Agglomeration of Iron Ores 1st Edition

Ram Pravesh Bhagat (Author)

Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/agglomeration-of-iron-ores-1st-edition-ram-pravesh-b
hagat-author/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

One Arranged Murder 1st Edition Chetan Bhagat

https://textbookfull.com/product/one-arranged-murder-1st-edition-
chetan-bhagat/

Foods of Non Animal Origin Chemistry Technology

Inspection Procedures 1st Edition Arpan Bhagat

https://textbookfull.com/product/foods-of-non-animal-origin-
chemistry-technology-inspection-procedures-1st-edition-arpan-
bhagat/

A Hunt of Blood Iron 1st Edition Cara Nox

https://textbookfull.com/product/a-hunt-of-blood-iron-1st-
edition-cara-nox/

Jail Notebook and Other Writings English Edition

Bhagat Singh

https://textbookfull.com/product/jail-notebook-and-other-
writings-english-edition-bhagat-singh/
Environmental Waste Management 1st Edition Ram Chandra

https://textbookfull.com/product/environmental-waste-
management-1st-edition-ram-chandra/

Cast Iron Will The Cast Iron Cooking Cozy Mystery 01

Jessica Beck Et El

https://textbookfull.com/product/cast-iron-will-the-cast-iron-
cooking-cozy-mystery-01-jessica-beck-et-el/

Toward Balanced Growth with Economic Agglomeration

Empirical Studies of China s Urban Rural and
Interregional Development 1st Edition Zhao Chen

https://textbookfull.com/product/toward-balanced-growth-with-
economic-agglomeration-empirical-studies-of-china-s-urban-rural-
and-interregional-development-1st-edition-zhao-chen/

Nickel Sulfide Ores and Impact Melts. Origin of the

Sudbury Igneous Complex Peter C. Lightfoot (Auth.)

https://textbookfull.com/product/nickel-sulfide-ores-and-impact-
melts-origin-of-the-sudbury-igneous-complex-peter-c-lightfoot-
auth/

Spells of Iron and Bone Tarot Academy 1 1st Edition

Sarah Piper [Piper

https://textbookfull.com/product/spells-of-iron-and-bone-tarot-
academy-1-1st-edition-sarah-piper-piper/
Agglomeration of Iron Ores
Agglomeration of Iron Ores

Authored by
Ram Pravesh Bhagat
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2019 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

Printed on acid-free paper

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-138-03508-9 (Hardback)

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable
efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot
assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and
publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication
and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any
copyright material has not been acknowledged, please write and let us know so we may rectify in any
future reprint.

Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced,
transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or here-
after invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers.

For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.
copyright.com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222
Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides
licenses and registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photocopy
license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged.

Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bhagat, Ram Pravesh, author.

Title: Agglomeration of iron ores / Ram Pravesh Bhagat.
Description: Boca Raton : CRC Press, Taylor & Francis, 2019. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018060465 | ISBN 9781138035089 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781315269504 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Iron ores. | Ore-dressing. | Agglomeration.
Classification: LCC TN538.I7 B44 2019 | DDC 622/.7—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018060465

Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at

http://www.taylorandfrancis.com

and the CRC Press Web site at

http://www.crcpress.com
 Dedication

Dedicated to my parents
The late Ganesh Prasad Bhagat
The late Janki Devi
Table of Contents
Preface.....................................................................................................................xix
Author Biography.....................................................................................................xxi
Acknowledgment.................................................................................................. xxiii

Chapter 1 Introduction...........................................................................................1
1.1 Preamble.....................................................................................1
1.2 Definition and Category.............................................................1
1.2.1 Agglomeration...............................................................1
1.2.2 Sintering........................................................................2
1.2.3 Pelletizing......................................................................2
1.2.4 Briquetting.....................................................................2
1.3 Scope of Agglomeration.............................................................3
1.4 Need for Agglomeration............................................................. 3
1.5 Raw Materials for Agglomeration.............................................. 4
1.6 The Agglomeration Processes.................................................... 5
1.6.1 Sintering........................................................................5
1.6.2 Pelletization...................................................................6
1.7 Iron Making................................................................................6
1.8 R&D...........................................................................................7
1.9 Techno-Economics.....................................................................8
1.9.1 Sinter (Pellet) Plant Operation......................................8
1.9.2 Usage of Agglomerates.................................................9
1.9.3 Reducing Operational Cost...........................................9
1.9.4 Utilization of Slimes and Metallurgical
Wastes.......................................................................... 10
1.10 Evolutionary Phases................................................................. 10
1.10.1 Sintering...................................................................... 10
1.10.2 Pelletization................................................................. 11
References........................................................................................... 11

Chapter 2 Raw Materials: Characterization and Preparation.............................. 13

2.1 Categories and Specifications................................................... 13
2.1.1 Iron Ore....................................................................... 13
2.1.2 Fluxes.......................................................................... 14
2.1.3 Solid Fuel.................................................................... 16
2.1.4 Revert Materials/Metallurgical Wastes....................... 16
2.1.5 Binders........................................................................ 17
2.2 Characterization of Raw Materials.......................................... 18
2.3 Genesis of Iron Ore.................................................................. 18

vii
viii Table of Contents

2.4 Classification of Iron Ores........................................................20

2.4.1 Hematite Ores..............................................................20
2.4.2 Magnetite Ore.............................................................. 21
2.4.3 Goethite Ore................................................................ 21
2.4.4 Banded Hematite Quartzite/
Jasper (BHQ/BHJ)....................................................... 22
2.5 Mineralogy of Iron Ores........................................................... 23
2.5.1 Iron Ore-Bearing Minerals......................................... 23
2.5.2 Ores and Associated Minerals....................................24
2.5.3 Mineralogical Characterization..................................24
2.5.4 Liberation Characteristic of Minerals.........................26
2.6 Preparation of Ores and Other Raw Materials.........................28
2.6.1 Size Reduction and Size Classification....................... 29
2.6.2 Beneficiation Process.................................................. 32
2.6.3 Dewatering of Iron Ore Fines
and Slimes................................................................... 36
2.7 Industrial Practice on Iron Ore Beneficiation
and Process Flow Sheets.......................................................... 37
2.7.1 Industrial Practice....................................................... 37
2.7.2 Process Flow-sheet...................................................... 39
2.7.3 Processing of Hematite Ores....................................... 42
2.7.4 Processing of Goethite Ore.........................................44
2.7.5 Processing of Banded Hematite
Quartzite (BHQ).......................................................... 45
2.7.6 Iron Ore Slimes........................................................... 45
2.8 Handling of Iron Ores.............................................................. 48
References........................................................................................... 49

Chapter 3 Iron-Making Processes....................................................................... 53

3.1 Preamble................................................................................... 53
3.2 Reduction of Iron Oxide........................................................... 54
3.2.1 Sequential Steps of Reduction..................................... 54
3.2.2 Reduction Chemical Reactions................................... 55
3.3 Direct Reduction Processes...................................................... 56
3.3.1 Coal-Based Direct Reduction...................................... 56
3.3.2 Gas-Based Direct Reduction....................................... 57
3.4 Blast Furnace (BF) Iron-Making Process................................ 58
3.4.1 Operation..................................................................... 59
3.4.2 Material Handling and Charging................................ 59
3.4.3 Raw Materials.............................................................60
3.4.4 Products....................................................................... 61
3.5 Blast Furnace (BF) Iron-Making Reactions............................. 63
3.5.1 Blast Furnace Zones: Reactions and Burden
Properties.................................................................... 63
3.5.2 Solution Loss Reaction and Shaft Efficiency..............66
Table of Contents ix

3.6 Blast Furnace Performance: Factors Affecting........................ 67

3.6.1 Chemical Composition of Burden Materials............... 67
3.6.2 Blast Furnace Burden.................................................. 70
3.6.3 Size of Burden Materials and its Distribution............. 70
3.6.4 Cold Strength and Reduction Parameters of
Agglomerates.............................................................. 71
3.6.5 Permeability of the Stack Zone................................... 72
3.6.6 Permeability in Cohesive Zone................................... 75
3.6.7 Formation of Slag and its Characteristics................... 75
References........................................................................................... 77

Chapter 4 Agglomerates in Iron-Making Processes............................................ 79

4.1 Preamble................................................................................... 79
4.2 Agglomerates in Iron-Making Processes.................................80
4.2.1 Iron Ore Pellets in Direct Reduction (DR)..................80
4.2.2 Iron Ore Pellets in BF Iron Making............................80
4.2.3 Iron Ore Sinter in BF Iron Making............................. 83
4.3 Properties of Agglomerates......................................................84
4.3.1 Cold Strength...............................................................84
4.3.2 Reduction Degradation Index (RDI)...........................84
4.3.3 Reducibility................................................................. 85
4.3.4 Softening and Meltdown Characteristics.................... 85
4.4 Quantitative Effect on Blast Furnace Performance.................. 86
References........................................................................................... 89

Chapter 5 Process of Sintering............................................................................ 91

5.1 Preamble................................................................................... 91
5.2 The Sintering Process...............................................................92
5.2.1 Description of a Sinter Plant.......................................92
5.2.2 Raw Mix Preparation.................................................. 93
5.2.3 Sintering Process.........................................................94
5.2.4 Cooling of Sinter and Downstream
Treatment.....................................................................96
5.2.5 Power Consumption....................................................96
5.3 Control of Sinter Plant Operation.............................................97
5.4 Pollution Control and Waste Heat Recovery............................99
5.4.1 Emission of Pollutants.................................................99
5.4.2 Measures to Reduce Pollutants................................. 100
5.4.3 Heat Recovery from Sinter Cooler............................ 101
5.4.4 Emissions Optimized Sintering (EOS®)
Process....................................................................... 101
5.5 Recycling of Steel Plant Solid Waste..................................... 103
5.5.1 Scope for Recycling.................................................. 103
5.5.2 Characteristics of Metallurgical Wastes................... 103
x Table of Contents

5.5.3 Mines and Metallurgical Wastes:

Categories and Functions.......................................... 104
5.5.4 Economics of Recycling............................................ 107
5.6 Nonconventional/Other Processes.......................................... 107
5.6.1 Hybrid Pelletized Sinter Process (HPS).................... 108
5.6.2 Pellet-Sintering.......................................................... 109
5.6.3 Composite Agglomeration
Process (CAP)........................................................... 112
5.6.4 Mebios Process.......................................................... 113
5.6.5 New Charging Systems............................................. 114
5.6.6 High-Pressure Sintering............................................ 114
References......................................................................................... 115

Chapter 6 Sintering Fundamentals.................................................................... 117

6.1 The Process of Sintering........................................................ 117
6.1.1 Preamble.................................................................... 117
6.1.2 The Process............................................................... 117
6.1.3 Characteristics of Sintering Process......................... 119
6.2 Sintering Zones....................................................................... 119
6.3 Air Flow and Permeability..................................................... 122
6.3.1 Permeability and Sintering Speed............................. 122
6.3.2 Bed Permeability and Ergun’s Equation................... 124
6.3.3 Application of Ergun’s Equation
to Sinter Mix Bed...................................................... 125
6.4 Structure and Porosity of Bed................................................ 128
6.4.1 Bed Structure............................................................ 128
6.4.2 Bed Porosity.............................................................. 129
6.5 Granules and Granulation...................................................... 130
6.5.1 Effect of Granule Characteristics
on Productivity.......................................................... 130
6.5.2 Characteristics of Sinter Mix Granules..................... 131
6.5.3 Granulation: Size Classification of Mix
Particles...................................................................... 132
6.5.4 The Granulation Process........................................... 134
6.5.5 Granulation Index...................................................... 136
6.5.6 Granulation: Mechanism and Factors
Affecting.................................................................... 137
6.5.7 Moisture Content of Sinter Mix:
Effect on Granulation and Permeability................... 140
6.6 Thermal Characteristics During Sintering............................. 141
6.6.1 Heat Transfer and Sintering Reactions...................... 141
6.6.2 Heat Front and Flame Front...................................... 142
6.6.3 Speed of Flame Front................................................ 143
6.6.4 Gas Dynamics vis-à-vis Heat Patterns...................... 144
Table of Contents xi

6.6.5 Heat Pattern in Sintering versus

Sinter Quality............................................................ 148
6.6.6 Burn-Through Point.................................................. 149
6.7 Bonding in Sinter.................................................................... 150
6.8 Assimilation and Coalescence................................................ 151
6.8.1 Sintering of a Pseudo-Particle................................... 151
6.8.2 Assimilation of Iron Ore........................................... 153
6.8.3 Assimilation of Fluxes.............................................. 155
6.9 Sintering Reactions................................................................. 156
6.9.1 Sintering: A Thermochemical Process..................... 156
6.9.2 Mechanism of Sintering Reactions........................... 156
6.9.3 Chemical Reactions (Basicity Effect)....................... 158
6.10 Sintering Reaction and Mineralogy....................................... 159
6.10.1 Stages of Chemical Reactions................................... 159
6.10.2 Sinter Mineralogy...................................................... 160
6.10.3 Formation of SFCA................................................... 161
6.11 Mass Balance.......................................................................... 161
6.11.1 Mass Balance in a Continuous
Sinter Plant................................................................ 161
6.11.2 Charge Calculation.................................................... 163
6.12 Heat Balance........................................................................... 163
6.13 Ignition................................................................................... 164
6.14 Combustion of Solid Fuel in Sintering................................... 167
6.14.1 Effect of Combustion Behavior of Coke
on Sintering Indices................................................... 167
6.14.2 Combustion of Coke and Its Kinetics
during Sintering......................................................... 167
6.14.3 Combustion of a Single Coke Particle....................... 168
6.14.4 Association of Coke in Sinter Mix............................ 169
6.14.5 Profile of Oxygen in Coke Combustion.................... 170
6.14.6 Characteristics of Coke and Upstream
Processes that Influence Coke Combustion.............. 170
6.14.7 Combustion of Coke with Melts during
Sintering.................................................................... 172
6.14.8 Heating Value of Coke Combustion.......................... 173
6.14.9 Combustion Efficiency in Sintering.......................... 174
Annexures.......................................................................................... 175
Annexure VI.1........................................................................ 175
Typical Calculation of Granule Characteristics
using Ergun’s Equation��������������������������������������������175
Annexure VI.2........................................................................ 177
Calculation of Sinter Charge�������������������������������������������������177
Annexure VI.3........................................................................ 179
Typical Calculation of Ignition Intensity�������������������������������179
References......................................................................................... 181
xii Table of Contents

Chapter 7 Sinter Productivity: Theoretical Consideration

and Plant Practice.............................................................................. 185
7.1 Sinter Productivity.................................................................. 185
7.1.1 Definition and Computation...................................... 185
7.1.2 Sintering Speed......................................................... 186
7.1.3 Return Fines Recirculated......................................... 186
7.1.4 Parameters Affecting Sinter
Productivity............................................................... 188
7.2 Bed Permeability and Bed Structure...................................... 188
7.3 Iron Ores: Particle Size and Characteristics........................... 190
7.3.1 Particle Size of Ores.................................................. 190
7.3.2 Incorporation of Ultrafines........................................ 190
7.3.3 Ores: Textural Parameters and Chemical
Composition.............................................................. 191
7.3.4 Blending of Ores....................................................... 191
7.4 Granulation............................................................................. 192
7.4.1 Granule Size/Size Parameters
of Mix Ingredients..................................................... 192
7.4.2 Bulk Density of Sinter Mix....................................... 192
7.4.3 Selective Granulation................................................ 193
7.4.4 Modification in Operational and Machine
Parameters................................................................. 194
7.4.5 Usage of Lime........................................................... 194
7.5 Moisture Content of the Sinter Mix....................................... 195
7.5.1 Role of Moisture in Granulation............................... 196
7.5.2 Granulation with Low Moisture................................ 197
7.5.3 Preheating of Sinter Mix........................................... 198
7.6 Sinter Basicity and Mgo Content............................................ 199
7.6.1 Sinter Basicity........................................................... 199
7.6.2 Sinter MgO................................................................ 199
7.7 Coke and Fluxes: Content, Nature,
and Particle Size.....................................................................200
7.7.1 Nature of Solid Fuel and its Content.........................200
7.7.2 Particle Size of Coke and Flux..................................200
7.7.3 Split Addition Flux and Coke....................................200
7.8 Return Fines........................................................................... 201
7.8.1 Return Fines Regime................................................. 201
7.8.2 Return Fines Balance................................................202
7.8.3 Ratio (RO/RI)............................................................ 203
7.8.4 Simulation of Return Fines Balance.........................204
7.8.5 Optimum of Return Fines.........................................205
7.8.6 Carbon Equivalent of Return Fines...........................206
7.9 Sinter Mean Size.....................................................................207
References.........................................................................................207
Table of Contents xiii

Chapter 8 Sinter Mineralogy.............................................................................. 211

8.1 Preamble................................................................................. 211
8.2 Major Constituents and Desired Mineralogy
of Sinter.................................................................................. 212
8.3 Mineralogical Terminology.................................................... 212
8.4 Sintering Reaction and Mineralogy....................................... 213
8.5 Composition and Mineralogical Characteristics
of Fluxed Sinter...................................................................... 214
8.5.1 Mineralogical Composition....................................... 214
8.5.2 Mineralogical Characteristics................................... 215
8.6 Process Variables and Sinter Mineralogy.............................. 218
8.6.1 Flame Front Speed (FFS).......................................... 218
8.6.2 Cooling Rate.............................................................. 218
8.6.3 Bed Height................................................................. 219
8.6.4 Return Fines.............................................................. 219
8.7 Sinter Chemistry and Its Mineralogy..................................... 219
8.7.1 Sinter Basicity........................................................... 219
8.7.2 Fe Content in Sinter................................................... 220
8.7.3 Sinter Alumina.......................................................... 220
8.7.4 Sinter MgO................................................................ 221
8.8 Sinter Mineralogy and Quality Parameters
of Sinter.................................................................................. 221
8.8.1 Sinter Mineralogy...................................................... 221
8.8.2 Sinter Porosity........................................................... 221
8.8.3 Sinter Morphology.................................................... 222
References......................................................................................... 223

Chapter 9 Sinter Quality: Theoretical Consideration

and Plant Practice.............................................................................. 225
9.1 Sinter Quality and Contributing Factors................................ 225
9.1.1 Quality Parameters.................................................... 225
9.1.2 Contributing Factors in Sinter Quality...................... 226
9.2 Sinter Mineralogy and Its Quality Parameters....................... 228
9.2.1 Sinter Mineralogy...................................................... 228
9.2.2 Sinter Porosity........................................................... 230
9.2.3 Pore Size.................................................................... 231
9.2.4 Porous Morphology................................................... 231
9.3 Cold Strength.......................................................................... 232
9.3.1 Strength of Sinter vis-à-vis Sintering
Speed......................................................................... 232
9.3.2 Sinter Chemistry and Strength.................................. 233
9.3.3 Coke Addition........................................................... 234
9.3.4 Bed Height................................................................. 234
xiv Table of Contents

9.4 Sinter Reducibility.................................................................. 235

9.4.1 Nature of Ore and its Size......................................... 235
9.4.2 Sinter Chemistry....................................................... 235
9.4.3 Operating Practices................................................... 237
9.5 Sinter Reduction–Degradation Index (RDI).......................... 237
9.5.1 Mechanism of Sinter RDI......................................... 237
9.5.2 Sinter Chemistry....................................................... 238
9.5.3 Vertical Speed of Sintering....................................... 242
9.6 Salient Ways to Improve Sinter RDI...................................... 242
9.6.1 Sinter Alumina: Its Reduction
and Neutralization..................................................... 242
9.6.2 Improving the Flux Size............................................ 242
9.6.3 Split Addition of MgO-Bearing Fluxes..................... 243
9.6.4 Addition of Polymeric Additives...............................244
9.6.5 Inert Gas Injection.....................................................244
References.........................................................................................244

Chapter 10 Process and Operational Variables with Respect

to Sintering........................................................................................ 249
10.1 Preamble................................................................................. 249
10.2 Iron Ore: Characteristics and Size Parameters...................... 250
10.2.1 Chemical Composition.............................................. 250
10.2.2 Mineralogical and Morphological
Characteristics of Ores.............................................. 251
10.2.3 Properties of Ores at Higher Temperature................ 251
10.2.4 Size Parameters of Ores............................................ 251
10.2.5 Balling Characteristics of Ores................................. 251
10.3 Alumina Content of Ore......................................................... 252
10.3.1 Sinter Mineralogy...................................................... 252
10.3.2 Effect of Alumina on Sinter Quality......................... 252
10.3.3 Tackling the Adverse Effect of Alumina.................. 252
10.4 Sinter Basicity......................................................................... 255
10.5 Mgo Content of Sinter............................................................ 256
10.5.1 Mineralogy and Quality of Sinter............................. 256
10.5.2 High MgO Sintering Practice.................................... 257
10.5.3 Interinfluence of Sinter Basicity and Its
MgO Content vis-À-vis Coke Content...................... 257
10.5.4 Alternate Resources of MgO..................................... 258
10.6 Fluxes: Size Parameters, Calcination,
and Assimilation..................................................................... 258
10.6.1 Particle Size of Flux.................................................. 259
10.6.2 Calcination and Assimilation of Fluxes.................... 259
10.6.3 Optimization of Crushing Scheme............................ 262
10.7 Solid Fuel................................................................................ 263
10.7.1 Thermal Effect.......................................................... 263
Table of Contents xv

10.7.2 Size of Coke and its Distribution.............................. 263

10.7.3 Mode of Coke Addition............................................. 265
10.7.4 Ash Content of Coke.................................................266
10.7.5 Reduction in Specific Coke Consumption................ 267
10.7.6 Use of Alternate Fuels............................................... 269
10.8 Newer Coating And Granulation Techniques......................... 270
10.8.1 Coating of Flux and Coke......................................... 270
10.8.2 Selective Granulation................................................ 272
10.9 Operating Practice.................................................................. 273
10.9.1 Moisture Content....................................................... 273
10.9.2 Bed Height................................................................. 274
10.9.3 Suction Pressure........................................................ 274
10.9.4 Frequency of Machine Stoppages............................. 275
10.9.5 Stockpiling of Sinter.................................................. 275
References......................................................................................... 275

Chapter 11 Pelletization Process.......................................................................... 279

11.1 Pelletization Process............................................................... 279
11.2 Raw Materials and Their Preparation.................................... 279
11.2.1 Iron Ore.....................................................................280
11.2.2 Fluxes........................................................................280
11.2.3 Solid Fuel.................................................................. 281
11.2.4 Binders...................................................................... 281
11.3 Pelletization Steps.................................................................. 282
11.3.1 Mixing....................................................................... 282
11.3.2 Pelletization (Balling)............................................... 282
11.3.3 Induration.................................................................. 283
11.4 Pollution Control and Energy Conservation........................... 283
11.4.1 Emission of Pollutants............................................... 283
11.4.2 Removal of Pollutants...............................................284
11.4.3 Energy Conservation.................................................284
11.5 Specifications of Pellet Plants................................................. 285
11.6 Composite Pellets................................................................... 285
References......................................................................................... 286

Chapter 12 Green Pelletization: Process and Mechanism................................... 289

12.1 Balling Process....................................................................... 289
12.1.1 Pelletizing Units: Description
and Operation............................................................ 289
12.1.2 Operation of Rotating Device................................... 292
12.1.3 Material Movement in a Balling Unit....................... 293
12.1.4 Drum versus Disc Pelletizer...................................... 295
12.2 Formation of Green Balls and Growth................................... 296
12.2.1 Formation of Green Balls.......................................... 296
xvi Table of Contents

12.2.2 Growth of Balls......................................................... 296

12.2.3 Role of Moisture in Granulation............................... 297
12.2.4 Forces Involved in Formation
of Green Balls........................................................... 298
12.2.5 Stages of Granulation in Green
Pelletization...............................................................300
12.3 Strength of Wet Agglomerates...............................................302
12.3.1 Capillary Theory for Wet Agglomerate
Strength.....................................................................302
12.3.2 Rumpf’s Equation for Agglomerate
Strength..................................................................... 303
12.3.3 Influencing Parameters for Agglomerate
Strength..................................................................... 305
12.4 Viscosity Effect and Binders..................................................308
12.4.1 Viscosity Effect.........................................................308
12.4.2 Binders......................................................................308
12.4.3 Requirements of Binders........................................... 310
12.4.4 Bentonite (as Binder)................................................. 310
12.4.5 Ball-Ability................................................................ 313
12.5 Elastic and Plastic Deformation of Green Pellets................... 313
12.6 Stages of Pellet Formation and Growth.................................. 315
12.7 Kinetics of Ball Growth......................................................... 317
12.7.1 Stages of Kinetics...................................................... 317
12.7.2 Kinetic Equation for Pellet Growth........................... 319
12.7.3 Factors Influencing the Ball Growth......................... 320
References......................................................................................... 323

Chapter 13 Quality of Green Pellets.................................................................... 327

13.1 Preamble................................................................................. 327
13.2 Size and Porosity of Pellets.................................................... 328
13.3 Drop Resistance (Number)..................................................... 329
13.4 Wet Compressive Strength..................................................... 331
References......................................................................................... 333

Chapter 14 Induration of Green Pellets............................................................... 335

14.1 Preamble................................................................................. 335
14.2 Pellet Induration: Steps........................................................... 336
14.2.1 Drying....................................................................... 336
14.2.2 Preheating.................................................................. 338
14.2.3 Firing......................................................................... 339
14.2.4 Cooling......................................................................340
14.3 Process of Induration Using Shaft Furnace............................340
14.4 Straight-Grate Process of Pellet Induration............................ 341
14.4.1 Straight-Grate System............................................... 341
Table of Contents xvii

14.4.2 Zones of Induration................................................... 343

14.4.3 Characteristic Features of Straight-Grate
System.......................................................................344
14.4.4 Heat Recovery in Straight-Grate System.................. 345
14.5 Grate-Kiln-Cooler Process..................................................... 345
14.5.1 Grate-Kiln-Cooler System........................................ 345
14.5.2 Design Parameters..................................................... 347
14.5.3 Operation...................................................................348
14.5.4 System of Heat Recuperation.................................... 350
14.5.5 Deposit Formation..................................................... 350
14.5.6 Characteristic Features.............................................. 351
14.6 Comparison of Straight-Grate Process Vis-À-Vis
Grate-Kiln Process................................................................. 351
14.7 Factors Influencing the Induration Process
(and Pellet Quality)................................................................. 353
14.8 Fuel Substitution in Pellet Induration..................................... 356
14.8.1 Coal Injection............................................................ 357
14.8.2 Nature of Carbonaceous Materials........................... 357
14.8.3 Utilization of DR Coal Fines..................................... 357
14.8.4 Developed Technologies............................................ 358
14.8.5 Problems and Solutions............................................. 358
References......................................................................................... 358

Chapter 15 Reactions and Formation of Phases During Induration

of Pellet.............................................................................................. 361
15.1 Preamble................................................................................. 361
15.2 Induration of Magnetite-Bearing Pellets
and Phases Formed................................................................. 362
15.2.1 Reactions with Magnetite Concentrate..................... 362
15.2.2 Phases Formed.......................................................... 363
15.3 Induration of Hematite-Bearing Pellets and
Phases Formed........................................................................364
15.4 Induration: Magnetite Vis-À-Vis Hematite
Concentrate............................................................................. 365
15.5 Phases and Pores in Indurated Pellets.................................... 366
15.5.1 Bonding and Phases.................................................. 366
15.5.2 Formation of Pores.................................................... 367
15.6 Parameters Influencing the Mineral Phases
in Indurated Pellets................................................................. 367
15.6.1 Pellet Basicity............................................................ 367
15.6.2 Addition of Coke....................................................... 369
15.6.3 Bentonite Dosage...................................................... 369
15.7 Parameters Influencing the Porosity in Indurated
Pellets...................................................................................... 370
15.7.1 Effect of Pellet Basicity and MgO Content............... 370
xviii Table of Contents

15.8 Duplex Structure..................................................................... 371

15.8.1 Formation of Duplex Structure................................. 371
15.8.2 Mechanism of Formation.......................................... 372
15.8.3 Ways to Minimize the Duplex Structure................... 373
References......................................................................................... 373

Chapter 16 Quality of Indurated Pellets.............................................................. 375

16.1 Preamble: Pellet Properties and Factors Influencing.............. 375
16.1.1 Pellet Properties........................................................ 375
16.1.2 Textural Characteristics and Pellet Properties.......... 375
16.1.3 Factors Affecting Pellet Properties........................... 376
16.2 Pellet Chemistry..................................................................... 376
16.3 Bulk Density and Angle of Repose........................................ 377
16.4 Crushing Strength................................................................... 377
16.4.1 Raw Materials (Including Binders)
and Their Characteristics.......................................... 377
16.4.2 Induration Conditions................................................ 382
16.5 Porosity................................................................................... 384
16.6 Swelling Index........................................................................ 385
16.7 Pellet Reducibility.................................................................. 388
16.8 Reduction–Degradation Index (RDI)..................................... 389
16.9 Softening And Meltdown Characteristics.............................. 389
References......................................................................................... 390

Annexures ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 393

Annexure I......................................................................................... 393
Annexure II........................................................................................ 394
Test Methods for Quality Parameters of Sinter
and Pellets............................................................................... 394
Preamble............................................................................................ 394
Sampling and Sample Preparation.................................................... 394
Green Pellets..................................................................................... 395
Indurated Pellets................................................................................ 395
Swelling Index (SI)........................................................................... 396
Clustering Index................................................................................ 397
Sinter/Pellets...................................................................................... 398
Organizations of Standards Referred................................................403
References.........................................................................................403
Index.......................................................................................................................405
Preface
The book titled Agglomeration of Iron Ores is about the size enlargement with ref-
erence to iron ores and consists of mainly the sintering and pelletization processes.
The iron ore industry is going through an unprecedented period of expansion to
meet the increasing demand of feed materials for iron making. Simultaneously, the
quality parameters for raw materials have become more stringent. This requirement
coupled with increasing regulations for environmental protection and the compul-
sion before the industries to utilize lean ores (around 45 wt. % Fe) has become a
challenging task for the iron and steel industries. We need to develop technology that
produces high-quality product from relatively low–grade ore, through beneficiation
at finer size ranges followed by their preparation as feed to the blast furnace and
other iron-making processes through agglomeration.
Importantly, the process adopted in this respect is material specific as the char-
acteristics of ores change significantly, depending upon their sources, genesis, etc.,
which influence the agglomeration practice. This means that while the basic under-
lying principles in agglomeration remain the same, we cannot have a generalized
approach for the process in designing a plant. The optimization of the process in this
respect should be not only based on the “transfer of best practice elsewhere” but also
requires conceptual understanding of the subject—why things happen so, besides
how—and the research and development (R&D) remains unavoidable in this respect.
Interestingly, much of the information on the latest technological developments in
the field of agglomeration is yet to be covered in a text/reference book published so
far. The present book underlines the importance of this aspect and has been framed
to have a collected knowledge base contributed through the research in the field of
agglomeration by various workers including the author. Since R&D is a continuous
effort, one has to look for the current journals. Nevertheless, this book will serve as
a base/starting material to initiate the research.
The aim of writing this book is to share adequate and updated information on this
important topic, which is occasionally gathered on a piecemeal basis. The author
has contributed a Chapter on Agglomeration in the Encyclopaedia of Iron, Steel,
and their Alloys (Eds. Rafael Colas, George E. Totten) published by the CRC Press
in 2016. The Chapter provides a broader picture of the subject but cannot make the
subject complete in view of space limitations. Hence, the idea of writing a book on
the subject came about to cover the subject in a more exhaustive manner. The frame-
work of theoretical and practicing knowledge to which one is exposed today requires
a broader perspective.
This book is designated to provide integrated and comprehensive coverage on the
subject that should be helpful to graduate students in their curriculum on Mineral
Processing and Ferrous Extractive Metallurgy pertaining to Agglomeration of Iron
Ores. This book will also serve as reference material on the technical details to
provide updated information on the subject to the teachers helping in preparing the
lectures and also to the researchers and practicing professionals, working in the
agglomeration and iron-making areas, assisting to enhance their knowledge base.

xix
xx Preface

There are not many books with adequate and broader coverage on the subject; and
hence, I do hope this volume will fill the gap.
The chapters and topics are arranged in a systematic way so that the readers
get thorough knowledge and understanding of the subject. The book comprises
16 chapters. The first Chapter comprises an introduction to agglomeration includ-
ing the necessity and scope. The processes of agglomeration requires raw mate-
rials of specified characteristics in terms of their purity (chemical compositions),
size parameters, as well as mineralogical, thermal, and assimilation behaviors. This
requires their detailed characterization and preparation (enrichment) before these
are used. These are covered in Chapter 2. The third and fourth Chapters cover
topics on iron-making processes and agglomerates in iron making. These topics are
important and relevant to explore the required physical-chemical characteristics of
the agglomerates in order to extract iron metal in an efficient manner. The topics
of sintering and pelletization are covered in Chapters 5 to 10 and Chapters 11 to
16, respectively. The processes, fundamentals, and quality parameters with respect
to each of these agglomeration processes are detailed. In keeping with the exist-
ing trends, topics on newer processes and techniques of agglomeration in the case
of difficult ores, including high alumina ores that prevail in India and other Asia-
Pacific countries, have been included. Lastly, common topics related to the transport
parameters for sintering and pellet induration, and the test of quality parameters with
respect to sinter and pellets are described as Annexures.
I do hope that the present book, updated through the current topics on its theoret-
ical and practical aspects in the iron ore agglomeration, will be a significant addition
to the metallurgical literature in this area.
Author Biography
Ram Pravesh Bhagat (b. 1954) served the Indian Institute
of Technology (IIT) - (ISM) Dhanbad, India, as Professor
(SAIL-NMDC Chair) on two years contract which he joined
in November 2014 after superannuation from the service of
CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), Jamshedpur,
as Chief Scientist. He has over 38 years of research experience
in iron ore beneficiation and agglomeration.
During his initial research career (1978-’89) at R&D

Centre for Iron & Steel - Steel Authority of India Limited
(SAIL), Ranchi, he worked with Soviet experts to implement
R&D Projects in the sintering plants of Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP)–SAIL basically
aimed at to improve the sinter productivity and its quality.
In the 1990s, Dr. Bhagat pursued research projects in the areas of beneficiation
and dewatering in collaboration with IIT Kharagpur, RAS Russia, and with sup-
port from private industries. His subsequent research career at NML (2000–2014)
concentrated on agglomeration, and he initiated and executed several R&D projects
sponsored by the Ministry of Steel, Government of India, as well as private organi-
zations, such as Tata Steel, MECON, Tata Metaliks, etc. Development of pilot-scale
pelletization technology for Indian goethitic/hematite ores, Agglomeration of iron
ore fines following nonconventional routes, Improved granulometry, and Cooling
characteristics of sinter had been some of his recently concluded projects.
As a faculty member of Academy of Scientific & Industrial Research -New Delhi,
also of ISM in the recent past, Prof. Bhagat developed courses and delivered lectures
in agglomeration technology. He has supervised two Ph.D. scholars at IIT Kharagpur
and several M. Tech students at ISM.
He has contributed three book chapters including “Agglomeration” in the

Encyclopedia of Iron, Steel, and Their Alloys (CRC Press). He has published 45
research papers in SCI journals and 56 in conference proceeding volumes, He has
also delivered several invited lectures. Prof. Bhagat is a reviewer of national and
international journals. He is also an examiner of Indian Universities.
Prof. Bhagat received his M. Tech. from IIT Kanpur and Ph.D. from IIT

Kharagpur. He is a life fellow and member of several professional bodies. He is also
the recipient of various awards and fellowships, including CSIR-DAAD.

xxi
 Acknowledgment
Numerous professionals have made significant and important contributions to the
field of agglomeration and related literature. The author has used information from
these sources and gratefully acknowledges the authors, journals, publishers, and
also the societies for granting their kind permission to reproduce their data in the
book:

a. Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST) | AIST Foundation

(AIME), USA
b. Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), Australia
c. BHP, Australia
d. Bauverlag BV GmBH (Aufbereitungs Tech.)
e. Elsevier, UK
f. Indian Institute of Metals, India
g. Iron and Steel Institute of Japan, Japan
h. Institute of Chemical Engineers, London
i. JFE Steel (NKK), Japan
j. Kobe Steel Limited, Japan
k. Metso Minerals, India
l. Springer, US
m. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
n. Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Inc., US
o. Taylor & Francis Group, UK
p. Tata Steel Limited, India
q. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany

The author has greatly benefited from his work and discussions with the Russian
researchers, Dr. B. M. Boranbaev and Dr. G. A. Grebenkin and acknowledge some
of their input reflected in the book. He is grateful to R&D Centre for Iron and
Steel- Steel Authority of India Limited (RDCIS-SAIL) and Council of Scientific &
Industrial Research – National Metallurgical Laboratory (CSIR-NML) for having
given him the opportunity to be associated the various R&D projects on agglom-
eration, and the sponsors, Tata Steel Limited, Ministry of Steel, and Department of
Science & Technology, Govt. of India, in particular. He acknowledges CSIR-NML
for extending library facility.
The author has had a long academic and research association with his doctoral
guides, Prof. S. K. Gupta and Prof. H. S. Ray, his students at Indian Institute of
Technology (ISM) and Academy of Scientific and Industrial Research, also several
professionals and he records his appreciation to them. Thanks to his fellow col-
leagues associated with the author in various research programs at RDCIS-SAIL
and CSIR-NML. Various professionals: Prof. Kal. V. S. Sastry (Univ. of California),
Prof. S. Komarov (Tohoku University), Mr. S. K. Sarna (Ispat Guru), Prof. F. Matsuno

xxiii

9781138035089_FM.indd 23 18/07/19 9:51 AM

 xxiv Acknowledgment

(Japan), my past colleagues, Dr. Nayak and Mr. Hembram have provided their input
in the form of Figure(s) - the author thanks them.
My contribution, as a Chapter on Agglomeration, in the Encyclopaedia of Iron,
Steel and their Alloys (Eds. Rafael Colas, George E. Totten) has given me oppor-
tunity to expend the work in the present form. I thank the publisher, CRC Press/
Taylor & Francis, their team of editing and production for their cooperation at vari-
ous stages of this project.
The cooperation extended by my wife, Manju, enabled me to devote time to
prepare the book. Thanks to my daughters, Puja, Prabha, and Pragya, for their
encouragement.

 Ram Pravesh Bhagat

9781138035089_FM.indd 24 18/07/19 9:51 AM

 1 Introduction

ABBREVIATIONS
BF Blast furnace
CCS Cold crushing strength
DRI Direct reduced iron
LOI Loss on ignition
OSM Oxygen steel making
NMDC National Mineral Development Corporation
R&D Research and Development
SAIL Steel Authority of India Limited

1.1 PREAMBLE
Agglomeration is an important process in the extraction of iron ore to produce iron.
The process, being the interface between the mineral processing and extractive
metallurgy, is encountered by the professionals in these fields. Optimization of the
agglomeration process is one of the major contributory factors in deciding tech-
no-economics of the entire iron-making process following blast furnace and direct
reduction route(s). The process has undergone through many innovations over the
recent period. The effect of quality parameters of the agglomerates on the perfor-
mance of iron-making practices is required to be studied for the process optimization.
The sintering and pelletization are the pertinent agglomeration processes with
respect to iron making. In addition to knowledge of the basic and fundamental princi-
ples of these processes, insights on correlating the quality parameters of agglomerate
with its mineralogy vis-à-vis the process variables are important for the technology
development in these areas.
The technological innovations on agglomeration in phases has led to the development
of newer practices and their assimilation in the plants. These basically aim to (a) increase
productivity, (b) reduce raw material consumption and other operating costs, (c) improve
the product quality, and lastly, (d) reduce environmental pollution. The influencing param-
eters can be categorized into those that are (a) raw material based and (b) process based.

1.2 DEFINITION AND CATEGORY

1.2.1 Agglomeration
Agglomeration, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, is the process of making
larger-sized particles from smaller ones. The process has varied applications in (a) phar-
maceutical industries, (b) chemical industries, and (c) metallurgical industries. With
reference to the metallurgical usage of agglomerates in iron and steel industries, the
process can be classified into (a) sintering, (b) pelletizing, and (c) briquetting (Figure 1.1)

1
2 Agglomeration of Iron Ores

FIGURE 1.1 Photographs of (a) sinter, (b) pellets, and (c) briquette

The agglomeration process has a much wider application in the iron and steel
industries. It is the common method of burden preparation in the iron making fol-
lowing blast furnace and direct reduction processes. Growth of the steel industry
with depleting resources of high-grade ores has led to a very strong demand for both
pelletizing and sintering of iron ores.

1.2.2 Sintering
The process of sintering involves the agglomeration of the ore fines admixed with fluxes
and other additives into a porous mass by the reactions of ingredient minerals through solid
state diffusion at higher temperature as well as incipient fusion and bonding by slag, which
are caused by the heat produced through combustion (of coke) within the mass itself.
Important steps in the sintering process are:

• Mix preparation,
• Charging the mix into a sintering strand,
• Ignition (of the top layer)
• Sintering
• Cooling

1.2.3 Pelletizing
Pelletization is the process of forming nearly spherical balls by tumbling moist
particulate fines (approximately below 72 micron size) with/without the addition
of binders and additives in a balling drum or disc. The green balls, thus formed,
undergo an induration cycle consisting of drying, preheating, firing at approximately
1350°C (1623 K) temperature. and subsequent cooling.
Important steps in the pelletization process are:

• Making green pellets,

• Heat hardening the green pellets,
• Cooling the fired pellets

1.2.4 Briquetting
Briquetting is the process of making compressed blocks of particles admixed with
binder such as coal tar and other additives. It is a cold process, and compression is
imparted by the pressure between two blocks.
Introduction 3

1.3 SCOPE OF AGGLOMERATION

The integrated blast furnace and oxygen steelmaking (BF-OSM) route is a dominant
process for worldwide steel production, currently producing approximately 60% of
the world’s total output of crude steel. The rest of the (iron-making) processes are
contributed by (a) coal- and gas-based DRI processes for production of non-liquid
iron and (b) smelting–reduction processes for production of liquid iron, like Corex -
a VAI Iron-making Technology.
These processes of iron making essentially require a prepared feedstock: iron
ore in lump form (below 30 mm and above 10/6.3 mm size) and agglomerates in
the form of sinter and pellets. These are the size enlarged products resulting from
the process of agglomeration. In most cases, sinter finds its application in blast fur-
nace iron making. The pellets also find their usage in the iron-making processes
where agglomerates are charged. These include (a) blast furnaces, (b) direct reduc-
tion plants (coal- and gas-based), and also in the (c) Corex process.
One important aspect of the usage of agglomerates in the ferrous extraction pro-
cess is that the agglomerates could be tailor-made. That is, while the quality param-
eters of raw materials are guided by natural constraints, the quality parameters of
agglomerates, sinter in particular, can be regulated, which makes them important for
their usage in a BF as burden. For instance, lump ore is the product of nature with
inherent variability in its physical and chemical properties, whereas the agglomer-
ates of desired quality specifications could be produced by modifying the process
conditions and the chemical composition of agglomerates.

1.4 NEED FOR AGGLOMERATION

The sintering process is required to utilize the iron fines that are generated in the
mines along with the lump ore. The fines can’t be used as blast furnace burden, even
if they meet the chemical specification, as their charging in the blast furnace will
reduce the permeability of bed and hence productivity of the blast furnace. A sinter
plant requires ore fines of lesser purity (Fe approximately 62 wt. %). In several cases,
the fines generated in the mines through the dry and wet processing of ores meet the
specification and, hence, do not require elaborate treatment.
In addition to ore fines, large amounts of lean-grade ores are excavated during the
mining operation. In addition, the wet processing of ores generates slimes having the
size below 150 micron. It is essential to have Fe value recovered from these materials
for material conservation, also for the profitability of plant on one hand and for the
sustainable development on the other. The agglomeration process provides an impor-
tant avenue to utilize these materials, but only after these are enriched in terms of
Fe value in the concentrate product.
The concentrate generated from lean-grade iron ores and slimes following
their intense beneficiation process are in the sub-sieve range (approximately below
150 micron size) and hence could not find its place in conventional sintering for the
obvious reason of unfavorable particle granulometry. Incorporation of the concentrate in
the sinter mix will reduce the bed permeability during the sintering process and hence
the strand productivity. Therefore, pelletization of the generated concentrate becomes an
4 Agglomeration of Iron Ores

obvious choice. Alternatively, pellet-sintering technology, which combines pre-balling

and the sintering process, has the potential to take care of the slimes and fines in the
sub-sieve range. The cost of induration is eliminated through the incorporation of this
technology. The technology, which mostly prevails in China, has drawn attention in
other countries, like India, these days. Chapter 5 covers salient feature of the technology
Lime, which is required to neutralize the acidic constituents (SiO2 and Al2O3)
of the furnace burden, can be incorporated through fluxed sinter. In this way, the
calcination of limestone inside the furnace which is highly endothermic, is elimi-
nated (through the incorporation of fluxed sinter). The process of sintering provides
an excellent way for the diversification of the fuel sources by incorporating cheaper
fuel, that is, coke breeze. Besides, volatilities, moisture, CO2 and most of the sulfur
and arsenic in ore being eliminated during the sintering process.

1.5 RAW MATERIALS FOR AGGLOMERATION

The agglomeration processes require prepared raw materials, most importantly, fer-
ruginous ones. The characteristics of the raw materials, in terms of their granulome-
try and chemistry, do have a significant effect on the process. The iron ores that are
excavated from the mines are never pure and contain impurities, such as silica, alu-
mina, and volatilities. This requires beneficiation. The process of beneficiation may
adopt different routes depending on the nature and complexity of the iron ores being
treated and giving rise to different flow-sheets. These topics are covered in Chapter 2.
Along with the lump ore, ore fines are generated in large quantities during the
mining operation. The size of lump ore, as well as that of fines, is decided by the
blast furnace requirement. Normally, sized iron ore (above 10/6.3 mm) in lump form,
is directly used in the furnace; accordingly, undersized fractions (below 10/6.3 mm)
of ore are considered ore fines and become feedstock in the agglomeration processes.
The ore fines, if rich in Fe (Fe greater than 62 wt. %) and low in silica and alumina
content, can be directly used in sinter making, however, after wet scrubbing and washing.
The sintering process requires iron ore of a coarser size. Preferred size of the fines is
below 6.3/10 mm depending on the size of lump ore being used in the BF. Finer size frac-
tion of ore fines (below 150 micron) should not exceed 20 wt. % since excessive quan-
tities of very fine material affects the sinter bed permeability and, hence, productivity.
In addition to the ore fines of acceptable grade (by the sinter plant), large quanti-
ties of lean-grade ores are excavated during the mining operation. Besides, the wet
processing of ores generates slimes having the size -150 micron. These materials, in
their present form, can’t be used directly in the iron-making processes. The prob-
lems are with respect to their purity in terms of high contents of silica and alumina
as well as their granulometry.
The silica and alumina that constitute gangue minerals are associated with the
hematite and magnetite minerals in iron ore. These gangues need to be removed/
reduced to enrich Fe value in the product, called, concentrate while removing the
undesired portion referred as tailing through the process of beneficiation. The pro-
cess could be a prerequisite in case the deposit is composed of low-grade ores con-
stituting high silica and/or high alumina also in cases of complex ores and slimes
having high alumina and/or high content of loss on ignition (LOI). These ores are
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 CHAPTER XXIII
CŒUR DE LION
It seemed as if fortune was anxious to compensate Nancy for the
sudden shattering of her operatic dreams. The very first agent to
whom she went on her return to London greeted her with something
like acclamation.
“Why, Miss O’Finn, I am glad you’ve looked in this morning. Mr.
Percy Mortimer”—the agent’s harsh voice sank to a reverential
murmur—“Mr. Percy Mortimer has had some difficulty with the lady
he engaged to play rather an important part in his new play at the
Athenæum, and his secretary wrote to me to ask if I would send
some ladies to interview him with a view to his engaging one of
them. He requires a tall dark lady of some presence, and of course
with the necessary experience. This would be a splendid opportunity
for you, Miss O’Finn, if you happened to please Mr. Mortimer.”
“Naturally I should like nothing better than to be at the Athenæum,”
said Nancy in a voice that was nearly as full of awe as the agent’s.
“It isn’t so much the salary,” he pointed out. “In fact, Mr. Mortimer
does not believe in paying very large salaries to the actors and
actresses who are supporting him. He thinks—and he is undoubtedly
right—that to have one’s name on the programmes of the Athenæum
is the equivalent of several pounds at most of the other London
theatres.
“Now, don’t talk too much about it before Mr. Mortimer has even
seen me,” Nancy begged.
“He’ll be at the Athenæum this afternoon at half-past three. I’m
only sending along two other ladies. And I think you’re just what he
wants.”
 Mr. Percy Mortimer was something more than a great figure of the
London stage; he was an institution. Everybody agreed that should
Her Majesty decide to create another theatrical knight Percy
Mortimer was undoubtedly the one she would select for the
accolade. The prime cause of his renown in England was that if
there was ever any question of choice between being an actor or a
gentleman he would always put good breeding before art. This was
held to be elevating the drama. If by chance the public disapproved
of any play he produced, Percy Mortimer always apologised before
the curtain on the first night and laid the blame on the author. Two or
three years before this date he was acting in a play by a famous
dramatist who became involved in a sensational and scandalous
lawsuit. Percy Mortimer did not take off the play. He owed something
to art. But he paid his debt to good breeding by expunging the
author’s name from the playbills and the programmes.
Nancy had to pass the vigilance of various chamberlains,
constables, and seneschals before she reached the Presence, a
handsome man with a face as large and smooth as a perfectly cured
ham.
“Miss O’Finn?” he inquired graciously, with a glance at her card.
“Of Irish extraction, perhaps?”
She nodded.
“A part is vacant in my new play,” he announced. “The public is
anxious to see me in historical drama, and I have decided to produce
Mr. Philip Stevens’s Cœur de Lion. The vacant part is that of a
Saracen woman who has escaped from the harem of Saladin. It is
not a long part, but it is an extremely important part, because the
only scene in which this character appears is played as a duologue
with myself.”
Mr. Mortimer paused to give Nancy time to appreciate what this
meant.
“Here is the script,” he said. “Perhaps you will read me your lines?”
Nancy took a deep breath and dived.
 “Thank you, Miss O’Finn,” said Mr. Mortimer. “One of my
secretaries will communicate my decision to your agent in the course
of the next twenty-four hours.”
He pressed a bell, which was immediately answered by a
chamberlain to whom was entrusted the task of escorting Nancy
back into the commonplace of existence.
And the very next day when Nancy, who was staying at St.
Joseph’s, went to her agent, she was offered the part at a salary of
£5 a week.
Not only was Cœur de Lion a success with the critics, who hailed
Mr. Philip Stevens as the morning-star of a new and glorious day for
England’s poetic drama; but it was a success with the public. This, of
course, made the critics revise their opinion and decide that what
they had mistaken for a morning-star was only a fire-balloon; but the
damage was done, and English criticism suffered the humiliation of
having praised as a great play what dared to turn out a popular
success. One or two papers actually singled out Nancy’s
performance for special commendation which, considering that the
part did not look difficult and that she played it easily and naturally,
betrayed astonishing perspicacity for a dramatic critic. She found
pleasant rooms in St. John’s Wood, quite close to the convent.
Kenrick made several attempts to see her, and on one occasion
waited for her outside the stage-door. She begged him not to do this
again as it might involve her dismissal from the Athenæum, because
one of Mr. Mortimer’s ways of elevating the English drama was to
make it an offence for any of the ladies of his company to be waited
for outside the stage-door.
For three months everything went well for Nancy except that the
expense of London life was a constant worry for her, although she
tried to console herself with the thought that she had already saved a
certain amount of money, and that after her success in Cœur de Lion
she might expect to get a larger salary in her next London
engagement. Otherwise she was happy.
Then one night early in April she was informed by the stage-door
keeper that a gentleman who would not leave his name had been
inquiring for her private address. Nancy supposed that it was Kenrick
again; but the stage-door keeper remembered him well. This was a
much older gentleman with curly white hair who was quite definitely
a member of the profession.
“Of course, I didn’t give him your address, miss. But if he calls
again, what shall I say?”
It was her father. What should she say? Nancy’s conscience had
touched her from time to time for the way she had let her father drop
out of her life ever since that day he had failed her so badly. She did
not know if he was acting in London or in the provinces, or if he was
not acting anywhere. His name had never been mentioned all these
months of touring. On no railway platform had she caught a glimpse
of him as two “crowds” passed each other during long Sabbath
journeys. He might have been dead. And now here he was in her
path. What should she say?
“Ask him to leave his address, will you? And say that I will write to
him.”
If her father dreaded another such a disastrous visit as the one
she paid him four years ago, he need not leave his address. If,
however, he did leave it she would have time to ponder what
response to make.
Michael O’Finn did not call again at the stage-door of the
Athenæum, but two or three days after this his daughter received a
letter from him at the theatre.

544 Camberwell Road, S. E.

2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 17, 1899.
My beloved daughter,
How many times since last we met have I picked up my
pen, how many times have I laid it down again with a
groan of paternal despair! That you had reason to
complain of me I will not deny. My head is bowed before
your just and natural ire. But the sight of your name—your
dear, dear name—although you share the second portion
of it with that least worthy of God’s creatures, your
wretched father—the sight of your name, I repeat, in the
cast of Cœur de Lion watered with hope the withered plant
that in happier days and in the glory of his blossoming
prime gave that tender shoot to the world, which is your
sweet self.
I will not attempt to condone my fault. I will not attempt
it, I say. At the moment when I should have been standing
upon the doorstep of that humble habitation in which I
sojourned for a space to welcome you with open arms and
tears of joy, I was, owing to a combination of unfortunate
circumstances, prone upon my bed in the first-floor front. I
have not to warn you, my child, against the evils of drink,
because in you glows the pure and temperate soul of your
beloved mother. At the same time I should lack all the
noble instincts of paternity if I did not remind you that
“virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish
of it.” That being so, do not allow yourself to be tempted
by even a solitary glass of champagne. Water, pure,
wholesome, pellucid water is the natural element of a
being like yourself. But to come to the point of this letter.
Two years ago, weary of being “a walking shadow, a poor
player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage,” I
longed to be “heard no more.” I was at that time lodging in
the house from which I write this despairing epistle. In a
moment of folly I proposed to link myself in matrimony with
my landlady’s daughter. The wretched woman accepted
my hand. The Tragic Muse would be rendered dumb by
the task of painting my misery ever since that inauspicious
day. Ay, even Melpomene herself would stammer. One
word, one word alone can indicate a dim and shadowy
outline of my existence, and that one word is Hell.
 You will observe that I have resumed after a blank. That
blank I wish to draw over my life for the last two years. But
I have now reached a lower depth, a gloomier abyss,
where in addition to all my other ills the spectre of famine
looms above me. The wolf is scratching at the door. In a
word, unless somehow or other I can raise the sum—a
bagatelle for a Crœsus or a Rothschild, for me a burden
heavier than Atlas bore—the sum of £158. 14s. 3½d.
within the next week, I and my wife and my mother-in-law
will be in the street. I do not for an instant imagine that you
yourself have such a sum handy. You are like your father
only a poor stroller. But it has occurred to me that you
might be acquainted with some fortunate individual who
could advance you this amount to save your father from
destitution in company with the two least attractive
companions that can be imagined for such an existence.
I beg that you will not attempt to visit me. Since I gave
up brandy, this house appears to me as what it
undoubtedly is—a mercenary hovel. Yet I am “fain to hovel
me with swine and rogues forlorn in short and musty
straw.” In a word, I am better off in 544 Camberwell Road
than “to be exposed against the warring winds, to stand
against the deep dread-bolted thunder.”
My beloved Nancy, do your best for me. Overlook my
failings and come to my aid.

“Dear daughter, I confess that I am old;

Age is unnecessary; on my knees I beg
That you’ll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.”

These words addressed by the hapless Lear to his

unnatural daughter Regan I take from their context and
utter to one who has ever been a Cordelia.
To that most wretched of earth’s creatures
Her
Father.
 Nancy was not deluded by the laboured rhetoric of this letter. She
understood that her father’s need was serious. She had the money
that would relieve him. She must send it immediately. To be sure he
had failed her four years ago, but had she not allowed her bitterness
to make her unnatural? Was she not to blame a little for this
disastrous later phase of his career? Oh, yes, more than a little.
Moreover, that money in the bank, since her break with Kenrick, had
never lain there comfortably. It had never seemed to belong to her as
genuinely as once it did. The sum her father required so gravely was
more than Kenrick could have spent on that Italian adventure of
hers. She took out her cheque-book and sat down at the table. Or
should she go and see him in Camberwell? She read her father’s
letter again. No, it was clear he did not want her to be a spectator of
his wretchedness. But at least she could invite him to her rooms—
yet could she? That would mean talking about Letizia, and perhaps
he would want to see her. Was it very heartless of her not to want
him to see Letizia? After all, he had not suggested visiting her. She
would send him this money and she could decide later what she
should do.
Nancy received a long and emotional letter of thanks, in which her
father said that he was feeling very low, but that without doubt her
rescue of him from the desperate position in which he had been
plunged would rapidly restore him to health. Meanwhile, he begged
her again not to dream of visiting him in Camberwell. When the
warm weather began in May he would come and see his beloved
daughter.
But when the warm weather came in May, Nancy read an obituary
in The Era of that ripe old actor, Michael O’Finn, a fine comedian and
a tragic actor of no mean ability.
 CHAPTER XXIV
DECENNIAL
Cœur de Lion suffered from cardiac depression in the heat of July
and ceased to beat half-way through the month. Although Mr. Percy
Mortimer offered Nancy a part in his autumn production, he did not
offer her a higher salary. Not only had she been unable to save a
penny in London; she had had to draw heavily on what remained of
her savings when she had paid her father’s debts. No doubt, if she
stayed on at the Athenæum she should gradually establish herself
as a London actress, but should she ever save any money? She felt
that she lacked the temperament to become a star. Even if she had
had the consuming white-hot ambition, she did not possess the
necessary personality. For one thing she was too useful an actress.
She would always be given parts that were difficult to fill, obviously.
She would never establish herself as the one actress who could play
one particular kind of part. Nevertheless, to refuse a good part in the
forthcoming production at the Athenæum was not an easy thing to
do. Another conspicuous success would mean a rise of salary for the
next production and, were there nothing for her at the Athenæum,
she might surely count on a good engagement at another theatre.
Then there was Letizia in London, and it was so jolly to be able to
see her almost every day. She seemed to grow more amusing and
interesting and adorable all the time. There were many years yet
before she should be wanting that money to launch her on whatever
career she chose. Would she choose the stage? Probably. Plenty of
personality there. With the natural sense of the theatre she must
inherit from both sides she would stand a splendid chance of
becoming a really renowned actress. But what a much greater
chance she would stand if she were not hampered by the urgent
need of a livelihood. Not that Nancy intended her daughter to be
aware of her amateur status. If she chose to be an actress, she
should begin under the impression that there was not a farthing
between herself and starvation in the event of failure. But once she
secured a London engagement, why, then the money to dress
herself, the money to be able to turn up her nose at a small salary,
the money to flick her fingers in the face of any manager—— But
Letizia’s début was a long way off yet. She might not choose the
stage; and was it risking so much for her mother to stay on and enjoy
the amenity of acting in London?
Nancy was on the point of settling for the autumn with Mr.
Mortimer when an actor with whom she had played in two provincial
companies before Bram’s death offered her £7 a week to go out on
tour with him in a repertory of Robertson’s plays—£7 a week in the
country was the equivalent of £10 a week in town. Nancy flung away
any hope of fame, flung away the amenity of the London stage, flung
away the pleasure of seeing Letizia every day, and became once
more a strolling player, wandering the next ten years up and down
the length of England, in and out of Wales, over to Ireland, and
across the border into Scotland. She never sang any more except at
festive gatherings to celebrate some Bohemian occasion; but if she
sang no more on the stage, neither did she play another
adventuress. Her engagements were nearly always with number one
companies for number one towns. Having once achieved £7 a week,
she never acted again for less, and without stinting herself too much
or denying herself a month’s rest she managed to put by £100 every
year.
Until Letizia was twelve she was allowed to spend the summer
holidays with her mother, who was, of course, always on tour in
August, so that Letizia had plenty of experience of theatrical life in
her impressionable childhood. At the age of eleven she fell very
much in love with a good-looking actor of forty-five, a member of the
company with which her mother was touring. At first Nancy was
amused by this precocious passion and had many jokes about it with
Mr. Bernard Drake, the object of Letizia’s adoration. But when,
notwithstanding the bracing air of Blackpool, Letizia began to grow
thin and pale and hollow-eyed and altogether thoroughly love-sick,
Nancy became anxious about her health and begged Drake not to
encourage her little daughter by any kind of “let’s pretend.” The next
week the company was playing at Douglas, and Letizia was no
better in spite of all sorts of amusements and thrills that included a
personal introduction by Mr. Drake to several freaks then being
shown at one of the halls by the sea for which Douglas was famous
in those days.
“What is the matter, Letizia? Aren’t you enjoying your time with
me?”
They were sitting among the heather beyond the town, looking at
the calm sea and the curve of the long marina.
“Oh, yes, I’m enjoying myself terribly,” said Letizia in woebegone
accents. “Only, in another month I shall have to go back to school.”
“But the holidays aren’t half over yet,” her mother pointed out.
“No, not yet,” Letizia sighed. “But they will be over.”
“Would you like to invite Mrs. Pottage to come and stay with us
next week—no, next week is Llandudno and Rhyl—the week after at
Hastings?”
“No, thank you, mother. She’ll only laugh all the time at
everything.”
“Letizia, do not be so ridiculous. It’s only during the last fortnight
that you’ve not been laughing at everything all the time yourself.”
“I don’t think I shall ever laugh again,” Letizia groaned.
“Why on earth not?”
“Because I want so dreadfully to be grown up.”
“Well, you can’t go on moping for the next seven years, my dear.”
“Will I be grown up in seven years?” Letizia asked, brightening.
“That isn’t so very long, is it? I’m more than half-way already....
Mother?” she resumed.
“Yes?”
“When does a bearded lady begin to grow a beard? I couldn’t
suddenly become a bearded lady, could I, when I was grown up?”
 “Of course not, you noodle.”
“You’re quite sure?” Letizia pressed.
“Positive.”
“The bearded lady was very nice when I shook hands with her,”
said Letizia pensively. “But I wouldn’t much like to kiss her if I was a
man, would you?”
“Not at all,” Nancy declared with a grimace.
“Mother?”
“What now?”
“Do you think she’d mind if I asked her if she had any bits of beard
when she was eleven?”
“No, darling, I don’t want you to meet those freaks again. I can’t
think why Mr. Drake ever introduced you to them. It was very
naughty of him.”
Letizia turned a pale and reproachful face to her mother.
“I think Mr. Drake is the nicest man who ever lived,” she
proclaimed solemnly. Then in a voice that strove to to be nonchalant,
she asked how old he was.
“About forty-five.”
“Mother?”
“Still another puzzle for poor me?”
“Is fifty-two frightfully old for a man to be?”
“Very old indeed.”
“Too old to marry?”
“Much too old,” said Nancy decidedly.
Letizia uttered a sigh of unutterable despair, and in spite of
everything that her mother could do, in spite of a boisterous visit
from Mrs. Pottage to Hastings, she remained in a state of gloom all
through the summer holidays. Moreover, Sister Catherine wrote to
Nancy half-way through the next term that she was so worried about
Letizia’s health that she thought it would be wise if she went to
Belgium early in the New Year, as London did not seem to be suiting
her. Nancy wondered if she should say anything about her
unfortunate passion for a middle-aged actor, but decided that it might
give a wrong impression to the nuns and kept silence. She was glad
she had, when soon after Letizia’s arrival in Belgium she received a
letter full of excitement and good spirits. The sickness of love was
evidently cured. But that it could endure so long at the age of eleven
made Nancy a little anxious about her daughter’s emotional future.
Four years passed while Letizia was at school in Belgium. There
were changes among the Sisters of the Holy Infancy. Mother Mary
Ethelreda died and was laid to rest in the soil which her ancestors
had held long ago by the sword. Sister Catherine was elected
mother-superior. Sister Rose became head-mistress of St. Joseph’s.
There were no changes in Nancy’s existence apart from the change
every week from one town to another. She never heard of Kenrick
nowadays. He had passed out of her life as if he had never been.
Mrs. Pottage was growing old, and for the first time since Bram’s
death Nancy visited Starboard Alley to celebrate the old lady’s
seventieth birthday.
Aggie Wilkinson was there looking now almost as old as Mrs.
Pottage and in some respects a good deal older, though she was still
alluded to by her mistress as if she were in short skirts.
“Pore little thing, it does her good to get about a bit on those
crutches of hers. She likes a jollification as much as I do myself.
She’s been helping me with the birthday cake, and which I don’t
mind telling you is a proper mammoth and no mistake. It ’ud make
Mong Blong look like a fourpenny lemon-ice.”
Mrs. Bugbird was there, and Nancy thought that she too looked a
proper mammoth, so much fatter had she grown with the years.
“It’s to be a nice cosy little party,” Mrs. Pottage announced. “In fact
we’re all here now except one.”
 With this she winked at Mrs. Bugbird, who shook with her
accustomed laughter, though she was now so immense that she
could scarcely fall off any chair, and not very easily fall off a sofa.
Nancy gratified her hostess by displaying a great deal of curiosity
about the missing guest.
“He’s my one and only left,” Mrs. Pottage said. “No, I’m joking. He
isn’t what you’d call a suitor at all. In fact, he wouldn’t suit anybody.
He’s just a nice quiet old fellow called Hayhoe who likes to pop in of
a evening and smoke his pipe in my kitchen. He’s been in Australia
all his life, and when he come home again he found all his friends
and relations was dead and buried. So the pore old boy’s a bit lonely,
and he enjoys himself telling the tale to me about Australia, and
which seems to me from what I can make out of it a much larger
place than what you’d think. And on Sunday to pass the time he
blows the organ. He says that’s the only way he can go to church
without missing his pipe, though whether because the organ has
pipes and to spare or because he’s for ever puffing at the bellows I
never could rightly make out. He’s entertained Mrs. B. and I a lot this
last winter, and he’s very handy with a hammer and nails. In fact, we
call him the jumping kangaroo among ourselves. Hush, here he
comes.”
Perhaps Mr. Hayhoe was abashed by the presence of a stranger,
for he certainly did not jump about at all that afternoon, but sat small
and silent in a corner of Mrs. Pottage’s room until he was called
upon to help cut the cake, which he did with the air of performing a
surgical operation.
“Well, I shall certainly do my best to live a bit longer,” Mrs. Pottage
declared when she was responding to the good wishes of her
guests, “for the longer I live, the more I enjoy myself. Oh, dear, I do
wish I’d have been a month or two younger though, and then Letitsia
could have been with us this afternoon. She has been away a time.
Talk about Brussels sprouts, she will be a Brussels sprout by now,
and no mistake. You mark my words, Mrs. Bugbird, that child’ll come
home a walking maypole.”
 And certainly Letizia did seem the most enormous creature to her
mother when they met again, with her skirts half-way between her
knees and her ankles and her dark-brown wavy hair in a tight pigtail.
“Fancy, having a flapper for a daughter,” Nancy exclaimed.
“I know, isn’t it too perfectly beastly, mother. I hope Sister Rose will
let me fluff my hair out again. After all, I’m only just fifteen, and I
don’t want to be grown up before I need be. But I don’t expect she
will. She was always the strictest of the lot. I can’t think why they
made her head-mistress of St. Joseph’s.”
Sister Rose felt that it was her duty to try and quell some of
Letizia’s exuberance, and throughout the next year Nancy was
getting letters from her daughter about “rows.” With all her strictness
Sister Rose seemed much less capable than Sister Catherine of
keeping her pupils in order; or perhaps it was that Letizia was now
one of the big girls and consequently involved in much more serious
escapades than those of the juniors. Then came the most
tremendous row the school had ever known, according to Letizia.

St. Joseph’s School,

Sisters of the Holy Infancy,
5 Arden Grove,
N. W.,
May 15, 1906.
Darling Mother,
There’s been the most frightful row, and it looks as if
one or two of us will get the boot. I don’t think I shall
because I’m not in up to the hilt. But it’s all very
thunderous, and Reverend Mother has been sent for to
deal with matters. What happened was this. You know the
backs of the houses in Stanwick Terrace look down into
our garden? Well, one of the girls—I’ll mention no names
because a deadly system of espionage has been
instituted—we’ll call her Cora which sounds an evil and
profligate name. Cora met a youth, well, as a matter of
fact, he’s not such a youth, because he’s left Cambridge.
So he must be about 22. Cora met him during the Easter
Hols, and was most fearfully smitten. So they arranged to
correspond. In fact she considers herself engaged to him.
Which of course is piffle, because she’s only sixteen. She
asked me to be one of her confidantes now, and later on a
bridesmaid, and get hold of her notes. Oh, I forgot to say
that this youth lives in Stanwick Terrace. So, he used to
put them under a flower-pot on the garden wall. But the
silly idiots weren’t content with notes. They found that they
could easily signal to one another from their rooms, and
they arranged a code. Two candles in the window meant
“My darling, I love you madly”; and all that sort of piffle.
Cora used to work her messages with the blind, and I and
Joan Hutchinson, the other girl who shares a room with
her, got rather fed up with her pulling the blind up and
down in a passionate ecstasy. So I said, “Why don’t you
go out and talk to him over the garden wall? We’ll let you
down with a sheet, which will be rather a rag.” As a matter
of fact that’s just what it was; because the beastly sheet
busted, and there was poor Cora dancing about by the
light of the moon in a nightgown and a mackintosh. Sister
Margaret, who has apocalyptic visions every night,
thought Cora—oh, I’m sick of calling her by a false name,
and anyway if some stuffy old nun does open this and
read it, well, I hope she’ll enjoy it. I do hate espionage.
Don’t you? We’ve only had it here since Sister Rose
succeeded to the throne. Well, Sister Margaret was
looking out of her window just as the sheet busted and
dropped Enid Wilson—that’s the girl—down into the
garden. She at once thought it was a miracle, and rushed
to Sister Monica who sleeps in the next room and banged
on her door and said. “Oh, sister! Our Lady has just
descended into the garden.” Tableau vivant! There’s a
picture for you! Of course Joan and I were simply in fits.
Anyway there’s the most terrific row on that the school has
ever had. Enid is convinced that she’s going to be
expelled. Investigations by the authorities have discovered
 all about her darling Gerald. Apparently one of the
gardeners found a note and gave it to Sister Rose. Joan
Hutchinson and I are in pretty well to the hilt for letting
Enid out of the window, and so at any moment you may
receive a curt note from Reverend Mother to say that I am
incorrigible and please accept delivery.
Heaps of love,
Your sinister child
Letizia.

That’s what Sister Rose thinks I am. She said to me, “I

cannot help thinking, Letizia, that you have played a very
sinister part in this sorry affair.”

Nancy immediately wrote a stern letter to Letizia, reproaching her

for not appreciating what the nuns had done for her, and by the
same post she wrote to Mother Catherine, pleading for a lenient view
of what she assured her was really more a thoughtless prank than a
serious and premeditated piece of naughtiness.
Perhaps Mother Catherine decided that Sister Rose’s methods
tended to make her pupils rebel against them by outrageous
behaviour. At any rate, Sister Rose went to take charge of the house
at Eastbourne and rule the indigent maiden ladies provided for
therein. Sister Perpetua came down from Beaumanoir to be head-
mistress; and there were no more letters from Letizia about rows, for
Sister Perpetua, like Mother Catherine, was never strict for the sake
of strictness, but wise and holy and human.
That year Nancy was acting in the North, so she spent Christmas
at Beaumanoir with Mother Catherine. Snow was lying thick on the
moors when she arrived. It reminded her of that Christmas eleven
years ago when Mother Mary Ethelreda was still alive.
Mother Catherine had changed very little with passing time. Her
tranquil azure eyes had lost none of their fiery compassion, none of
their grave and sweet comprehension. By half-past three when
Nancy arrived at the convent a dusk heavy with unladen snow was
creeping over the moor, and the candles were already lighted in the
Reverend Mother’s parlour.
“I have been so distressed over Letizia’s behaviour,” said Nancy. “I
cannot think what happened to her last spring.”
“Don’t upset yourself about her, my dear child,” Mother Catherine
replied, patting Nancy’s hand. “She is quite herself again now, and in
any case it was really nothing more than the normal exuberance of
youth. Frankly, I am pleased to find her relatively much younger now
than she was before she went to Belgium.”
“But I was so shocked at her apparent ingratitude,” Nancy sighed.
Mother Catherine shook her head.
“She is not ungrateful. You must remember that she has been at
school many, many years now. I can easily understand that St.
Joseph’s must be seeming irksome, and that is one of the reasons
why I am glad to have this chance of talking over with you a plan that
is in my mind. I must tell you that dear Mother Mary Ethelreda left the
Community very well endowed, and there is a fund set apart for the
benefit of any girls who show any kind of artistic promise. They are
to be helped to achieve their ambition, no matter what it may be. As
you know, Letizia has definitely made up her mind to go on the
stage....”
“She has not said so to me,” Nancy interrupted.
“Well, that of course is just what you would expect. Parents and
teachers must always expect to be suddenly confronted with the
inexplicable reserve of the young. Just as she wrote you a full
account of that foolish business with Enid Wilson and Joan
Hutchinson, so she has given me her confidence about her career. I
fancy that the instinct to entrust a secret to an outsider is a normal
one. You would be expected to regard her theatrical hopes with a
professional eye just as I should be expected to regard her
escapades with a professional eye.”
Nancy nodded her agreement with this.
 “Very well,” Mother Catherine went on, “if Letizia is going on the
stage it is important that she should now concentrate on deportment,
elocution, dancing, singing, and all the graces that will adorn her
vocation. Another of our pupils longs to paint, and another who
shows signs of having a really lovely voice wishes to become a
singer. I propose to send these three young cousins of the Muses for
a couple of years to Italy with a dame de compagnie. Thus each one
will be able to study what will most help her afterwards.”
“To Italy!” Nancy exclaimed.
“I don’t think Letizia will ever have a voice as good as her
mother’s,” the nun said, with a smile. “And that reminds me, will you
sing Adeste Fideles for us at the midnight Mass?”
“Oh, I never sing nowadays,” Nancy replied, the tears standing
bright in her eyes at the thought of the delight that was in store for
that little daughter—a walking maypole now perhaps, but still so
much her little daughter.
“But you must sing for us,” Mother Catherine insisted. “We want to
hear your voice roll out above our thin notes. It is so dreadful, this
news that the French Government has forbidden midnight Mass in
any of the French cathedrals or churches this year. What woes that
wretched country is calling down upon itself! It will hearten us to hear
your voice singing that wonderful old hymn.”
Nancy felt that it would sound like affectation to refuse after this,
and into her voice at midnight she put all the triumph, all the
gladness, all the gratitude in her mother-heart.
So, for the next two years Letizia was writing home to England the
most absorbing accounts of Rome, where she and her companions
spent most of their time, though on different occasions they visited
all the famous cities of Italy. While up and down the length of
England, in and out of Wales, over to Ireland, and across the border
into Scotland wandered her mother.
 CHAPTER XXV
THE COMMON CHORD
Nancy was considerably startled when Letizia at the age of
nineteen entered the chorus of the Vanity Theatre. She had old-
fashioned ideas about the dignity of her profession, and the chorus
of the Vanity did not appeal to her as a worthy or suitable medium for
the début of an actress who wanted to take her career seriously.
“Oh, but it’s so reassuring, mother,” Letizia exclaimed. “Can’t you
understand how reassuring it is not to be chosen for your talents, but
simply, solely, and entirely for your looks?”
“Yes, but the girls in the Vanity chorus are such a mixed lot. And I
don’t like their outlook on life. It’s nearly always hard, mercenary,
and, well, to speak quite frankly, my dear child, immoral.”
“I’ll be the shining exception,” Letizia vowed.
“Ah, yes, it’s all very well to say that. But you’ll soon be liable to
take your tone from your surroundings, and become like the rest of
them. Dear, it’s no use for me to pretend that your engagement at
the Vanity is anything but a dreadful disappointment to me after your
education, because it is—a dreadful disappointment.”
“Mother, try to believe I know what I’m doing. I’m not proposing to
remain a Vanity girl. But the Vanity chorus is just what I require after
such a careful bringing up. It will cure all the prunes and prisms of
convent life; it will give me poise; and it will teach me the way of the
world, of which at present I’m really hopelessly ignorant. I’m only just
nineteen, and I must look fairly nice already or Mr. Richards would
never have engaged me.”
Nancy contemplated her daughter. She had not turned out so tall
as she gave promise of being when she came back from Belgium.
She was a full inch and a half shorter than her mother, and much,
much slimmer. She had the fine Oriano profile with her mother’s vivid
complexion and rich blue eyes ringed with a darker sapphire, and
her mother’s deep-brown wavy hair. Yes, she certainly did look “fairly
nice.” But still, the Vanity chorus—it was a disappointment. Nancy
had made up her mind that Letizia should begin her stage
experience by going out on tour with some sound Shakespearian or
Old Comedy company. She would not earn much in the way of
salary, but that would teach her how to be careful with money. And
then after a couple of years of knocking about the provinces and
playing all sorts of parts she could concentrate upon getting a
London engagement and setting out to be famous. Now without
taking anybody’s advice Letizia had gone off and interviewed John
Richards and been engaged by him for the Vanity chorus. It was
obvious that she could not live on her salary in such surroundings,
which meant that her mother must give her an allowance if she was
to be protected against the difficulty of trying to live up to a standard
beyond her means without being exposed to temptation. And Nancy
did grudge her savings being drawn upon to maintain a position in
the Vanity chorus. However, the harm was done, and she was too
wise to offer any more opposition for fear of making Letizia decide
out of contrariness that the Vanity chorus was the end of an actress’s
ambition. So, she offered her an allowance of £20 a month and put
off on tour with a determination to save an extra pound a week from
her own salary of £7. Of course, she never told Letizia that her
allowance was being drawn out of her mother’s savings, but let her
understand that it had been left for that purpose by her father.

The memory of Lettie Fuller and her short swift career upon the
Vanity stage, bright and light as the dance of a butterfly through the
hours of a Summer morning, should still be so fresh in the minds of
play-goers that there is a kind of embarrassment in writing about it.
Anyway, Lettie Fuller was our Letizia, and in the years 1910 and
1911 she was the spirit of youth and London as no doubt to-day that
elusive and lovable spirit is incarnate in some other young woman.