soon after noon, cecile, maurice, and toby sat down to shelter and rest themselves on a step under the deep porch of an old church. the wind had got up, and was very cold, and already the bright morning sky had clouded over.
there was a promise of snow in the air and in the dull sky, and the children shivered and drew close to each other.
"we won't mind looking any longer for our old court to-day, maurice," said cecile. "as soon as you are rested, darling, we'll go straight and get a night's lodging. i am afraid we must do it as cheap as possible, but you shan't walk any more to-day."
to all this maurice, instead of replying in his usual grumbling fashion, laid his head on his sister's lap, and dropped off into a heavy sleep. his pretty baby face looked very white as he slept, and when cecile laid her hand on his cheek it was cold.
she felt a fresh dread coming over her. was maurice too completely a baby boy to go on such a long and weary pilgrimage? and oh! if this was the case, what should she do? for they had nothing to live on. there seemed no future at all before the little girl but the future of finding lovedy.
cecile buried her head in her hands, and again the longing rose up strong, passionate, fervent, that jesus, the good guide, would come to her. he had come once. he was in the dark room last night. he answered her though he made no sound, though, listen as she would, she could not hear the faintest whisper from his lips. still he was surely there. jane had said so, and jane knew him well; she said it was he who had sent back her purse. suppose she met him in the street to-day, and he knew her? suppose he came out of the church behind them? or suppose, suppose he came to her again in the dark in that "lodging for the night," where they must go? cecile wished much that jesus would come in the daylight; she wanted to see his face, to look into his kind eyes. but even to feel that he would be with her in the dark was a great comfort in her present desolation.
cecile was aroused from her meditations by something very soft and warm rubbing against her hand. she raised her eyes to encounter the honest and affectionate gaze of toby.
toby's eyes were bright, and he was wagging his tail, and altogether seeming as if he found life agreeable. he gamboled a little when cecile looked at him, and put his forepaws on her lap. toby meant nothing by this but to please and cheer his little mistress. he saw she was down and tired, and he was determined to put a bold face on things, and to get a bit of sunshine, even on this december afternoon, into his own honest eyes, if it would come nowhere else. generally cecile was the brightest of the party; now toby was determined to show her that he was a dog worth having in adversity.
she did think so. tears sprang to her own blue eyes. she threw her arms round toby's neck and gave him a great hug. in the midst of this caress the dog's whole demeanor changed; he gave a quick spring out of cecile's embrace, and uttered an angry growl. a girl was approaching by stealthy steps at the back of the little party.
the moment she heard toby's bark she changed her walk to a quick run and threw herself down beside cecile with an easy hail-fellow-well-met manner.
"well, you're a queer un, you ere," she said, looking up pertly in cecile's face, "a-hugging of that big dawg, and a-sitting on the church steps of st. stephen's on the werry bitterest evening that has come this year yet. ha'n't you no home, now, as you sits yere?"
"no; but i am going to look out for a night's lodging at once," answered cecile.
"for you and that ere little un, and the dawg?"
"yes, we must all three be together whatever happens. do you know of a lodging, little girl?"
"my name's jessie—jessie white. yes, i knows where i goes myself. 'tis werry warm there. 'tis a'most too warm sometimes."
"and is it cheap?" asked cecile. "for me, and maurice, and toby, we have got to do things very cheap. we shall only be a day or two in london, and we must do things very, very cheap while we stay."
"oh! my eyes! hasn't we all to do things cheap? what does you say to a penny? a penny is wot i pays for a share of a bed, and i s'pose as you and that ere little chap could have one all to yerselves for tuppence, and the dawg, he ud lie in for nothink. i calls tuppence uncommon cheap to be warm for so many hours."
"tuppence?" said cecile. "two pennies for maurice and me and toby. yes, i suppose that is cheap, jessie white. i don't know anything about prices, but it does not sound dear. we will go to your lodgings if you will tell us the right street, and i hope it is not far away, for maurice is very tired."
"no, it ain't far, but you can't go without me; you would not get in nohow. now, i works in the factory close by, and i'm just out for an hour for my dinner. i'll call for you yere, ef you like, at five o'clock, and take you straight off, and you can get into bed at once. and now s'pose as we goes and has a bit of dinner? i has tuppence for my dinner. i did mean to buy a beautiful hartificial flower for my hat instead, but somehow the sight of you three makes me so starved as i can't stand it. will you come to my shop and have dinner too?"
to this proposition cecile, maurice (who had awakened), and toby all eagerly agreed; and in a moment or two the little party found themselves being regaled at the ragged girl's directions with great basins of hot soup and hunches of bread. she took two basins of soup, and two hunches of bread herself. but though maurice and cecile wished very much for more, cecile—even though it was to be paid for with their own money—felt too timid to ask again, and the strange girl appeared to think it impossible they could want more than one supply.
"i'm off now," she said to cecile, coming up to her and wiping her mouth.
"yes; but where are we to meet you for the lodging?" asked the little girl anxiously—"maurice is so tired—and you promised to show us. where shall we get the lodging for the night?"
the girl gave a loud rude laugh.
"'tis in dean street," she said. "dean street's just round the corner—'tis number twenty. i'll turn up if i ha' money."
"but you said we could not get in without you," said cecile.
"well, what a bother you ere! i'll turn up if i can. you be there at the door, and if i can i'll be there too." then she nodded violently, and darted out of the shop.
cecile wondered why she was in such a hurry to go, and at the change in her manner, but she understood it a little better when she saw that the ragged girl had so arranged matters that cecile had to pay for all the dinners!
"i won't never trust ragged girls like that again," was her wise mental comment; and then she, maurice, and toby recommenced their weary walking up and down. their dinner had once more rested and refreshed them, and cecile hoped they might yet find the old court in bloomsbury. but the great fatigue of the morning came back a little sooner in the short and dull winter's afternoon, and the child discovered now to her great distress that she was lagging first. the shock and trouble she had gone through the day before began to tell on her, and by the time maurice suddenly burst into tears her own footsteps were reeling.
"i think you're unkind, cecile," said the little boy, "and i don't believe we are ever, ever going to find our old court, or the lodgings for the night."
"there's a card up at this house that we're passing," said cecile. "i'll ask for a lodging at this very house, maurice."
she rang the bell timidly, and in a moment or so a pert girl with a dirty cap on her head came and answered it.
"please," said cecile, raising her pretty anxious little face, "have you got a lodging for the night for two little children and a dog? i see a card up. we don't mind its being a very small lodging, only it must be cheap."
the girl burst out laughing, and rude as the ragged girl's laugh had been, this struck more painfully, with a keener sense of ridicule, on cecile's ear.
"well, i never," said the servant-maid at last; "you three want a lodging in this yere house? a night's lodging she says, for her and the little un and the dog she says, and she wants it cheap, she says. go further afield, missy, this house ain't for the likes of you," and then the door was slammed in cecile's face.
"look, look," said maurice excitedly, "there's a crowd going in there; a great lot of people, and they're all just as ragged as me and you and toby. let's go in and get a bed with the ragged people, cecile."
cecile raised her eyes, then she exclaimed joyfully:
"why, this is dean street, maurice. yes, and that's, that's number twenty. we can get our night's lodging without that unkind ragged girl after all."
then the children, holding each other's hands, and toby keeping close behind, found themselves in the file of people, and making their way into the house, over the door of which was written:
"cheap lodgings for the night for women and children."
early as the hour was, the house seemed already full from attic to cellar. cecile and maurice were pushed into a good-sized room about halfway up the first flight of stairs.
at the door of this room a woman stood, who demanded pennies of everyone before they were allowed to enter the room.
cecile had some slight difficulty in getting hers out of the bosom of her frock; she did so with anxiety, and some effort at concealment, which was observed by two people:
one was a red-faced, wicked-looking girl of about sixteen; the other was a pale woman, who turned her worn faded brown eyes, with a certain look of pathos in them, on the little pair.
the moment the people got into the room, there was a scramble for the beds, which were nothing better than wooden boards, with canvas bags laid on them, and a second piece of canvas placed for covering. but bad and comfortless as these beds looked, without either pillow or bolster, they were all eagerly coveted, and all soon full. two and even three got into each, and those who could not get accommodation in that way were glad to throw themselves on the floor, as near to a great stove, which burned hot and red, as possible.
it would have fared very badly with cecile and maurice were it not for the woman who noticed them at the door. but as they were looking round bewildered, and toby was softly licking cecile's hand, the little girl felt a touch from this woman.
"i ha' my own bed laid ready in this corner, and you are both welcome to share it, my little dears."
"oh! they may come with me. i has my corner put by too," said the red-faced girl, who also came up.
"please, ma'am, we'll choose your bed, if toby may sleep with us," said cecile, raising her eyes, and instinctively selecting the right company.
the woman gave a faint, sad smile, the girl turned scowling away, and the next moment maurice found himself curled up in the most comfortable corner of the room. he was no longer cold, and hard as his bed was, he was too tired to be particular, and in a moment he and toby were both sound asleep.
but cecile did not sleep. weary as she was, the foul air, the fouler language, smote painfully on her ears. the heat, too, soon became almost unbearable, and very soon the poor child found herself wishing for the cold streets in preference to such a night's lodging.
there was no chance whatever of jesus coming to a place like this, and cecile's last hope of his helping her vanished.
the strong desire that he would come again and do something wonderful, as he had done the day before, had been with her for many dreary hours; and when this hope disappeared, the last drop in her cup of trouble was full, and poor, brave, tired little pilgrim that she was, she cried long and bitterly. the pale woman by her side was long ago fast asleep. indeed silence, broken only by loud snores, was already brooding over the noisy room. cecile was just beginning to feel her own eyes drooping, when she was conscious of a little movement. there was a gas jet turned down low in the room, and by its light she could see that unpleasant red-faced girl sitting up in bed. she was not only sitting up, but presently she was standing up, and then the little girl felt a cold chill of fear coming over her. she came up to the bedside.
cecile almost thought she must scream, when suddenly the pale woman, who had appeared so sound asleep, said quietly:
"go back to yer bed at once, peggie jones. i know what you're up to."
the girl, discomfited, slunk away; and for ten minutes there was absolute silence. then the woman, laying her hand on cecile's shoulder, said very softly:
"my dear, you have a little money about you?"
"yes," answered the child.
"i feared so. you must come away from here at once. i can protect you from peggie. but she has accomplices who'll come presently. you'd not have a penny in the morning. get up, child, you and the little boy. why, 'twas the blessed jesus guided you to me to save. come, poor innocent lambs!"
there was one thing the woman had said which caused cecile to think it no hardship to turn out once more into the cold street. she rose quite quietly, her heart still and calm, and took maurice's hand, and followed the woman down the stairs, and out once again.
"now, as you ha' a bit of money, i'll get you a better lodging than that," said the kind woman; and she was as good as her word, and took the children to a cousin of her own, who gave them not only a tiny little room, and a bed which seemed most luxurious by contrast, but also a good supper, and all for the sum of sevenpence.
so cecile slept very sweetly, for she was feeling quite sure again that jesus, who had even come into that dreadful lodging to prevent her being robbed, and to take care of her, was going to be her guide after all.
