10; but he would come back at unexpected moments--he would enter the house, singing out, in a loud rasping voice-- "Mrs.Dove, My only love!" And then poor Mrs.Dove would get flushed and uncomfortable and lose what little self-possession she ever had, and would own in confidence to the first floor, or the second floor, or the attics, just as they happened to be present, that Mr.Dove's honeyed phrases were only words after all, and meant quite the contrary.
The girls were not a week at No.

10, Eden Street, before it became very apparent to them that there was little of the real Eden to be found in the place.

They kept themselves, however, quite apart from the other lodgers; they began to get out their books and their employments, and what with housekeeping, and what with cleaning their rooms, and going out for long rambling walks in all directions, they were busy from morning to night.

Primrose said they would spend a fortnight in the attics, and then the education which was by-and-by to lead to bread-winning must commence.

Never did three more ignorant girls gird themselves for the fray.