Malka was very particular about her appearance and loved to be externally speckless, but somehow or other she had no clothes-brush at home.

This deficiency did not matter ordinarily, for she practically lived at Milly's.

But when she had words with Milly or her husband, she retired to her own house to sulk or _schmull_, as they called it.

The carrying away of the clothes-brush was, thus, a sign that she considered the breach serious and hostilities likely to be protracted.

Sometimes a whole week would go by without the two houses ceasing to stare sullenly across at each other, the situation in Milly's camp being aggravated by the lack of a clothes-brush.