Helen with the High Hand (2nd ed.)

y, gold-rather like a first-class Yorkshire pudding. He suspected for an instant that it might be a Yorkshire pudding according to the new-fangled

and was in the act of pouring, when she s

k fi

pouring the tea on the top of the milk

oes it make?" he d

ity on China tea, and yet you don't know that milk ought to

she know that he thought himsel

hank you. Help yourself to this." She pointed to the mystery.

he asked, wi

ey omelette,

mind? Then he remembered: "You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs." Of course she had broken eggs. She had broken four eggs-she had broken the entire household stock of eggs. And he had employed that proverb scores, hundreds of times! It was one of hal

it. You'll eat it; it won't eat you. And please give me very l

he confection to his plate

e of it, on the end of his fork. He was not aware of the fact,

kshire pudding and scrambled eggs combined, together with others beyond the ken of his greedy fancy. Yes, he was a greedy man. He knew he was greedy. He was a greedy man whose evil passion had providentially been kept in check for over a quarter of a century by the gross unskilfulness, the appalling monotony, of a Mrs. Butt. Could it be that there existed women, light and light-handed creatures, creatures of originality and resource, who were capable of producing prodigies like this kidney omelette on the spur of

ke it?" sh

ked it or not. "Ay," he said, judicially, "it

help yourself. Take it al

embling lest she mi

ly, in her fine dress, on which was not a single splash or stain. He might have known that so extraordinar

cerned) did he begin to attend to his tea-his tea which sustained a mystery

hen, to use the Five Town

liar flavour (owing, perhaps, to the precedence given to milk), but

ind this tea,

ullery," she said. "I'd no idea that peo

ern under a mask of irony, "China tea

only drink Cey

o vagary on the part of Susan could surprise him. And he p

a large

went into the scullery. Indubitably there was a large tin box, p

a lifetime shattered. "That ther

t wo

. Bu

onceivable. The wretched woman must have had a key to his caddy. During his absence from the house she must have calmly helped herself to tea at five shillings a pound-a spoonful or so at a time. Doubtless she made tea

s she isn't honest, even if

ames. "Fact is, I've had difficul

l you do, my po

you that. It was you as w

a thing?" And she added, seriously: "You can't be expected t

she had taken to calling him simpl

ttered, grimly, an

ok after your supper

bout to-morrow?"

. I'll come to-morr

nday?" His gloom was no

" she replied, with i

where ye teach e

r some one. I can't bother about giving proper notice. Supposing you had been dangerously ill, I should hav

house. That was why he had encouraged her to talk freely about servants by assuring her that Mrs. Butt was not in the scullery, being well aware that Mrs. Butt was in the scullery. He had made a tool of the unsuspecting, good-natured Helen, smart though she was

wrote the same evening to her mother. From a very long an

s I shall come to live here. It's much safer. Supposing he was taken ill and died, and left all his money to hospitals and things, how awfully stupid that would be! I told him I should leave the school, and he didn't turn a hair. He's a dear, and I don't care a fig for his money-except to spend it for him. His tiny house is simpl

n Rathbone to keep house