A Girl of the People

waiting an age! Co

oing to funk

e Wilkins is waiting for us round the corner, and he says Sam i

nly demanded the girl who was be

of the music halls in London. Now

e to Bet as she spoke, and shook a dirty hand in her face, and gazed up at her with two mirthful, teasing, wi

standing stolid and straight in the centre of the group,

can ever say as there's any funk ab

nd before the astonished girls could interc

up the shilling, said Bet was a "good 'un, though she wor that contrairy," and the whole

irection of the docks; the pallor still continued on her b

is morning that I couldn't a-bear. No, I ain't a mammy's girl, not I. There was never nought so good about me, and I have give away my

girl, made on a large and generous scale, her head was well set on a pair of shapely s

shed up the street-"ha-ha, handso

cuff across his face, and marc

t-looking girl with a white face, dres

said. "I have just left your mother; she has been

Sister Mary; let m

ere was a curious mixture of defiance, softness and despair. Two little boys, with the same reddish-brown hair as hers, were playing noisily on the

peak to Nat; he stole my marble, he did. Fie

addressed as "Cap'n." "You took it fro

ith no particular gentleness. "There, of course I'll kiss you, Gen'ral-poor little lad. Go do

ho was known as "Cap'n," "shall I te

to hear-go downstair

l and me, but she said as it wor a hell-fire book, and she burnt it-I seed her, and so did the Gen'ral-she pushed it between the bars with the p

's going to strike some 'un-look at her; didn't w

till on the landing. The boys were right when they said she would be in a rage; her heart beat heavily, her face w

itted to the flames-ignominiously destroyed, and called bad names, too. How dared her mother do it? how dared she? The girls were right when they said she was tied to apron-strings-she was, she was! B

to the quick. Mother oughtn't to take pleasure from one like that, but it's all of a piece. Well, I'll go in and say 'good night' to her, and then I'll

the hearth a thick knitted rug was placed; the floor was tidy, the two or three rickety chairs were in order, the wooden mantel-piece was free of dust. Over her mother's bed a soft crimson counterpane was thrown, and her mother, half sitting up, rested her white face against the snowy pillows. A little table stood near the bedside, which contained some cordial in a glass. The sick woman's long thin hands lay outside the crimson counterpane, and her eyes, dark and wistful, were turned in t

r-oh,

looked up

glad you've come back. I thought it might have been the will of Him w

e. I didn't stay for nobody. How nice the room looks, m

own, and look at me. Bet, look me

h of red on the abundant hair; but one face was tired, worn out, and the other was fresh and full and plump. Both faces had

e doctor have been, and he says mebbe it'll last till morning, mebbe not. I'm goi

an effort to subdue the emotion which was making her tremble all over

tch me; I ain't afeard. I never seemed more of a poor sort of a body than I do to-nigh

me bitterness. "No one has less call to talk humble than

w I feels poor and humble to-night. Mebbe I didn't go the right way to make you t

tere lips, which came to Bet as a revelation. Her own trembling increa

teful, hateful," she moaned. "And oh

hin hand rested with a certain t

pleasure, mother?" said Bet, raising her

be I did wrong,-mebbe I were too 'ard

I forgive you from th

n hands, and covered it

die. It floors me, mother, how you can be gla

replied the dying woman, in a

er eyes; and her lips opened once or twice, as if to speak. Bet held one of her hand

et

, mo

a bit of promi

mise,

splendid-you'll be-give me a drop of the cordial, child,-you'll be-I have been praying about it all day, I have been saying, 'Lord, send Bet in gentle-like,

oor mother

ntrariness. Fancy, Bet, what you'd be in this 'ere place ef you made that promise. Why, strong?-strong 'ud be no word for it! You, with never your temper let out like a raging lion! There'd be no one as could

all your poor breath. I'll do what I can. You sa

my poor breath-God give me strength just to say the words. Bet, you hear. Bet, say them after

se fire and passion; her whole soul was in them-her dyi

ain't spoke-you

can't-not them w

her face was buried in the crimson counte

mistake-all a mistake, and it ain't meant for one like me. Why, I, if I were religious-why, I'd have to turn into a hypocrite-why,

stless hands were quiet, and her worn-out face, although it looked deadly pale, was peaceful. Here eyes looked a little upwards, and in them there was a contented smile. Bet saw the look, and nothing in all the world could have horrified h

e," said Bet, in an anguish

ll and calm and happy"-here she broke off abruptly. "Bet, I want yer to be good to the little boys-to stand atween them and their father, and not to larn them no bad ways They're wild little chaps, and t

ake a promise about

e your word, and saying

haps to turn religious. As you've allays set such a deal of

gel, has the Lord seen fit

strange expression of excitement, she spoke suddenly: "I can't promise the other, but I'll promise this. The little boys' lives shall come afore my life-harm