with decision. Gertrude looked across at her sister rather wistfully, as she answered, "Yes, on the whole. What was the other resolution? That we would not be cynical, was it not?" "There hasn't been the slightest ground for cynicism; quite the other way," said Lucy. "It is not much credit to us to have kept that resolution."