ODOUR OF CHRYSANTHEMUMS

and peered at the other, upon whom fell a dim light through
the blind of the kitchen window.

"Is it Mrs. Bates ?" she asked in a tone tinged with respect.

"Yes. I wondered if your Master was at home. Mine
hasn't come yet."

"'Asn't 'e ! Oh, Jack's been 'ome an 'ad 'is dinner long
since. E's just gone for 'alf an hour afore bedtime, but 'e
won't be long. Did you call at the ' Prince of Wales' ?"*

"No ---- "

"No, you didn't like ---- ! It's not very nice." The
other woman was indulgent. There was an awkward pause.
"Jack never said nothink about -- about your Mester,"* she
said.

"No ! -- I expect he's stuck in there !"

Elizabeth Bates said this bitterly, and with recklessness.
She knew that the woman across the yard was standing at her
door listening, but she did not care. As she turned:

"Stop a minute ! I'll just go an' ask Jack if 'e knows any-
think* ," said Mrs. Rigley.

"Oh, no--I wouldn't like to put ---- !"

"Yes, I will, if you'll just step inside an' see as th' childer
doesn't come downstairs and set theirselves afire."*

Elizabeth Bates, murmuring a remonstrance, stepped inside.
The other woman apologised for the state of the room.

The kitchen needed apology. There were little frocks and
trousers and childish undergarments on the squab* and on the
floor, and a litter of playthings everywhere. On the black
American cloth* of the table were pieces of bread and cake,
crusts, and a teapot with cold tea.

"Eh, ours is just as bad," said Elizabeth Bates, looking at
the woman, not at the house. Mrs. Rigley put a shawl over
her head and hurried out, saying :

"I shanna* be a minute."

The other sat, noting with faint disapproval the general
untidiness of the room. Then she fell to counting the shoes
of various sizes scattered over the floor. There were twelve.
She sighed and said to herself, "No wonder !" -- glancing at
the litter. There came the scratching of two pairs of feet on
the yard, and the Rigleys entered. Elizabeth Bates rose.
Rigley was a big man, with very large bones. His head looked
particularly bony. Across his temple was a large blue scar,
caused by a wound got in the pit, a wound in which the coal-
dust remained blue like tattooing.

" 'Asna 'e come whoam yit? "* asked the man, without any

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