ons? Speak and tell me. Nay, cry on, poor wench, if thou canst not
speak yet. It will ease the heart, and then thou canst tell me."

"Nanny is dead!" said Susan. "I left her to go to father, and she fell
downstairs, and never breathed again. Oh, that's my sorrow! But I've
more to tell. Her mother is come--is in our house! Come and see if it's
your Lizzie."

Mrs. Leigh could not speak, but, trembling, put on her things and went
with Susan in dizzy haste back to Crown Street.




CHAPTER IV.


As they entered the house in Crown Street, they perceived that the door
would not open freely on its hinges, and Susan instinctively looked
behind to see the cause of the obstruction. She immediately recognised
the appearance of a little parcel, wrapped in a scrap of newspaper, and
evidently containing money. She stooped and picked it up. "Look!" said
she, sorrowfully, "the mother was bringing this for her child last
night."

But Mrs. Leigh did not answer. So near to the ascertaining if it were
her lost child or no, she could not be arrested, but pressed onwards with
trembling steps and a beating, fluttering heart. She entered the
bedroom, dark and still. She took no heed of the little corpse over
which Susan paused, but she went straight to the bed, and, withdrawing