He struck a match and lighted her cigarette. Their lips were very near. With sickening suddenness Julia’s heart turned over. “Oh, God, it’s all going to begin again! How damnable to be a woman!”

She drew back, her face gone hard, all the muscles tightened, the brow heavy, the bones of the chin defined. Before he could speak she had repeated her question.

“What did Lois tell you?”

He drew at his cigarette.

“I gathered from her, and from Jimmy, that I should find a regular family party at Latter End. Ellie and Minnie are there, aren’t they?”

“Oh, yes!”

“And what do you mean by that, and by having to go down?”

She blew out a little cloud of smoke.

“Did Lois tell you how she was running the house?”

“She gave me to understand that it was the perfect communist state, each for all and all for each.”

“Do you see Lois being communal?”

“Frankly, no. But she was quite lyrical over the beauty of the arrangement.”

Julia looked at him with frowning intensity.

“Did she tell you who did the work?”

“I gathered that Mrs. Maniple was still in the kitchen, but practically singlehanded.”

“There’s a girl from the village, one of the Pells-quite a nice child. Even Lois couldn’t expect Manny to scrub all those stone floors.”

“She did say Manny was getting past her work.”

“She cooks like a angel, but Lois will out her as soon as she can find anyone else. Manny hates her, and she knows it. Of course she’s pretty old. She remembers Jimmy being christened.”

“Well, he’s only-what is it-fifty-one?”

“She was kitchenmaid-that would make her about seventy. At the moment Jimmy is digging his toes in, but it’s not much good with Lois. Well, that’s the kitchen. Did she tell you who did all the rest of the work?”