; he could guess at its
expression, from the turns of her head to one and another, and the
motions of her hands, with which she was evidently helping out the
meaning of her words; and also from the earnest gaze that her
unpromising hearers bent upon her. He could hear the soft varying play
of her voice as she addressed them. Mr. Carlisle grew restless. There
was a more evident and tremendous gap between himself and her than he
had counted upon. Was she doing this like a Catholic, for penance, or
to work out good deeds to earn heaven like a philanthropist? While he
pondered the matter, in increasing restlessness, mind and body helping
each other; for the atmosphere of the room was heavy and stifling from
the foul human beings congregated there, and it must require a very
strong motive in anybody to be there at all; he could hardly bear it
himself; an incident occurred which gave a little variety to his
thoughts. As he stood in the alley, leaning on the end of a form where
no one sat, a boy came in and passed him; brushing so near that Mr.
Carlisle involuntarily shrank back. Such a looking fellow-creature he
had never seen until that day. Mr. Carlisle had lived in the other half
of the world. This was a half-grown boy, inexpressibly forlorn in his
rags and wretchedness. An old coat hung about him, much too large and
long, that yet did not hide a great rent in his trowsers which shewed
that there was no shirt beneath. But the face! The indescribable
brutalized, stolid, dirty, dumb look of badness and hardness! Mr.
Carlisle thought he had never seen such a face. One round portion of it
had been washed, leaving the dark ring of dirt all circling it like a
border, where the blessed touch of water had not come. The boy moved
on, with a shambling kind of gait, and to Mr. Carlisle's horror, paused
at the form of Eleanor's class. Yes,--he was going in there, he
belonged there; for she looked up and spoke to him; Mr. Carlisle could
hear her soft voice saying something about his being late. Then came a
transformation such as Mr. Carlisle would never have believed possible.
A light broke upon that brutalized face; actually a light; a smile that
was like a heavenly sunbeam in the midst of those rags and dirt
irradiated; as a rough thick voice spoke out in answer to her--"Yes--if
I didn't come, I knowed you would be disappointed."

Evidently they were friends, Eleanor and that boy; young thief, young
rascal, though Mr. Carlisle's eye