Fan

iture, an iron bed placed against the wall, a deal cupboard or wardrobe, a broken iron cot in a corner, a wooden box and three or four chairs, and a small square deal table; on the table one cand

even handsome; that, however, was little in her favour when set against the hard red colour of her skin, which told of habitual intemperance, and the expression, half sullen and half reckless, of her dark eye

ld quilt. Both were silent: at intervals the girl would start up out of her wrappings and stare towards the door with a startled look on her face, apparently listening. From the street sounded the shrill animal-like cries of children playing and quarrelling, and, furt

irring when the light grew very dim; then she would turn half round, snuf

her ankles, showing under it ragged stockings and shoes trodden down at heel, so much too large for her feet that they had evidently belonged to her mother. She looked tall for her years, but this was owing to her extreme thinness. Her arms were like sticks, and her sunken cheeks showed the bones of her face; but it was a pathetic f

s coming!" s

ed the other, without

e; then the door was pushed open and a man entered-a broad-chested, broad-faced roug

and sat down in silence. Pr

to say?" he asked, in a

returned. "What

a job, and I want something to eat

," said she. "You can't find work, but you

and drumming noisily on the table.

charing job, then?"

ot a florin and gave it to

ool! what did y

urned into the street with my girl. That's what I did it for; and if

able, and hummed or tried to hum

n been a-d

g about the streets to sell a

ch did

ion no answer

e repeated, getting up and puttin

" she replied, sha

wer, he turned to the girl and repeat

g, her eyes cast

spoken to, you damn barstard!" he sa

" exclaimed his wife, springin

-I'll tell-I'll tell! I got eighteenpence,

s success in getting at the truth. Presently he ask

g, and two ounces of tea, and a loaf, and

of minutes he got up, went t

y, and that's fivepence-ha'penny, and a ha'penny for wood, and tuppence-ha'penny for a loaf makes eightpence-ha

give you," she

o with it? How much

uld get," she an

stled and drummed, th

's gone," w

ask Mrs. Clark if I gave her the f

e said, as if speaking to himself, and there was no answer. Then he got up, put his ha

hing, I tell you," she returned, and after wat

, dropping his hands. But suddenly changing his

him; they struggled together for some moments, but the man was the strongest; very soon he flung her violently from

obbed Fan, throwing herself down beside th

oo," remarked the man,

on her chair. She was silent, looking now neither angry nor frightened, but see

?" whispered Fan, trying to draw the

mother to me," he said; and Fan, after hesi

zing his wife by the wrist, dragge

ear. "D'ye think to get off with the little crack on the crown

terror. "Oh, have mercy and don't hit her, and I'll go out and

long about it," he said

roused hers

t in a voice not altogether resolute. "What'll come t

's come to her mother, perh

nds had already thrust on her old shapeless hat, and wrapped her shawl about her; then she took a couple of boxes of sa

s best for all of us. It'll kill me to sta

eeing her irresolution, slipped past h

he came to the wide thronged thoroughfare, bright with the flaring gas of

any oil-shop in the Edgware Road was twopence-three-farthings-eleven farthings for twelve boxes of safety matches! The London poor know how hard it is to live and pay their weekly rent, and are accustomed to make every allowance for each other; and those who sat in judgment on the Harrods-Fan's parents-were mostly people who were glad to make a shilling by almost any means; glad also, ma

ty of them are like that, seem fitted to fight their way in the rough brutish world of the London streets; and if they fall and become altogether bad, that only strikes one as the almost inevitable result of girlhood passed i

ed at the same places at certain hours, a few individuals got to know her; in some instances they had began by regarding the poor dilapidated girl with a kind of resentment, a feeling which, after two or three glances at her soft grey timid eyes, turned to pity; and from such as these who were not political economists, when she was so lucky as to meet them, she al

o face it-to have to think of it! But to run away and hide herself from her parents, and escape for ever from her torturing apprehensions, never entered her mind. She loved her poor drink-degraded mother; there was no one else for her to love, and where her mother was there must be her only home. But the thought of her father was like a nightmare to her; even the remembrance of his often brutal treatment and language made her tremble. Father she had always called him, but for some months past, since he had been idle, or out of work as he called it, he had become more and more harsh towards her, not often addressing her without calling her "barstard," usually with the addition of one of his pet expletives, profane or sanguineous. She had always feared and shrunk from him, reg

teen minutes' walk of Moon Street. Her anxiety had made her more eager perhaps, and had given a strange tremor to her voice and made her eyes more eloquent

ne of the young men; while his companion, g

be afraid, I'm not going to pay. But, I say,

e took a penny from his pocket and held it up before her. "Take," he said. She took the penny, thanking hi

e important-looking gentleman, with a lady at his side-a small, thin, meagre woman, with a dried yel

ion. "You are not going to stop to talk

you not ashamed to come out begging in the stree

ng matches," answered Fan

that, so come on, and don't waste mor

ly, so that you have nothing to fear.-Now, my girl, why do you come out selling matches, as you call it? It is

present, which she had repeated so often that they had lost all meaning to her.

would say!" exclaimed the big gentleman. "No

narrowly into this case, if you will only let me go quietly on in my own way.-And now, my girl," she continued, turning to Fan, "just tell me where yo

the address and h

preamble!-"and I trust your poor mother will find it a help to her." And then with a smile and a nod she walked off, satisfied that she had observed all due precautions in investing her penny, and that it would not be lost: for he who "giveth to

n, without stopping in his walk or speaking to her, thrust a penny into her hand. That made up the required sum o

ght on her mother's form, still sitting in the same listless attitude, stari

lence, and held out her hand for the money; but bef

g away, then taking his clay-pipe from the mantelpiece and putting on his old hat, swung out of the room; but after going a few steps he groped his way back and looked in aga

and kicked off her muddy shoes, and now sat there watching

n-it's late en

nd knelt down by her side, taking one

with a strange eagerness in her voice-

nsense, child!

to the country, far as we can, where he'll never find us,

him to drink up? Don't yo

worse and worse every day, a

rope round his neck, you be sure. And he ain't so bad neit

m; and he isn't my father, and he hates me, and he

our father-where did

ay, and I know what that mea

brute

m, mother? Oh, we could ha

so that you'd be the child of honest parents. He had a hundred pounds with me, but it all went in a y

laimed Fan in amazement

I've been very foolish to say so much. You

, and I want to know who my f

at

s to go away into the country where he'll never find us any more." Her mother laughed. "You'

nd I'll do it. Why can

about it. You hear bad things enough in the street, and it 'u

mother's face with a strange meaning a

day, but they don't make me bad. Oh, do tell

iful eyes fixed so earnestly on her face. She hesitated, and passed her t

me; and perhaps he's dead now. I loved him and he loved me, but we couldn't marry because he was a gentleman and me only a servant-girl, and I think he had a wife. But I didn't care, because he was good to me and loved me, and he gave me a hundred pounds to get married, and I can't ever tell you his name, Fan, because I promised never to name him to anyone, and kissed the Book on it when he gave me the hund

eing her father, but it was a secret joy to know that he had been kind and loving to her poor mother, and that he was a gentleman, and not one