Part 6 (1/2)

”Now, Tottie, you must run round to the baker directly, and fetch another loaf.”

”What! a whole one, ma'am?” asked the small domestic--in comparison with whom Dollops was a giantess.

”Yes, a whole one. You see there's a young gentleman coming to tea whom I did not expect--a grand tall gentleman too, and a hero, who has saved people from wrecks, and swims in the sea in storms like a duck, and all that sort of thing, so he's sure to have a tremendous appet.i.te. You will also buy another pennyworth of brown sugar, and two more pats of b.u.t.ter.”

Tottie opened her large blue eyes in amazement at the extent of what she deemed a reckless order, but went off instantly to execute it, wondering that any hero, however regardless of the sea or storms, could induce her poor mistress to go in for such extravagance, after having already provided a luxurious meal for three.

It might have seemed unfair to send such a child even to bed without an attendant. To send her into the crowded streets alone in the dusk of evening, burdened with a vast commission, and weighted with coppers, appeared little short of inhumanity. Nevertheless Miss Lillycrop did it with an air of perfect confidence, and the result proved that her trust was not misplaced.

Tottie had been gone only a few seconds when George Aspel appeared at the door and was admitted by Miss Lillycrop, who apologised for the absence of her maid.

Great was the surprise and not slight the embarra.s.sment of May Maylands when young Aspel was ushered into the little room, for Phil had not recovered sufficiently from the first greetings to mention him. Perhaps greater was the surprise of Miss Lillycrop when these two, whom she had expected to meet as old playmates, shook hands rather stiffly.

”Sure, I forgot, May, to tell you that George was coming--”

”I am very glad to see him,” interrupted May, recovering herself, ”though I confess to some surprise that he should have forsaken Ireland so soon, after saying to me that it was a perfect paradise.”

Aspel, whose curly flaxen hair almost brushed the ceiling, brought himself down to a lower region by taking a chair, while he said with a meaning smile--

”Ah! Miss Maylands, the circ.u.mstances are entirely altered now-- besides,” he added with a sudden change of tone and manner, ”that inexorable man-made demon, Business, calls me to London.”

”I hope Business intends to keep you here,” said Miss Lillycrop, busying herself at the tea-table.

”That remains to be seen,” returned Aspel. ”If I find that--”

”The loaf and b.u.t.ter, ma'am,” said Tottie, announcing these articles at the door as if they were visitors.

”Hush, child; leave them in the kitchen till I ask for them,” said Miss Lillycrop with a quiet laugh. ”My little maid is _such_ an original, Mr Aspel.”

”She's a very beautiful, though perhaps somewhat dishevelled, original,”

returned Aspel, ”of which one might be thankful to possess even an inferior copy.”

”Indeed you are right,” rejoined Miss Lillycrop with enthusiasm; ”she's a perfect little angel--come, draw in your chairs; closer this way, Phil, so--a perfect little angel--you take sugar I think? Yes. Well, as I was saying, the strange thing about her was that she was born and bred--thus far--in one of the worst of the back slums of London, and her father is an idle drunkard. I fear, also, a criminal.”

”How strange and sad,” said Aspel, whose heart was easily touched and sympathies roused by tales of sorrow. ”But how comes it that she has escaped contamination?”

”Because she has a good--by which I mean a Christian--mother. Ah! Mr Aspel, you have no idea how many unknown and unnoticed gems there are half smothered in the moral mud and filth of London. It is a wonderful--a tremendous city;--tremendous because of the mighty influences for good as well as evil which are constantly at work in it.

There is an army of moral navvies labouring here, who are continually unearthing these gems, and there are others who polish them. I have the honour to be a member of this army. Dear little Tottie is one of the gems, and I mean, with G.o.d's blessing, to polish her. Of course, I can't get her all to myself,” continued Miss Lillycrop with a sigh, ”for her mother, who is a washer-woman, won't part with her, but she has agreed to come and work for me every morning for a few hours, and I can get her now and then of an evening. My chief regret is that the poor thing has a long long way to walk from her miserable home to reach me.

I don't know how she will stand it. She has been only a few days in my service.”

As the unpolished diamond entered at this moment with a large plate of b.u.t.tered toast, Miss Lillycrop changed the subject abruptly by expressing a hope that May Maylands had not to go on late duty that evening.

”Oh, no; it's not my turn for a week yet,” said May.

”It seems to me very hard that they should work you night and day,” said Phil, who had been quietly drinking in new ideas with his tea while his cousin discoursed.

”But they don't work us night and day, Phil,” returned May, ”it is only the telegraphs that do that. We of the female staff work in relays. If we commence at 8 a.m. we work till 4 p.m. If we begin at nine we work till five, and so on--eight p.m. being our latest hour. Night duty is performed by men, who are divided into two sections, and it is so arranged that each man has an alternate long and short duty--working three hours one night and thirteen hours the next. We are allowed half-an-hour for dinner, which we eat in a dining-hall in the place. Of course we dine in relays also, as there are above twelve hundred of us, male and female.”

”How many?” asked George Aspel in surprise.