Sisters Three | Page 3

The firelight played on three thoughtful faces as the girls sat in silence,
each occupied with her special train of thought. The room looked grey
and colourless in the waning light, and the glimpse of wintry landscape
seen through the window did not add to the general cheeriness. Hilary
shivered, and picking up a log from the corner of the grate dropped it
into the fire.
"Well, there is no use repining! We have had our grumble, and we
might as well make the best of circumstances. It's New Year's Day, so I
shall make a resolution to try to like my work. I know I do it well,
because I am naturally a good housekeeper; but I ought to take more
interest in it. That's the way the good people do in books, and in the end
they dote upon the very things they used to hate. There's no saying--I
may come to adore darning stockings and wending linen before the
year is out! At any rate I shall have the satisfaction of having done my
best."
"Well, if you try to like your work, I'll try to remember mine--that's a
bargain," said Lettice solemnly. "There always seems to be something I
want particularly to do for myself, just when I ought to be at my
`avocations,' as Miss Briggs has it. It's a bad plan, because I have to
exert myself to finish in time, and get a scolding into the bargain. So
here's for punctuality and reform!"
Norah held her left hand high in the air, and began checking off the
fingers with ostentatious emphasis. "I resolve always to get up in the
morning as soon as I am called, and without a single grumble; always
to be amiable when annoyed; always to do what other people like, and
what I dislike myself; always to be good-tempered with the boys, and
smile upon them when they pull my hair and play tricks with my things;
always be cheerful, contented, ladylike in deportment, and agreeable in
manner. What do you say? Silly! I am not silly at all. If you are going to
make resolutions at all, you ought to do it properly. Aim at the sky, and
you may reach the top of the tree; aim at the top of the tree, and you

will grovel on the ground. You are too modest in your aspirations, and
they won't come to any good; but as for me--with a standard before me
of absolute perfection--"
"Who is talking of perfection? And where is the tea, and why are you
still in darkness, with none of the lamps lighted? It is five o'clock, and I
have been in my study waiting for the bell to ring for the last half-hour.
What are you all doing over there by the fire?" cried a masculine voice,
and a man's tall figure stood outlined in the doorway.
CHAPTER TWO.
HILARY IN LUCK.
There was a simultaneous exclamation of dismay as the three girls leapt
from their seats, and flew round the room in different directions. Hilary
lighted the lamps, Norah drew the curtains across the windows, while
Lettice first gave a peal to the bell, and then ran forward to escort her
father to a chair by the fire.
"Tea will be here in a moment, father; come and sit down. It's New
Year's Day, you know, and we have been so busy making good
resolutions that we have had no time for anything practical. Why didn't
you come down before? You are a regular old woman about afternoon
tea; I believe you would miss it more than any other meal."
"I believe I should. I never get on well with my writing in the first part
of the afternoon, and tea seems to give me a fresh start. So you girls
have been making good resolutions? That's good hearing. Tell me
about them." And Mr Bertrand leant back in his chair, clasping his
hands behind his head, and looking up at his young daughters with a
quizzical smile. A photographer would have been happy if he could
have taken a portrait at this moment, for Mr Bertrand was a well-known
author, and the books which were written in the study in Westmoreland
went far and wide over the world, and made his name a household
word. He had forgotten his beloved work at this moment, however, at
the sight of something dearer still--his three young daughters standing
grouped together facing him at the other side of the old-fashioned grate,

their faces flushed from the heat of the fire, their eyes dazzled by the
sudden light. How tall and womanlike they looked in their dark serge
dresses! Lettice's hair framed her face in a halo of mist-like curls;
Hilary held up her head in