Frank shrugged and said no more. The dishes were all put away; Fee got out her sewing basket and sat down in Paddy's chair by the fire, while Frank went back to the doll.

  "Poor little Meggie!" he said suddenly.

  "Why?"

  "Today, when those wretched chaps were pulling her dolly about, she just stood there crying as if her whole world had fallen to bits." He looked down at the doll, which was wearing its hair again. "Agnes! Where on earth did she get a name like that?""She must have heard me talking about Agnes Fortescue-Smythe, I suppose." "When I gave her the doll back she looked into its head and nearly died of fright. Something scared her about its eyes; I don't know what." "Meggie's always seeing things that aren't there."

  "It's a pity there isn't enough money to keep the little children at school. They're so clever."

  "Oh, Frank! If wishes were horses beggars might ride," his mother said wearily. She passed her hand acrossher eyes, trembling a little, and stuck her darning needle deep into a ball of grey wool. "I can't do any more. I'm too tried to see straight."

  "Go to bed, Mum. I'll blow out the lamps."

  "As soon as I've stoked the fire."

  "I'll do that." He got up from the table and put the dainty china doll carefully down behind a cake tin on the dresser, where it would be out of harm's way. He was not worried that the boys might attempt further rapine; they were more frightened of his vengeance than of their father's, for Frank had a vicious streak. When he was with his motheror his sister it never appeared, but the boys had all suffered from it.

  Fee watched him, her heart aching; there was something wild and desperate about Frank, an aura of trouble. If only he and Paddy got on better together! But they could never see eye to eye, and argued constantly. Maybe he was too concerned for her, maybe he was a bit of a mother's boy. Her fault, if it was true. Yet it spoke of his loving heart, his goodness. He only wanted to make her life a little easier. And again she found herself yearning for the day when Meggie became old enough to take the burden of it from Frank's shoulders.