It might have fallen out so, anyway; but Bradley Headstone also noticed that immediately after this, Lizzie, who had not taken off her bonnet, rather hurriedly proposed that as the room was getting dark they should go out into the air. They went out; the visitors saying good night to the doll’s dressmaker, whom they left, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed, singing to herself in a sweet thoughtful little voice.

“I’ll saunter on by the river,” said Bradley. “You will be glad to talk together.”

As his uneasy figure went on before them among the evening shadows, the boy said to his sister, petulantly:

“When are you going to settle yourself in some Christian sort of place, Liz? I thought you were going to do it before now.”

“I am very well where I am, Charley.”