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“Do what you like with me,” said the
girl, turning to the men again, “ but do
what I ask you first; and I ask you to give
this message for God Almighty’s sake.”
The soft-hearted cook added his inter¬
cession, and the result was that the man
who had first appeared undertook its de¬
livery.
c What's it to be?” said the man, with
one foot on the stairs.
“That a young woman earnestly asks
Nancy; “and, that if the lady will onl
know whether to hear her business, or
have her turned out of doors as an im¬
postor.”
“T say,” said the man, “ you’re coming
it strong !”
“ You give the message,” said the girl
firmly, sand let me hear the answer.’
The man ran up stairs, and Nancy re¬
ing with quivering lip to the very audible
expressions of scorn, of which the chaste
housemaids were very prolific; and be¬
came still more so when the man returned,
and said the young woman was to walk
up stairs.
“It’s no being proper in this
world,” said the first housemaid,
sc Brass can do better than the gold what
has stood the fire,” said the second. — .
The third contented herself with won¬
dering “ what ladies were made of;” and
the fourth took the first in a quartette of
6 Shameful!” with which the Dianas con¬
cluded.
Regardless of all this—for she had
weightier matters at heart--Nancy follow¬
ed the man with trembling limbs to a
small ante-chamber, lighted by a lamp
from the ceiling, in which he left her, and
retired.
The girl’s life had been squandered in
the streets, and the most noisoine of the
stews and dens of London, but there was
something of the woman’s original nature
left in her still; and when she heard a
light step approaching the door opposite
to that by which she had entered, and
thought of the wide contrast which the
small room would in another moment
contain, she felt burdened with the sense
of her own deep shame, and shrunk as
though she could scarcely bear the pre¬
sence of her with whom she had sought
this interview.
But struggling with these better feel¬
ings was pride,—the vice of the lowest
and most debased creatures no less than
of the high and self-assured. ‘The misera¬
14
ble companion of thieves and ruffians, the
fallen outcast of low haunts, the associate
of the scourings of the jails and hulks,
living within the shadow of the gallows
itself,—even thisdegraded being felt too
proud to betray one feeble gleam of the
womanly feeling which she thought a
weakness, but which alone connected her
with that humanity, of which her wasting
life had obliterated all outward traces
when a very child.
She raised her eyes sufficiently to ob¬
serve that the figure which presented
girl, and then bending them on the ground,
tossed her head with affected carelessness
as she said,
“It’s a hard matter to get to see you,
lady. If I had taken offence, and gone
away, as many would have done, you'd
have been sorry for it one day, and not
without reason either.”
6] am very sorry if any one has be¬
haved harshly to you,” replied Rose.
“Do not think of it; but tell me why
you wished to sce me. Iam the person
you inguired for."
The kind tone of this answer, the
sweet voice, the gentle manner, the ab¬
sence of any accent of haughtiness or
displeasure, took the girl completely by
surprise, and she burst into tears.
“Ob, lady, lady!” she said, clasping
her hands passionately before her face,
“if there was more like you, there would
be fewer like me,—there would—there
would !”’
“Sit down,” said Rose earnestly ;
“vou distress me. If you are in poverty
or affliction, I shall be truly happy to
relieve you if I can —I shall indeed. Sit
down.”
“ Let me stand, lady,” said the girl,
still weeping, “ and do not speak so kindly
till you know me better. It is growing
late. Is—is—that door shut ?”
§ Yes,” said Rose, recoiling a few steps,
as if to be near assistance in case she
should require it. Why?”
Because," said the girl, “I am about
to put my life and the lives of others in
Goa hands. I am the girl that dragged
ittle Oliver back to old Fagin’s, the
Jew’s, on the night he went out from the
house in Pentonville.”
* You!” said Rose Maylie.
(6 [, lady,” replied the girl. “Iam the
infamous creature you have heard of, that
from the first moment I can recollect my
eyes and senses opening on London streets
have known any better life, or kinder