It was an odd thing, all the same, how easy it was to be friends with Lilith Gordon: though she did not belong to Laura’s set though Laura did not even like her, and though she had had ample proof that Lilith was double-faced, not to be trusted. Yet, in the months that followed the affair of the purple dress, Laura grew more intimate with the plump, sandy-haired girl than with either Bertha, or Inez, or Tilly. Or, to put it more exactly, she was continually having lapses into intimacy, and repenting them when it was too late. In one way Lilith was responsible for this: she could make herself very pleasant when she chose, seem to be your friend through thick and thin, thus luring you on to unbosom yourself; and afterwards she would go away and laugh over what you had told her, with other girls. And Laura was peculiarly helpless under such circumstances: if it was done with tact, and with a certain assumed warmth of manner, anyone could make a cat’s-paw of her.

That Lilith and she undressed for bed together had also something to do with their intimacy: this half-hour when one’s hair was unbound and replaited, and fat and thin arms wielded the brush, was the time of all others for confidences. The governess who occupied the fourth bed did not come upstairs till ten o’clock; the publican’s daughter, a lazy girl, was usually half asleep before the other two had their clothes off.

It was in the course of one of these confidential chats that Laura did a very foolish thing. In a moment of weakness, she gratuitously gave away the secret that Mother supported her family by the work of her hands.

The two girls were sitting on the side of Lilith’s bed. Laura had a day of mishaps behind her — that partly, no doubt, accounted for her self-indulgence. But, in addition, her companion had just told her, unasked, that she thought her “very pretty”. It was not in Laura’s nature to let this pass: she was never at ease under an obligation; she had to pay the coin back in kind.

“Embroidery? What sort? However does she do it?”— Lilith’s interest was on tiptoe at once — a false and slimy interest, the victim afterwards told herself.

“Oh, my mother’s awfully clever. It’s just lovely, too, what she does — all in silk — and ever so many different colours. She made a piano-cover once, and got fifty pounds for it.”

“How perfectly splendid!”

“But that was only a lucky chance . . . that she got that to do. She mostly does children’s dresses and cloaks and things like that.”

“But she’s not a dressmaker, is she?”

“A dressmaker? I should think not indeed! They’re sent up, all ready to work, from the biggest shops in town.”

“I say!— she must be clever.”

“She is; she can do anything. She makes the patterns up all out of her own head. “— And filled with pride in Mother’s accomplishments and Lilith’s appreciation of them, Laura fell asleep that night without a qualm.

It was the next evening. Several of the boarders who had finished preparing their lessons were loitering in the dining-hall, Laura and Lilith among them. In the group was a girl called Lucy, young but very saucy; for she lived at Toorak, and came of one of the best families in Melbourne. She was not as old as Laura by two years, but was already feared and respected for the fine scorn of her opinions.

Lilith Gordon had bragged: “My uncle’s promised me a gold watch and chain when I pass matric.”

Lucy of Toorak laughed: her nose came down, and her mouth went up at the corners. “Do you think you ever will?”

“G. o. k. and He won’t tell. But I’ll probably get the watch all the same.”

“Where does your uncle hang out?”

“Brisbane.”

“Sure he can afford to buy it?”

“Of course he can.”

“What is he?”

Lilith was unlucky enough to hesitate, ever so slightly. “Oh, he’s got plenty of money,” she asserted.

“She doesn’t like to say what he is!”

“I don’t care whether I say it or not.”

“A butcher, p’raps, or an undertaker?”

“A butcher! He’s got the biggest newspaper in Brisbane!”

“A newspaper! Great Scott! Her uncle keeps a newspaper!”

There was a burst of laughter from those standing round.

Lilith was scarlet now. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” she said angrily.

But Lucy of Toorak could not recover from her amusement. “An uncle who keeps a newspaper! A newspaper! Well, I’m glad none of MY uncles are so rummy.— I say, does he leave it at front doors himself in the morning?”

Laura had at first looked passively on, well pleased to see another than herself the butt of young Lucy’s wit. But at this stage of her existence she was too intent on currying favour, to side with any but the stronger party. And so she joined in the boisterous mirth Lilith’s admission and Lucy’s reception of it excited, and flung her gibes with the rest.

She was pulled up short by a hissing in her ear. “If you say one word more, I’ll tell about the embroidery!”

Laura went pale with fright: she had been in good spirits that day, and had quite forgotten her silly confidence of the night before. Now, the jeer that was on the tip of her tongue hung fire. She could not all at once obliterate her smile — that would have been noticeable; but it grew weaker, stiffer and more unnatural, then gradually faded away, leaving her with a very solemn little face.

From this night on, Lilith Gordon represented a powder-mine, which might explode at any minute.— And she herself had laid the train!

From the outset, Laura had been accepted, socially, by even the most exclusive, as one of themselves; and this, in spite of her niggardly allowance, her ridiculous clothes. For the child had race in her: in a well-set head, in good hands and feet and ears. Her nose, too, had a very pronounced droop, which could stand only for blue blood, or a Hebraic ancestor — and Jews were not received as boarders in the school. Now, loud as money made itself in this young community, effectual as it was in cloaking shortcomings, it did not go all the way: inherited instincts and traditions were not so easily subdued. Just some of the wealthiest, too, were aware that their antecedents would not stand a close scrutiny; and thus a mighty respect was engendered in them for those who had nothing to fear. Moreover, directly you got away from the vastly rich, class distinctions were observed with an exactitude such as can only obtain in an exceedingly mixed society. The three professions alone were s............