again, to crouch against the wall, drawing the quilt about her, and
remain motionless until a step on the stair or the banging of a door
below would startle her once more.

Meanwhile her mother maintained her silence and passive attitude, only
stirring when the light grew very dim; then she would turn half round,
snuff the wick off with her fingers, and wipe them on her shabby dirty
dress.

At length the girl started up, throwing her quilt quite off, and remained
seated on the edge of her cot, the look of anxiety increasing every
moment on her thin pale face. In the matter of dress she seemed even
worse off than her mother, and wore an old tattered earth-coloured gown,
which came down to within three or four inches of her ankles, showing
under it ragged stockings and shoes trodden down at heel, so much too
large for her feet that they had evidently belonged to her mother. She
looked tall for her years, but this was owing to her extreme thinness.
Her arms were like sticks, and her sunken cheeks showed the bones of her
face; but it was a pathetic face, both on account of the want and anxiety
so plainly written on it and its promise of beauty. There was not a
particle of colour in it, even the thin lips were almost white, but the
eyes were of the purest grey, shaded by long dark lashes; while her hair,
hanging uneven and disordered to her shoulders, was of a pure golden
brown.

"Mother, he's coming!" said the girl.

"Let him come!" returned the other, without looking up or stirring.

Slowly the approaching footsteps came nearer, stumbling up the dark,