e slowly crossed the room, gazing dreamily before him, and passed out,
while his child stood listening to his step along the passage at the
back of the side-board till the door of the surgery was heard to close,
when, clasping her hands, she gazed up at the Prince Regent, as if he
were some kind of a fat idol, and exclaimed passionately, "What shall I
do? What shall I do?"

A violent twitch made her raise her hand to her face, which was
contracted with pain, and she drew her breath hard; but the pang seemed
to pass away, and after ringing the bell she began busily to pack the
breakfast-things together.

Before she had half done, the door opened softly, and a rather dirty
face was thrust in. It was the face of an old-looking boy with
snub-nose, large mouth, and a rough, shock head bristling over his
prominent forehead, and all redeemed by as bright and roguish-looking a
pair of eyes as ever shone out from beneath a low type of head.

The door was only opened wide enough at first to admit the head, but as
soon as its owner had given a glance round, the door opened farther, and
the rest of a rather small person appeared, dressed in a well-worn
page's button suit, partly hidden by a dirty green-baize bibbed apron.

The boy's sleeves were tucked up, and he was carrying a pair of
old-fashioned Wellington boots by the tops, and these boots he held up
on high.

"Didn't know, Miss, whether the doctor had gone. Been a-cleaning his
boots. Look, Miss, there's a shine!"

"Yes, yes, Bob, they look very nice. Take them, up-stairs, and then
come and clear away."

"All right, Miss. I made a whole bottle o' blacking outer half a cake
as a chap I knows give me."

"Yes, yes, Bob."

"Stunning blacking it is, too. He's in the Brigade, and I minded his
box for him, and took sixpence while he went and had a game of marbles.
That's why he give me the cake."

"Now, Bob, my good lad, I don't want to know anything about that. Take
those boots up-stairs."

"All right, Miss; but do look how they shines. I polished tops and all.
Look, Miss."

"Yes, yes, yes; they are beautifully clean."

"I allus thinks about legs, Miss, when I cleans boots; and when I thinks
about legs, I think about the doctor making such a good job o' mine
arter I was run over. It's stronger than the other; I am glad as it was
broke."

"Glad?"

"Yes, Miss. Why, if I hadn't been run over, my leg wouldn't have been
broke, and then the doctor wouldn't