There was a hugeness in the room, radiating from the three-armed dim-globed chandelier, going up and up; to the high heavily-moulded smoke-grimed ceiling, spreading out right and left along the length of the room, a large enclosed quietness, flowing up to the two great windows, hovering up and down the dingy rep and dingy lace curtains and the drab coloured venetian blinds through whose chinks the street came in. Tansley Street was there, pressing its secret peace against the closed windows. Between the windows a long strip of mirror framed in tarnished gilt, reflected the peace of the room. Miriam glanced about peering for its secret; her eye running over the length of the faded patterned deep fringed table cover, the large cracked pink bowl in the centre, holding an aspidistra ... brown cracked leaves sticking out; the faded upholstery of the armchair opposite her, the rows of dining-room chairs across the way in line with the horsehair sofa; the piano in the space between the sofa and the window; the huge mirror in the battered tarnished gilt frame sweeping half way up the wall above the mantelpiece, reflecting the pictures and engravings hung rather high on the opposite wall, bought and liked long ago, the faded hearthrug under her feet, the more faded carpet disappearing under the long table, the dark stare of the fireplace, the heavy marble mantelpiece, the marble cased clock and opaque pink glass fat-bodied jugs scrolled with a dingy pattern, dusty lustres, curious objects in dull metal.... 2 "It'll give my chicks a better chance. It isn't fair on them--living in the kitchen and seeing nobody." "And you mean to risk sending the lodgers away." "I've been thinking about it some time. When the dining-room left I thought I wouldn't fill up again. Miss Campbell's going too." "Miss Campbell?" "The drawn-room and drawn-room bedroom ... my word ... had her rooms turned out every week, carpets up and all." "Every _week_!" "Always talking about microbes. My _word_." "How awful. And all the other people?" "I've written them" smiled Mrs. Bailey at her busily interlacing fingers. "Oh." "For the 14th prox; they're all weekly." "Then if they don't stay as boarders they'll have to trot out at once." "Well I thought if I was going to begin I'd better take the bull by the horns. I've heard of two. Norwegian young gentlemen. They're coming next week and they both want large bedrooms." "I think it's awfully plucky if you've had no experience." "Well, young lady, I see it like this. What _others_ have done, I can. I feel I must do something for the children. Mrs. Reynolds has married three of her daughters to boarders. She's giving up. Elsie is going into the typing." "You haven't written to _me_." "You stay where you are, young lady." "Well--I think it's awfully sweet of you Mrs. Bailey." "Don't you think about that. It needn't make any difference to you."