Robert's Norfolk jacket, and they all went out into the splendid
sunshine. The best way to the temple of the Phoenix seemed to be
to take the tram, and on the top of it the children talked, while
the Phoenix now and then put out a wary beak, cocked a cautious
eye, and contradicted what the children were saying.

It was a delicious ride, and the children felt how lucky they were
to have had the money to pay for it. They went with the tram as
far as it went, and when it did not go any farther they stopped
too, and got off. The tram stops at the end of the Gray's Inn
Road, and it was Cyril who thought that one might well find a short
cut to the Phoenix Office through the little streets and courts
that lie tightly packed between Fetter Lane and Ludgate Circus. Of
course, he was quite mistaken, as Robert told him at the time, and
afterwards Robert did not forbear to remind his brother how he had
said so. The streets there were small and stuffy and ugly, and
crowded with printers' boys and binders' girls coming out from
work; and these stared so hard at the pretty red coats and caps of
the sisters that they wished they had gone some other way. And the
printers and binders made very personal remarks, advising Jane to
get her hair cut, and inquiring where Anthea had bought that hat.
Jane and Anthea scorned to reply, and Cyril and Robert found that
they were hardly a match for the rough crowd. They could think of
nothing nasty enough to say. They turned a corner sharply, and
then Anthea pulled Jane into an archway, and then inside a door;
Cyril and Robert quickly followed, and the jeering crowd passed by
without seein them.

Anthea drew a long breath.