THE GIRL’S OWNPAPER
Vol. XX.—No. 1005.]
[Price One Penny.
APRIL 1, 1899.
[Transcriber’s Note: This Table of Contents was not present in the original.]
THE HOUSE WITH THE VERANDAH.
VARIETIES.
A RAISED FLOWER-BED.
ABOUT PEGGY SAVILLE.
HOUSEHOLD HINTS.
THANK GOD FOR MAY.
A HAPPY HEALTHY GIRLHOOD.
“THAT LUNCHEON!”
LETTERS FROM A LAWYER.
THREE GIRL-CHUMS, AND THEIR LIFE IN LONDON ROOMS.
“OUR HERO.”
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.
THE HOUSE WITH THE VERANDAH
All rights reserved.]
CHAPTER I.
A lady came out of a little house set in thecorner of a quiet street on the northern edge ofBloomsbury. The house she left was tiny andodd-shaped, and seemed to have been built as anafterthought on a remnant of ground spared fromthe erection of its high, solemn, symmetricalneighbours, which towered two storeys above it.Among the dark dingy brick houses its front alonewas painted, and it was also rounded in form,probably to give a little more space to its smallrooms. It had a verandah too, whose top madea sort of balcony for the upper windows, and thewhole was decorated by bright hardy creepers.
As the lady left the house, she proceeded tocross the road. About midway she paused, andlooking back, she smiled and nodded to somebodynot very distinctly visible. Then something movingat the French window opening on the verandahcaught her eye. This was a maid-servant witha little child, and the lady, nodding with greaterenergy and kissing her hand, hurried on her way.
She had a light, swift step, and a bright mobileface. But it bore a strain of repressed, intenseemotion scarcely to be understood in a prettyyoung woman with a houseful of living treasures.
On and on she went, threading her way acrosssquares and along streets, looking neither to theright hand nor to the left, her thoughts evidentlyturned within herself. At last she emerged at thesouth-western side of Bloomsbury, into a street{418}chiefly taken up by shops and hotels.She slackened her pace a little, as onemay if one wishes to prolong a pleasanthope which may not be crowned byrealisation.
She