them. At
the meagre breakfast she said what a heavy teapot that was, and Tommy
thought this funny, but the salt had gone from the joke when he
remembered it afterwards. And when she was ready to go off to her work
she hesitated at the door, looking at her bed and from it to her
children as if in two minds, and then went quietly downstairs.

The distance seems greater than ever to-day, poor woman, and you stop
longer at the corners, where rude men jeer at you. Scarcely can you push
open the door of the dancing-school or lift the pail; the fire has gone
out, you must again go on your knees before it, and again the smoke
makes you cough. Gaunt slattern, fighting to bring up the phlegm, was it
really you for whom another woman gave her life, and thought it a rich
reward to get dressing you once in your long clothes, when she called
you her beautiful, and smiled, and smiling, died? Well, well; but take
courage, Jean Myles. The long road still lies straight up hill, but your
climbing is near an end. Shrink from the rude men no more, they are soon
to forget you, so soon! It is a heavy door, but soon you will have
pushed it open for the last time. The girls will babble still, but not
to you, not of you. Cheer up, the work is nearly done. Her beautiful!
Come, beautiful, strength for a few more days, and then you can leave
the key of the leaden door behind you, and on your way home you may kiss
your hand joyously to the weary streets, for you are going to die.

Tommy and Elspeth had been to the foot of the stair many times to look
for her before their mother came back that evening, yet when she
re-entered her home, behold, they were sitting calmly on the fender as
if this were a day like yesterday or to-morrow, as if Tommy had not been
on a business visit to Thrums Street, as if the hump on the bed did not
mean that a glorious something was hidden under the coverlet. True,
Elspeth would look at Tommy imploringly every few minutes, meaning that
she could not keep it in much longer, and then Tommy would mutter the
one word "Bell" to remind her that it was against the rules to begin
before the Thrums eight-o'clock bell rang. They also wiled away the time
of waiting by inviting each other to conferences at the window where
these whispers passed--

"She ain't got a notion, Tommy."

"Dinna look so often at the bed."

"If I could jest get one more peep at it!"

"No, no; but you can put your hand on the top of it as you go by."