ed to. Instead, he took a great gulp, as he pushed between our
knees to his seat, and tried to look brave as a lion.

The passengers turned an incurious, half-resentful stare upon him,
and then repented. I think that more than one of us wanted to speak,
but dared not.

It was not so much the little chap's look. But to the knot of his
sea-kit there was tied a bunch of cottage-flowers--sweet williams,
boy's love, love-lies-bleeding, a few common striped carnations, and
a rose or two--and the sight and smell of them in that frowsy 'bus
were like tears on thirsty eyelids. We had ceased to pity what we
were, but the heart is far withered that cannot pity what it has
been; and it made us shudder to look on the young face set towards
the road along which we had travelled so far. Only the minor actress
dropped a tear; but she was used to expressing emotion, and half-way
down the Strand the 'bus stopped and she left us.

The woman with an incurable complaint touched me on the knee.

"Speak to him," she whispered.

But the whisper did not reach, for I was two hundred miles away, and
occupied in starting off to school for the first time. I had two
shillings in my pocket; and at the first town where the coach baited
I was to exchange these for a coco-nut and a clasp-knife. Also, I
was to break the knife in opening the nut, and the nut, when opened,
would be sour. A sense of coming evil, therefore, possessed me.

"Why don't you speak to him?"

The boy glanced up, not catching her words, but suspicious: then
frowned and looked defiant.

"Ah," she went on in the same whisper, "it's only the young that I
pity. Sometimes, sir--for my illness keeps me much awake--I lie at
night in my lodgings and listen, and the whole of London seems filled
with the sound of children's feet running. Even by day I can hear
them, at the back of the uproar--"

The matrimonial agent grunted and rose, as we halted at the top of
Essex Street. I saw him slip a couple of half-crowns into the
conductor's hand: and he whispered something, jerking his head back
towards the interior of the 'bus. The boy was brushing his eyes,
under pretence of putting his cap forward; and by the time he stole a
look around to see if anyone had observed, we had started again.
I pretended to stare out of the window, but marked the wet smear on
his hand as he laid it on his lap.

In less than a minute it was my turn to alight. Unlike the
matrimonial agent, I h