CHAPTER XXVII.
CLARA'S RETURN Mrs.Eagles, a middle-aged woman of something more than average girth, always took her time in ascending to that fifth storey where she and her husband shared a tenement with the Hewett family.

This afternoon her pause on each landing was longer than usual, for a yellow fog, which mocked the pale glimmer of gas-jets on the staircase, made her gasp asthmatically.

She carried, too, a heavy market-bag, having done her Saturday purchasing earlier than of wont on account of the intolerable weather.

She reached the door at length, and being too much exhausted to search her pocket for the latchkey, knocked for admission.
Amy Hewett opened to her, and she sank on a chair in the first room, where the other two Hewett children were bending over 'home-lessons' with a studiousness not altogether natural.

Mrs.Eagles had a shrewd eye; having glanced at Annie and Tom with a discreet smile, she turned her look towards the elder girl, who was standing full in the lamplight.
'Come here, Amy,' she said after a moment's scrutiny.