3“But this hour of success was almost the only bright interlude in a steady drift to catastrophe. In a little while I gathered from a conversation between my mother and my father that we were ‘behind with the rent.’ That was a quarterly payment we paid to the enterprising individual who owned our house. I know all that sounds odd to you, but that is the way things were done. If we got behind with our rent the owner could turn us out.”
“But where?” asked Firefly.
“Out of the house. And we weren’t allowed to stay in the street. But it is impossible for me to explain everything of that sort in detail. We were behind with the rent and catastrophe impended. And then my sister Fanny ran away from us.
“In no other respect,” said Sarnac, “is it so difficult to get realities over to you and make
