cked man, still smoking his pipe in his
former place. I could see nothing but that; I could think of nothing but
the mark of the blow on my poor lost Mary's temple. I know that I must
have been light-headed, for as I came close to the crook-backed man I
stopped without meaning it. The minute before, there had been no idea
in me of speaking to him. I did not know how to speak, or in what way it
would be safest to begin; and yet, the moment I came face to face with
him, something out of myself seemed to stop me, and to make me speak
without considering beforehand, without thinking of consequences,
without knowing, I may almost say, what words I was uttering till the
instant when they rose to my lips.

"When your old neck-tie was torn, did you know that one end of it went
to the rag-shop, and the other fell into my hands?"

I said these bold words to him suddenly, and, as it seemed, without my
own will taking any part in them.

He started, stared, changed color. He was too much amazed by my sudden
speaking to find an answer for me. When he did open his lips, it was to
say rather to himself than me:

"You're not the girl."

"No," I said, with a strange choking at my heart, "I'm her friend."

By this time he had recovered his surprise, and he seemed to be aware
that he had let out more than he ought.

"You may be anybody's friend you like," he said, brutally, "so long as
you don't come jabbering nonsense here. I don't know you, and I don't
understand your jokes."

He turned quickly away from me when he had said the last words. He had
never once looked fairly at me since I first spoke to him.

Was it his hand that had struck the blow? I had only sixpence in my
pocket, but I took it out and followed him. If it had been a five-pound
note I should have done the same in the state I was in then.

"Would a pot of beer help you to understand me?" I said, and offered him
the sixpence.

"A pot ain't no great things," he answered, taking the sixpence
doubtfully.

"It may lead to something better," I said. His eyes began to twinkle,
and he came close to me. Oh, how my legs trembled--how my head swam!

"This is all in a friendly way, is it?" he asked, in a whisper.

I nodded my head. At that moment I could not have spoken for worlds.

"Friendly, of course," he went on to himself, "or there would have been
a policeman in it. She told you, I suppose, that I wasn't the man?"

I nodded my head again. It was all I could do