certain hours in the day, gives admission, is a painted notice
informing the public that, by the grace of the Marquis of
Northampton, they may here take their ease on condition of good
behaviour; to children is addressed a distinct warning that 'This is
not a playing ground.' From his window Sidney had a good view of the
Square. The house in which he lived was of two storeys; a brass
plate on the door showed the inscription, 'Hodgson, Dial Painter.'
The window on the ground-floor was arched, as in the other dwellings
at this end of the street, and within stood an artistic arrangement
of wax fruit under a glass shade, supported by a heavy volume of
Biblical appearance. The upper storey was graced with a small iron
balcony, on which straggled a few flower-pots. However, the exterior
of this abode was, by comparison, promising; the curtains and blinds
were clean, the step was washed and whitened, the brass plate shone,
the panes of glass had at all events acquaintance with a duster. A
few yards in the direction away from the Square, and Tysoe Street
falls under the dominion of dry-rot.

It was not until he set forth to go to work next morning that Sidney
called to mind his conversation with Jane. That the child should
have missed by five minutes a meeting with someone who perchance had
the will and the power to befriend her, seemed to him, in his
present mood, merely an illustration of a vice inherent in the
nature of things. He determined to look in at the public-house of
which she had spoken, and hear for himself what manner of man had
made inquiries for people named Snowdon. The name was not a common
one; it was worth while to spend a hope or two on the chance of
doing Jane a kindness. Her look and voice when he bade her be of
good courage had touched him. In his rejected state, he felt that it
was pleasant to earn gratitude even from so humble a being as the