Hester was annoyed to find herself disappointed when he did not appear, and took herself all the more diligently to her growing vocation. The question suggested itself whether it might not further her plans to be associated with a sisterhood, and indeed she began to widen her sphere a little by going about with a friend belonging to one. But in her own neighbourhood—not wishing her special work to be crossed by any prejudices—she always went alone, and seldom entered a house of the poor without singing in several of its rooms. To the children she would frequently tell a fairy tale, singing the little rhymes she made come into it. Of course, she had to encounter rudeness from time to time, but she set herself to get used to it and learn to let it pass.

The house in which the Raymounts lived, which was their own, was somewhat remarkable. Besides the ordinary accommodation of a good-sized London house with three drawing rooms on the first floor, it had unusual provisions for receiving guests. At the top of the first landing, rather more than halfway up the stair, there was a door through the original wall of the house to a long gallery, which led to a large and lofty room, apparently intended for concerts and dancing. Since they had owned the house, this room had been used only as a playroom for the children. Mr. Raymount always intended to furnish it, but had not yet done so.

The house itself was larger than they required, but Mr. Raymount had a great love for room and had obtained it at a low price. Beneath this concert room was another equally as large but so low it was difficult to find any use that could be made of it, and it continued even more neglected than the other. Below this again were cellars of alarming extent and obscurity, reached by a long vaulted passage. They would have held coal and wood and wine, everything natural to a cellar, enough for one generation at least. The history of the house was unknown. There was a nailed-up door in the second of the rooms I have mentioned, which was said to lead into the next house. But as the widow who lived there took every opportunity of making herself disagreeable, they had not ventured to investigate. There was no garden because of an addition that had been made to the original house. The great room was now haunting Hester’s heart. If only her father would allow her to use it to give a concert to her lowly friends and acquaintances!

Questions concerning the condition of the poor in our large towns had, from the distance of speculation and the press, been of late occupying a good deal of Mr. Raymount’s attention. He believed that he was enlightening the world on those most important perhaps of all the social questions of our day, their wrongs and their rights. He little suspected that his daughter was doing more for the poor, almost without knowing it, than he with all his conscious wisdom. She could not, however, have made her request at a more auspicious moment, for he was just then feeling especially benevolent toward them for an article had just appeared in which he had expressed himself powerfully on behalf of the poor. Though he was far from being unprejudiced, he had a horror of prejudice, and hunted it as uncompromisingly in himself as in another. He was not like most people who, surmising a fault in themselves, rouse every individual bristle of their nature to defend and retain the very thing that degrades them.