w," said the Italian, after having rested a little, "you love
music--is it not true?--or you would not be so kind to us. I will play
for you."

And, taking up his instrument, he played an air sweeter than any Nelly
had yet heard from him, and the little girl sang, in her liquid voice,
a little song, the words of which she could not understand, for they
were Italian.

"Now we must go," said the man. "Good-bye, my good girl; if I were
home in my country, I would do as much for you." And the father and
daughter pursued their weary way, Nelly's eyes following wistfully the
forms of those whom she regarded as friends already, for were they
not, like herself, poor, lonely strangers in a strange land?

Then she began to wonder whether she had done wrong in asking them to
come in. She knew instinctively that she could not have done it had
Mrs. Williams been at home. But yet she could not feel such a simple,
common act of kindness to have been wrong. No harm had been done to
anything belonging to her mistress; and the "cup of cold water," had
she not a right to offer it to those who needed it so much?

After that the organ-grinder and his child passed frequently through
that street, and whenever she could, Nelly would exchange a few kind
words with them, and the man would play for her, knowing well that she
had no pennies to offer in return; but at such times she used to wish
so much that she had a little money of her own.

The Italian would sometimes look at her tattered dress, and her face,
gradually growing thinner and paler, as if he thought her quite as
forlorn as himself; and once, when he heard her mistress call her in,
and scold her for "talking to such characters in the street," he shook
his head, and muttered something in his native tongue.

And so it came to pass that the poor Italian and his daughter became
Nelly's only friends in that great, busy city.

XII.

_Ambition._

"Tell me the same old story,
When you have cause to fear
That this world's empty glory
Is costing me too dear."

Lucy's interest in her studies, and the zeal with which she pursued
them, had had a wonderful effect in reconciling her to her new
circumstances. She could sometimes hardly believe that only a few
short months lay between her and her old life, now seeming so far back
in the distance. Her progress in study had been very rapid, as her
abilities were above the average, and her love of study was much