If there was any real fairies on course too, but I"m too knowing to b"lieve that. But if there was, I"d say, please turn me into Wesden"s little gal, and give me the big doll by the parler door, and dress me like a lady in a blue meriner."
"Well, you are going on nicely about Wesden"s gal. That was allus your fault, Mattie--such a gal to jaw, jaw, jaw--such a clapper, clapper, clapper about everythink and everybody."
"I was just a-thinking that I _was_ going it rather, but I ain"t a bit sleepy, and I thought you wouldn"t mind me while you was having your supper, and my throat"s so awful sore, and you ain"t so sharp quite, as you are sometimes. Do you know what I"d do, if I was a boy?"
"How should I know?"
"Go to sea--get away from here, and grow up "spectable. I wouldn"t stop in Kent Street--I hate Kent Street--I"d walk into the country--oh! ever so far--until I came to the sea, and then I"d find a ship and turn sailor."
"Lookee here, you young drab," cried the stay-lace woman, suddenly opening her eyes, and shrieking out in a shrill falsetto, "I"ll turn out and skin you, if you can"t keep that tongue still. What am I here for?--what did I pay tuppence for?--isn"t that cussed coughing baby enough row at a time?"
"If you"ve got anythink to say aginst my baby," said a husky voice in the next bed, "say it out to his mother, and mind your cat"s head while you say it, you disagreeable baggage!"
"Well, the likes of that!"
"And the likes of you, for that matter--don"t give me any more of your sa.r.s.e, or I"ll----"
A tapping on the door with a stick diverted the general attention.
"Who"s there?"
"Only me, Mrs. Watts."
"Oh! _only_ you," was the response; "come in, will yer? I"ve no need to lock myself in, while I hide the swag away. _Now_, what"s the matter?"
The door was opened, and enter a policeman, a man in private clothes, with a billyc.o.c.k hat and a walking-stick, accompanied by a pale-faced, long-haired youth, of fourteen years of age.
"Nothing particular the matter--only something lost as usual, Mrs.
Watts," said the man in private dress, politely. "Where"s Mattie to-night?"
"There she is. She"s been in all the evening with a bad throat."
"Poor girl--throats _is_ bad at this time of the year."
The speaker looked at the lad at his side, after giving the first turn backward to the rug.
"Is this the girl?"
The policeman took the candle from the table, and held the light close to the girl"s face--white, pinched, and haggard, with black eyes full of horror.
"Don"t say it"s me, please," she gasped, in a low voice; "I"m the gal that sings in Suffolk Street on a Sat.u.r.day night, and they gives wittles to at Wesden"s. It isn"t me."
Mattie had intended to brave it out at first, to have remained stolid, sullen, and defiant, after the manners of her cla.s.s; but she felt ill and nervous, and the shadow of the prison-house loomed before her and made her heart sink. Prison was a comfortable place in its way, but she had never taken to it--one turn at it had been enough for her. If it had been a policeman, or old Wesden, or anybody but this boy three years her senior in age, many years her junior in knowledge of the world, she would have been phlegmatic to the last; but this boy had been kind to her twice in life--once on Christmas-eve, and once on a Sat.u.r.day night before that, and she gave way somewhat, partly from her new and unaccountable weakness, partly because it was not a very stern face that looked down into hers.
"That"s her, sure enough--eh, young gentleman?" remarked the police officer in private clothes.
There was another pause--the girl"s face blanched still more, and the look in her eyes became even more intense and eager; the boy glanced over his shoulder at the servants of the law.
"No--this isn"t the girl. Oh! no."
"Are you quite certain? Stand up, Mattie."
Mattie turned out of her rug and stood up, erect and motionless, with her hands to her side, and her sharp black eyes still on Master Hinchford.
"Oh! no, policeman. Ever so much taller!"
"Then we"re on the wrong scent it seems, and you"d better go home and leave it to us. Good night, Mrs. Watts."
"Good night," was the muttered response.
Policeman, detective, and Master Hinchford went down the stairs to the court, out of the court into Kent Street, black and noisome--a turgid current, that wore only a semblance of stillness at hours more late than that.
"We"ll let you know in the morning if there"s any clue," said the detective. "Jem," to the policeman, "see this lad out of Kent Street."
"All right. I think I"d try old Simes for the brooch."
"I"ll drop on him presently. Good night, Jem."
"Good night."
The boy and policeman went to the end of Kent Street together, then the boy bade the policeman good night, ran across the road, recrossed in the fog a little lower down, and edged his way round St. George"s Church into the old objectionable thoroughfare. A few minutes afterwards, he walked cautiously into the up-stairs room of Mrs. Watts, startling that good lady at her late tripe supper very considerably.
"Hollo! young gemman, what"s up now?"
Mattie, who had been crouching before the fire, shrank towards it more, with her hands spread out to the blaze. She looked over her shoulder at the door, antic.i.p.ating his two unwelcome companions to follow in his wake.
"Look here, Mattie," said he, in a very cool and business-like manner, "fair"s fair, you know. I"ve let you off in a handsome manner, but I"m not going to lose the brooch. If it had been a trumpery brooch, I shouldn"t have cared so much."
"Was it real gold?"
"A real gold heart. I gave twelve and sixpence for it--I"ve been saving up for it ever since last April."
"I"ll get it--I"ll try and get it," said Mattie; "I haven"t it myself now--it"s been pa.s.sed on. Upon my soul, I"ll try my hardest to get it back, see if I don"t."
"We"ll all try our werry hardest, sir," remarked Mrs. Watts, blandly.
"Ah! I daresay you will," said the boy, dubiously; "p"raps it had been better if I"d told the truth--my pa always says "Stick to the truth, Sidney;" but you did look such a poor body to lock up, that I told a lie for once. And who would have thought that you were a regular thief, Mattie!"
"I"m not a reg"lar--I don"t like thieving--I"ve only thove when I"ve been werry--werry--hard druv; and I wasn"t thinking of thieving, ony of getting warm, when you came b.u.mp aginst me in the doorway. I meant to have knocked and asked for a sc.r.a.p to eat after awhile, when they"d all got good-tempered over the beer and things. I"ll bring the brooch--I"ll get it back--leave it to me, Master Hinchford."
"How did you know my name?"
"Oh! I know everybody about here--everybody at your place, "specially.
Old Wesden and his gal in the blue meriner--and you, and your father with the red face and the white mustache and hair--and the servant, and the boy who takes the papers out, and is allus dropping them out of the oil-skin kiver, and everybody. I"ll bring the brooch, because you let me off. Trust me," she repeated again.
"Well, I"ll trust you. Fair play, mind."
"And now, cut out of this--it isn"t quite a safe place for you, and the people can"t sleep if you talk, and you may catch the whooping cough----"