ecome dull of hearing, from the very longing to
see and hear more clearly. But she rubbed away the tears with her
shawl, and pushed the tangled hair away behind her small ears, and with
her hands pressed against her heart, to deaden its throbbing, she
leaned forward to pierce, if possible, through the thick dark veil
which separated her from her father.

She had been there a long time when the thought crossed her, that
perhaps after all he had been knocking at the door at home, and trying
to open it; waking up the children, and making them cry and scream with
terror at finding themselves quite alone. She started up to hurry
away; but at that moment a man came close by, and in the extremity of
her anxiety Meg stopped him.

'Please,' she said earnestly, 'is the Ocean King come in yet?'

'Ay,' was the answer. 'Came in last night, all right and tight.'

'Father must be come home, then,' thought Meg, speeding away swiftly
and noiselessly with her bare feet along the streets to Angel Court.
She glanced up anxiously to her attic window, which was all in
darkness, while the lower windows glimmered with a faint light from
within. The landlord's room was full of a clamorous, quarrelling crew
of drunkards; and Meg's spirit sank as she thought--suppose father had
been up to their attic, and finding it impossible to get in at once,
had come down, and begun to drink with them! She climbed the stairs
quickly, but all was quiet there; and she descended again to hang about
the door, and listen, and wait; either to discover if he was there, or
to prevent him turning in when he did come. Little Meg's heart was
full of a woman's heaviest care and anxiety, as she kept watch in the
damp and the gloom of the November night, till even the noisy party
within broke up, and went their way, leaving Angel Court to a brief
season of quietness.

Meg slept late in the morning, but she was not disturbed by any knock
at the door. Robin had crept out of bed and climbed up alone to the
window-sill, where fortunately the window was shut and fastened; and
the first thing Meg's eyes opened upon was Robin sitting there, in the
tumbled clothes in which he had slept all night. The morning passed
slowly away in mingled hope and fear; but no step came up the ladder to
their door, and Kitty had gone out early in the morning, before Meg was
awake. She spent her last shilling in buying some coal and oatmeal;
and then, because it was raining heavily, sh