The scene is the blue and white room in the house of the Misses Susan and Phoebe Throssel in Quality Street; and in this little country town there is a satisfaction about living in Quality Street which even religion cannot give. Through the bowed window at the back we have a glimpse of the street. It is pleasantly broad and grass-grown, and is linked to the outer world by one demure shop, whose door rings a bell every time it opens and shuts. Thus by merely peeping, every one in Quality Street can know at once who has been buying a Whimsy cake, and usually why. This bell is the most familiar sound of Quality Street. Now and again ladies pass in their pattens, a maid perhaps protecting them with an umbrella, for flakes of snow are falling discreetly. Gentlemen in the street are an event: but, see, just as we raise the curtain, there goes the recruiting sergeant to remind us that we are in the period of the Napoleonic wars. If he were to look in at the window of the blue and white room all the ladies there assembled would draw themselves up; they know him for a rude fellow who smiles at the approach of maiden ladies and continues to smile after they have passed. However, he lowers his head to-day so that they shall not see him, his present design being converse with the Misses Throssel's maid.

The room is one seldom profaned by the foot of man, and everything in it is white or blue. Miss Phoebe is not present, but here are Miss Susan, Miss Willoughby and her sister Miss Fanny, and Miss Henrietta Turnbull. Miss Susan and Miss Willoughby, alas, already wear caps; but all the four are dear ladies, so refined that we ought not to be discussing them without a more formal introduction, and there seems no sufficient reason why we should choose Miss Phoebe as our heroine rather than any one of the others, except, perhaps, that we like her name best. But we gave her the name, so we must support our choice and say that she is slightly the nicest, unless, indeed, Miss Susan is nicer.

Miss Fanny is reading aloud from a library book while the others sew or knit. They are making garments for our brave soldiers now far away fighting the Corsican Ogre.

(She says the last word tremulously but without looking up. The listeners knit more quickly.)

(By this time the knitting has stopped, and all are listening as if mesmerised.)

(miss susan gives permission almost haughtily, and the ladies retire to the bedroom, miss fanny remaining behind a moment to ask a question.)

(miss susan, left alone, is agitated by the terrible scene with miss willoughby.)

Enter phoebe in her bonnet, and we see at once that she really is the nicest. She is so flushed with delightful news that she almost forgets to take off her pattens before crossing the blue and white room.

Enter patty, a buxom young woman, who loves her mistresses and smiles at them, and knows how to terrorise them.

(She is listening through the floor. They all stoop or go on knees to listen, and when they are in this position the recruiting sergeant enters unobserved. He chuckles aloud. In a moment phoebe is alone with him.)

(miss susan opens door slightly and listens.)

(miss susan is excited.)

(The sergeant retires affably. All the ladies except miss henrietta come out, admiring phoebe. The willoughbys are attired for their journey across the street.)

(phoebe, alas, knows that she is not admirable.)

(But before they go miss willoughby has a duty to perform.)

(The three ladies go, the two younger ones a little tearfully, and we see them pass the window.)

(They are interrupted by the entrance of patty with tea. They see that she has brought three cups, and know that this is her impertinent way of implying that mistresses, as well as maids, may have a 'follower.' When she has gone they smile at the daring of the woman, and sit down to tea.)

(They are tearfully happy when a knock is heard on the street door.)

(valentine brown is shown in. He is a frank, genial young man of twenty-five who honestly admires the ladies, though he is amused by their quaintness. He is modestly aware that in the blue and white room alone is he esteemed a wit.)

(valentine laughs and the ladies exchange delighted smiles.)

(The sisters again exchange delighted smiles. valentine is about to take a seat.)

(valentine, who has been on the point of doing so, abstains and sits guiltily.)

(A dread comes over phoebe, but it is in her heart alone; it shows neither in face nor voice.)

(She is smiling gallantly through her pain when miss susan returns.)

(He goes. miss susan looks forlornly at phoebe, who smiles pitifully.)

Ten years later. It is the blue and white room still, but many of Miss Susan's beautiful things have gone, some of them never to return; others are stored upstairs. Their place is taken by grim scholastic furniture: forms, a desk, a globe, a blackboard, heartless maps. It is here that Miss Phoebe keeps school. Miss Susan teaches in the room opening off it, once the innocent spare bedroom, where there is a smaller blackboard (for easier sums) but no globe, as she is easily alarmed. Here are the younger pupils unless they have grown defiant, when they are promoted to the blue and white room to be under Miss Phoebe's braver rule. They really frighten Miss Phoebe also, but she does not let her sister know this.

It is noon on a day in August, and through the window we can see that Quality Street is decorated with flags. We also hear at times martial music from another street. Miss Phoebe is giving a dancing lesson to half a dozen pupils, and is doing her very best; now she is at the spinet while they dance, and again she is showing them the new step. We know it is Miss Phoebe because some of her pretty airs and graces still cling to her in a forlorn way, but she is much changed. Her curls are out of sight under a cap, her manner is prim, the light has gone from her eyes and buoyancy from her figure; she looks not ten years older but twenty, and not an easy twenty. When the children are not looking at her we know that she has the headache.

(miss susan darts out of the other room. She is less worn than miss phoebe.)

(They bow or curtsey, and retire to miss susan's room, with the exception of arthur wellesley tomson, who is standing in disgrace in a corner with the cap of shame on his head, and isabella, a forbidding-looking, learned little girl. isabella holds up her hand for permission to speak.)

(isabella goes, and phoebe sits wearily.)

(phoebe shudders, and miss susan again darts in. She signs to phoebe to send arthur away.)

(The music of the band swells here, and both ladies put their hands to their ears.)

(A soldier with a girl passes—yokel follows angrily.)

(She returns to her room, and the sound of the music dies away. miss phoebe, who is not a very accomplished classical scholar, is taking a final peep at the declensions when miss susan reappears excitedly.)

(Giving the cane arthur's most telling flick, she marches into the other room. Then, while miss susan is listening nervously, captain valentine brown is ushered in by patty. He is bronzed and soldierly. He wears the whiskers of the period, and is in uniform. He has lost his left hand, but this is not at first noticeable.)

(At this moment the door of the other room is flung open and phoebe rushes out, followed by william smith who is brandishing the cane. valentine takes in the situation, and without looking at phoebe seizes william by the collar and marches him out of the school.)

(The pupils are crowding in from miss susan's room and she orders them back and goes with them. valentine returns, and speaks as he enters, not recognising phoebe, whose back is to him.)

(He goes to her, but he cannot help showing that her appearance is a shock to him.)

(He holds out his hand warmly, with affected high spirits.)

(She is pleased and means to accept. He sighs, and she understands that he thinks her too old.)

(She turns away to hide her emotion, and miss susan comes in.)

(miss susan also is overcome, but recovers as the children crowd in.)

(captain brown salutes them awkwardly, and they cheer him, to his great discomfort, as they pass out.)

(The old friends look at each other, and there is a silence. valentine feels that all the fine tales and merry jests he has brought back for the ladies have turned into dead things. He wants to go away and think.)

(patty shows in two visitors, miss charlotte parratt and ensign blades. charlotte is a pretty minx who we are glad to say does not reside in Quality Street, and blades is a callow youth, inviting admiration.)

(She thinks him very fine, and he bows, well pleased.)

(He bows again, in what he believes to be a quizzical manner.)

(He makes his adieux and goes.)

(Phoebe returns.)

(For the moment phoebe is flattered. Here, she believes, is some one who does not think her too old for the dance. Then she perceives a meaning smile pass between charlotte and the ensign.)

(But charlotte considers that their visit has not been sufficiently esteemed and departs with a cold curtsey, taking him with her.)

(miss susan turns sympathetically to phoebe, but phoebe, fighting with her pain, sits down at the spinet and plays at first excitedly a gay tune, then slowly, then comes to a stop with her head bowed. Soon she jumps up courageously, brushes away her distress, gets an algebra book from the desk and sits down to study it. miss susan is at the window, where ladies and gentlemen are now seen passing in ball attire.)

(She goes out, leaving miss susan woeful. Presently susan takes up the algebra book, and reads.)

(phoebe returns, and a great change has come over her. She is young and pretty again. She is wearing the wedding-gown of act i., her ringlets are glorious, her figure youthful, her face flushed and animated, patty is the first to see her, and is astounded. phoebe signs to her to go.)

(The band is heard.)

(Presently patty returns. She gazes at miss phoebe dancing.)

(miss susan hurries scandalised into the other room as valentine enters.)

(His mistake surprises her, but she is in a wild mood and curtseys, then turns away and smiles. He stares as if half-convinced.)

(He is deceived. He bows gallantly, then remembers the object of his visit. He produces a bottle of medicine.)

(patty goes out sedately with the medicine.)

(The band is again heard. She runs to the window to peep between the curtains, and his eyes follow her admiringly.)

(He turns eagerly to miss susan, who enters.)

(miss susan would like to run away again, but the wicked miss phoebe is determined to have her help.)

(She really means it, and had not the music here taken an unfair advantage of her it is certain that miss phoebe would never have gone to the ball. In after years she and miss susan would have talked together of the monstrous evening when she nearly lost her head, but regained it before it could fall off. But suddenly the music swells so alluringly that it is a thousand fingers beckoning her to all the balls she has missed, and in a transport she whirls miss susan from the blue and white room to the bedchamber where is the bombazine. valentine awaits their return like a conqueror, until miss livvy's words about his hair return to trouble him. He is stooping, gazing intently into a small mirror, extracting the grey hairs one by one, when patty ushers in the sisters willoughby and miss henrietta. miss henrietta is wearing the new veil, which opens or closes like curtains when she pulls a string. She opens it now to see what he is doing, and the slight sound brings him to his feet.)

(They have already learned from patty, we may be sure, that he is in the house, but they express genteel surprise.)

(This is scarcely less exciting to them than the overthrow of the Corsican.)

(The ladies repeat the word in a daze.)

(They think this reticence unfriendly, and are wondering whether they ought not to retire hurt, when miss susan enters in her bombazine, wraps, and bonnet. She starts at sight of them, and has the bearing of a guilty person.)

(But before she can go another lady enters gaily.)

(The true culprit is more cunning than miss susan, and before they can see her she quickly pulls the strings of her bonnet, which is like miss henrietta's, and it obscures her face.)

(She looks strangely at miss susan, and miss phoebe knows that she has blundered.)

(They are swept away on the arms of the impatient captain.)

(They have no suspicion as yet of what miss phoebe has done: but they believe there is a scandal in the Throssel family, and they will not sleep happily until they know what it is.)

A ball, but not the one to which we have seen Miss Susan and Miss Phoebe rush forth upon their career of crime. This is the third of the series, the one of which Patty has foretold with horrid relish that it promises to be specially given over to devilries. The scene is a canvas pavilion, used as a retiring room and for card play, and through an opening in the back we have glimpses of gay uniforms and fair ladies intermingled in the bravery of the dance. There is coming and going through this opening, and also through slits in the canvas. The pavilion is fantastically decorated in various tastes, and is lit with lanterns. A good-natured moon, nevertheless, shines into it benignly. Some of the card tables are neglected, but at one a game of quadrille is in progress. There is much movement and hilarity, but none from one side of the tent, where sit several young ladies, all pretty, all appealing and all woeful, for no gallant comes to ask them if he may have the felicity. The nervous woman chaperoning them, and afraid to meet their gaze lest they scowl or weep in reply, is no other than Miss Susan, the most unhappy Miss Susan we have yet seen; she sits there gripping her composure in both hands. Far less susceptible to shame is the brazen Phoebe, who may be seen passing the opening on the arm of a cavalier, and flinging her trembling sister a mischievous kiss. The younger ladies note the incident; alas, they are probably meant to notice it, and they cower, as under a blow.

(The only possible reply for miss susan is to make herself look as small as possible. A lieutenant comes to them, once a scorner of woman, but now spicer the bewitched. harriet has a moment's hope.)

(He is a most melancholic young man, and he fidgets her.)

(spicer wanders away gloomily, takes too much to drink, and ultimately becomes a general. ensign blades appears, frowning, and Charlotte ventures to touch his sleeve.)

(He flings out pettishly, and miss susan looks pityingly at the wall-flowers.)

(She puts a cloak around charlotte, who departs vindictively for the shrubbery. She will not find livvy there, however; for next moment miss phoebe darts in from the back.)

(We have been unable to find any record of the Major's tragic end.)

(phoebe smiles roguishly.)

(miss phoebe screws her nose at him merrily, and darts back to the dance, but she has left a defender behind her.)

(But he rises, and they face each other, as miss susan feels, for battle. She is about to rush between their undrawn swords when there is a commotion outside; a crowd gathers and opens to allow some officers to assist a fainting woman into the tent. It is miss phoebe, and miss susan with a cry goes on her knees beside her. The tent has filled with the sympathetic and inquisitive, but captain brown, as a physician, takes command, and by his order they retire. He finds difficulty in bringing the sufferer to, and gets little help from miss susan, who can only call upon miss phoebe by name.)

(He goes to the back to close the opening, and while he is doing so the incomprehensible miss phoebe seizes the opportunity to sit up on her couch of chairs, waggle her finger at miss susan, and sign darkly that she is about to make a genteel recovery.)

(blades enters with the cordial.)

(He hands it to phoebe himself.)

(She is very restless and troubled.)

(They are going dejectedly, but are arrested by the apparition of miss henrietta and miss fanny peeping into the tent. phoebe has just time to signify to her sister that she will confess all and beg for mercy, when the intruders speak.)

(To her bewilderment henrietta and fanny exchange ashamed glances.)

(phoebe is unable to resist these delightful openings. The imploring looks miss susan gives her but add to her enjoyment. It is as if the sense of fun she had caged a moment ago were broke loose again.)

(They make much of her, and she purrs naughtily to their stroking, with lightning peeps at miss susan. Affronted Providence seeks to pay her out by sending ensign blades into the tent. Then the close observer may see miss phoebe's heart sink like a bucket in a well. miss susan steals from the tent.)

(They press phoebe's hand, and go. Her heart returns to its usual abode.)

(She has a great and humorous longing that she could turn before his affrighted eyes into the schoolmistress she really is. She would endure much to be able at this moment to say, 'I have listened to you, ensign blades, with attention, but I am really miss phoebe, and I must now request you to fetch me the implement.' Under the shock, would he have surrendered his palm for punishment? It can never be known, for as she looks at him longingly, lieutenant spicer enters, and he mistakes the meaning of that longing look.)

(They are cast down. She has not been quite fair to these gallants, for it is not really of them she has grown weary so much as of the lady they temporarily adore. If miss phoebe were to analyse her feelings she would find that her remark is addressed to livvy, and that it means, 'I have enjoyed for a little pretending to be you, but I am not you and I do not wish to be you. Your glitter and the airs of you and the racket of you tire me, I want to be done with you, and to be back in quiet Quality Street, of which I am a part: it is really pleasant to me to know that I shall wake up to-morrow slightly middle-aged.' With the entrance of captain brown, however, she is at once a frivol again. He frowns at sight of her cavaliers.)

(phoebe sees that the declaration is coming. She steels herself.)

(The young gentlemen retire, treading air once more. brown surveys her rather grimly.)

(No, she does not wish him to proceed. She had esteemed him for so long, she cannot have him debase himself before her now.)

(His next words are a great shock to her.)

(At first phoebe does not understand, then a suspicion of his meaning comes to her.)

(What is it that miss phoebe begins to see as she sits there so quietly, with her hands pressed together as if upon some treasure? It is phoebe of the ringlets with the stain taken out of her.)

(He is very grave and quiet.)