in sight as far as Tower Street,
but ere he had quite reached Mark Lane, a company of mummers, going
westwards, came in betwixt and parted us. I lost sight of him but for a
moment, yet when they had passed, I could see no more of him--north,
south, east, nor west--than if the earth had swallowed him up. I reckon
he went into an house in that vicinage. To-morrow, if the Lord will, I
will go thither, and watch. And if I see him again, I will surely
speak."

"Stephen! O Stephen, if it should be our lost darling!"

"Ay, love, if it should be! It was always possible, of course, that he
might have been taken in somewhere. There are many who would have no
compassion on man or woman, and would yet shrink from turning out a
little child to perish. And he was a very attractive child. Still, do
not hope too much, Ermine; it may be merely an accidental likeness."

"If I could believe," replied Ermine, "that Countess had been anywhere
near, I should think it more than possible that she had saved him."

"Countess? Oh, I remember--that Jewish maiden who petted him so much.
But she went to some distance when she married, if I recollect rightly."

"She went to Reading. But she might not have been there always."

"True. Well, I will try to find out something to-morrow night."

The little jeweller's shop at the corner of Mark Lane had now been
established for fourteen years. For ten of those years, David and
Christian had lived with Countess; but when Rudolph was old enough and
sufficiently trained to manage the business for himself, Countess had
thought it desirable to assist David in establishing a shop of his own
at some distance. She had more confidence in David's goodness than in
his discretion, and one of her chief wishes was to have as few
acquaintances as possible. Happily for her aim, Rudolph's disposition
was not inconveniently social. He liked to sit in a cushioned corner
and dream the hours away; but he shrank as much as Countess herself from
the rough, noisy, rollicking life of the young people by whom they were
surrounded. Enough to live on, in a simple and comfortable fashion--a
book or two, leisure, and no worry--these were Rudolph's desiderata, and
he found them in Mark Lane.

He had no lack of subjects for thought as he sat behind his tiny counter
on the evening of the following day. Shop-counters, at that date, were
usually the wooden shutter of the window, let down table-wise into the
street;