e immediately ran up him as if he had been a lamp-post,
and was aloft just sufficiently long to see Tommy give up the ticket and
saunter into the hall.

The crowd tried at intervals to rush the door. It was mainly composed of
ragged boys, but here and there were men, women, and girls, who came
into view for a moment under the lights as the mob heaved and went round
and round like a boiling potful. Two policemen joined the
ticket-collectors, and though it was a good-humored gathering, the air
was thick with such cries as these:

"I lorst my ticket, ain't I telling yer? Gar on, guv'nor, lemme in!"

"Oh, crumpets, look at Jimmy! Jimmy never done nothink, your honor;
he's a himposter"'

"I'm the boy what kicked the peeler. Hie, you toff with the choker,
ain't I to step up?"

"Tell yer, I'm a genooine criminal, I am. If yer don't lemme in I'll
have the lawr on you."

"Let a poor cove in as his father drownded hisself for his country."

"What air yer torking about? Warn't I in larst year, and the cuss as
runs the show, he says to me, 'Allers welcome,' he says. None on your
sarse, Bobby. I demands to see the cuss what runs--"

"Jest keeping on me out 'cos I ain't done nothin'. Ho, this is a
encouragement to honesty, I don't think."

Mighty in tongue and knee and elbow was an unknown knight, ever
conspicuous; it might be but by a leg waving for one brief moment in the
air. He did not want to go in, would not go in though they went on their
blooming knees to him; he was after a viper of the name of Tommy. Half
an hour had not tired him, and he was leading another assault, when a
magnificent lady, such as you see in wax-works, appeared in the
vestibule and made some remark to a policeman, who then shouted:

"If so there be hany lad here called Shovel, he can step forrard."

A dozen lads stepped forward at once, but a flail drove them right and
left, and the unknown knight had mounted the parapet amid a shower of
execrations. "If you are the real Shovel," the lady said to him, "you
can tell me how this proceeds, 'I love my dear father and my dear
mother--' Go on."

Shovel obeyed, tremblingly. "And all the dear little kids at 'ome. You
are a kind laidy or gentleman. I love yer. I will never do it again, so
help me bob. Amen."

"Charming!" chirped the lady, and down pleasant-smelling aisles she led
him, pausing to drop an observation about Tommy to a clergyman: "So glad
I came; I have discovered the most delightful l