as
they drove away from the house. The answer came swift and straight from
the heart of the daughter of Eve. "Because _you_ like him!" Amelius
changed the subject: he asked if she was still in pain. She shook her
head impatiently. Pain or no pain, the uppermost idea in her mind was
still that idea of being his servant, which had already found expression
in words before they left the lodgings. "Will you let me keep my
beautiful new dress for going out on Sundays?" she asked. "The shabby
old things will do when I am your servant. I can black your boots, and
brush your clothes, and keep your room tidy--and I will try hard to
learn, if you will have me taught to cook." Amelius attempted to change
the subject again. He might as well have talked to her in an unknown
tongue. The glorious prospect of being his servant absorbed the whole of
her attention. "I'm little and I'm stupid," she went on; "but I do think
I could learn to cook, if I knew I was doing it for _You."_ She paused,
and looked at him anxiously. "Do let me try!" she pleaded; "I haven't
had much pleasure in my life--and I should like it so!" It was
impossible to resist this. "You shall be as happy as I can make you,
Sally," Amelius answered; "God knows it isn't much you ask for!"

Something in those compassionate words set her thinking in another
direction. It was sad to see how slowly and painfully she realized the
idea that had been suggested to her.

"I wonder whether you _can_ make me happy?" she said. "I suppose I have
been happy before this--but I don't know when. I don't remember a time
when I was not hungry or cold. Wait a bit. I do think I _was_ happy
once. It was a long while ago, and it took me a weary time to do it--but
I did learn at last to play a tune on the fiddle. The old man and his
wife took it in turns to teach me. Somebody gave me to the old man and
his wife; I don't know who it was, and I don't remember their names.
They were musicians. In the fine streets they sang hymns, and in the
poor streets they sang comic songs. It was cold, to be sure, standing
barefoot on the pavement--but I got plenty of halfpence. The people said
I was so little it was a shame to send me out, and so I got halfpence.
I had bread and apples for supper, and a nice little corner under the
staircase, to sleep in. Do you know, I do think I did enjoy myself at
that time," she concluded, still a little doubtful whether those faint
and far-off remembrances were really to