Grant--"

"Who's Mrs. Grant?" Hilda inquired, with a touch of scorn, although she
knew perfectly well that Mr. Skellorn had a married daughter of that
name.

"Hsh! Hsh!" Mrs. Lessways protested, indicating the open door of the
sitting-room. "You know Mrs. Grant! It seems Mr. Skellorn has had a
paralytic stroke. Isn't it terrible?"

Hilda continued smoothly to descend the stairs, and followed her mother
into the sitting-room.




CHAPTER II
THE END OF THE SCENE


I

The linen money-bag and the account-book, proper to the last Wednesday
in the month, lay on the green damask cloth of the round table where
Hilda and her mother took their meals. A paralytic stroke had not been
drastic enough to mar Mr. Skellorn's most precious reputation for
probity and reliability. His statement of receipts and expenditure,
together with the corresponding cash, had been due at two o'clock, and
despite the paralytic stroke it was less than a quarter of an hour late.
On one side of the bag and the book were ranged the older women,--Mrs.