purchased some paper and ran home, which he reached in good time.




CHAPTER VII.

THE TEMPTER TRIUMPHS.


"Did the lady give you nothing more?" inquired Mr. Walters, as William
handed him the money for the shoes and mentioned the new order. He had
been pleased with the boy's ingenuous honesty shown a day or two
before, and was now in a more sunny humour than usual. The old
watchman, too, had come in for a half-hour's chat, and was sitting in
the back shop, from whence Mr. Walters had come. "What did she give
you?" he repeated, as he saw the boy hesitate.

William blushed, stammered something inaudible, and looked at Jem
Taylor, who, as master's back was turned so that he could not see him,
made signs to our hero to conceal the truth. "I am sure she gave you
something," cried the master, now growing angry; "tell me the truth
this moment."

The poor boy now recollected that he had spent part of it, and was
more embarrassed than at first; the nods, winks, and smiles of the
vicious journeyman were aiding in the struggle to conquer the boy's
virtue, and at last triumphed. The anger of Mr. Walters was now fully
aroused. He seized his young apprentice by the shoulder, and in a
voice of thunder repeated the question; to which, pale and trembling,