se pillow-fights: I've had my nose smashed in one of
them before now! Nothing surprises me that Miss Lily says or does. Why,
this very morning, she wanted to put a lighted candle in my glass eye!"

"Eh, what? A light in your eye?" exclaimed Tom suddenly. "I wonder if one
really could ... I say, Jimmy, could one?"

"Yes," said Jimmy, greatly amused, "with an invisible wire under the
dress...."

"Hurrah!" cried Tom. "Would you like two shillings a day, Glass-Eye? And
your food and clothes? You shall travel with me; you shall appear on the
stage. Come along to the cafe, we'll sign the engagement!"

"But what will Miss Lily say?" objected Glass-Eye, trembling at the idea
of announcing her departure to her terrible mistress.

"Well," said Tom, "I'll be nice to her Pa, if she's nice to you. Come
along!"

"But I don't know how to sign my name."

"You can make your mark, before two witnesses. Come along!"

Glass-Eye, dazzled and beglamored, followed Tom. She, an artiste! On the
stage! At last! Going round the world with Tom ... living with him ...
married ... almost!

"That's come in the nick of time!" said Jimmy, as he watched her go off
the stage. "Lily, perhaps ... in her new position ... will want a real
maid, not a Glass-Eye! Lily ... why, she's perfection! To think of the
abysses she has walked along without falling! There's more merit than one
thinks in that kind of life. And how I should like to get hold of the
people who talk ill of her. And that ... that ... oh, that one!"

And Jimmy clenched his fists, at the thought of Trampy, and his heart
burst forth: all his patient, brave, manly heart, now well nigh
exhausted.

CHAPTER IV

Poor Ave Maria, indifferent to what was going on before her, was still
waiting on the stage. For that matter, it was but a few minutes since Lily
brought her there. Ave Maria felt inclined to go and meet Trampy on the
pavement, to throw her arms round his neck as soon as he appeared. But
Lily had earnestly recommended her not to move, whatever happened. So she
remained in her corner and, under the pale light, with her back to the
forest scene, in the shadow, Ave Maria looked like a lurking she-wolf,
ready to leap out at any moment.

[Illustration: AVE MARIA]

As for Lily, she tripped down the stairs to the stage, for a few seconds
contemplated all those bill-toppers at her feet, so to speak; but she took
the last stairs at a bound: Trampy had just entered! Ave Maria, i