Hetty Wesley

onging his face and chest over a basin. "In a moment, ma'am!" said h

onge from him. He was her youngest, and she had seen him but twice since, at the age of eight, he had left home f

remembering how she had taught him, when turned a year old, to cry softly after a whipping. Ten children she had brought up in a far Lincolnshire parsonage, and without sparing the

ome-to from his swoon and wished to shake hands: and almost before Charles could pick

led: "nasty knock-be

aking hands and pulling a mock face,

ose I'm convinced-" R

oke in wi

y gesture of prayer. "'Won't be convinced,' you say? but oh, when it's done you are worth it! Nay-don't hide your face, sir! W

aller boys whistled. "

: the last two rounds

nd

elds. Your servant, ma'am!" The speaker made her a boyish

, looking about her, laughed again as the boys, suddenly turned shy or overtaken

gain her hand went out to help him.

ed. "Have yo

not walk with us. He promises, though, to come to Johnson's Court this evening-I suppose, in a sedan-chair-and greet

e on Sunday, but could not say

w came to my door with word that the Albemarle had entered the r

am. But why not take a wat

l, if necessary. Your father could give me very littl

d with a glance at his mother, whose face had

me with neither chick nor child, I see no harm in praying that his heart may be moved towards his sister's children. At least I shall be frank with him and hide not my hope, let him treat it as he will." She was silent for a moment. "Are all women

ld not com

about it. He is tied to Oxfo

stions about Westminster-the masters, the food, the old dormitory in which Charles slept, the new one then rising to replace it; breaking off to recognise some famous building, or to pause and gaze after a company of his Majesty's guards. Her own masterful carriage and unembarrassed mode of speech-"as if all London belonged to her," Charles afterwards

om his morning's round of visits. He was a widower and took his meals irregularly. But Sally had two covers laid, with a pot of freshly drawn porter beside

ss-streets and to and from the docks on their right-wagons empty, wagons laden with hides, jute, scrap-iron, tallow, indigo, woollen bales, ochre, sugar; trollies and pack-horses; here and there a cordon of porters and

ng of workmen was now clearing the ruins. But as Charles and his mother came by the corner, the knot of people parted and gave passage to a line of stretchers-six stretchers in all, and on each a body, which the bearers had not taken the trouble to cover from view. A bystander said that these were me

bystander, "look out the

ng by the crossing she fled along the street with Charles at her heels, nor ceased running for another hundred yards. "You do not re

talk so often of the fire at Epworth Rectory that the very scene-and especially Jacky's escape-was bitten on the blank early page

most flank by flank; and, as it happened, the farther one was at that moment weighing her anchor, indeed had it tripped on the

reepence; but no sooner were they embarked and on the tide-way, than he lay on his oars and jerked

s to hide a smile. For the one ship lay moored stem and stern with her bows pointed up the river, and the other, drifting past, at this moment swu

a'am," the waterman repeat

ears. He could not see the look on her face, but whatever it was it cowed the fellow, who seize

roken!" But for answer he merely stared at her, and a moment later his starboard oar snapped its thole

hired you to row me to the Albemarle, and this, I believe, is she." Then, with a gla

r; a red apple-cheeked man in shirt-sleeves and clean white nankeen

uel Annesle

suddenly grave. "I beg your pardon," said he

is sist

rd, ma'am. You may dismiss that rascal, a

he took his hand with trepidation, while the Albemarl

, my man. I don't a

right; and now give

l?" Mrs. Wes

ey? Not to my kn

? We heard he had ta

he sailed. It's a serious matter, ma'am, and we're all at our wi