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Mrs. Merivale said it always made her think of the Lady of Shalott and Jane, to her horror, found herself saying that it was quite out of the common.

After another minute of politeness, the ladies got to the first floor where Jane was shown three light, airy bedrooms each with fixed basin and gas-fires; also a good bathroom. Mrs. Merivale insisted on her looking at the mattresses, which Jane's expert hand and eye admitted to be excellent.

"There's another room, the one we just call the Other Room," said Mrs. Merivale, showing Jane a slip of a room with a bed in it and otherwise occupied by a table and sewing-machine. "If your friend wanted a spare room at any time he could have this. It's really Annie's room, that's my girl in the A.T.S., but she's abroad now."

Jane thanked her, and so genuine had she been in her praise of the obvious good points of the rooms that Mrs. Merivale further unbent and asked if she would like to see the top floor. So they went up a very steep stair.

"This," said Mrs. Merivale, opening the door of a kind of superior attic, "is Elsie's room, that's my girl in the Waafs, but she's overseas now. And this little room next hers," she continued, showing Jane a smaller attic, "is Peggie's, that's my girl that's in the Wrens, but she's at Gibraltar. If they bring a friend home we can put a mattress on the floor and they talk all night. We've had as many as seven sleeping here, Mrs. Gresham, not counting myself. That was the time Evie was at home, that's my girl in the Foreign Office, but she's in Washington now."