well set on a pair of shapely shoulders, and her coils of red-brown
hair were twisted tightly round her massive head.

"Bet," said a young lad, as he rushed up the street--"ha-ha, handsome
Bet, give us a kiss, will ye?"

Bet rewarded him with a smart cuff across his face, and marched on,
more defiant than ever.

As she paused at a certain door a sweet-looking girl with a white face,
dressed in the garb of a Sister, came out.

"Ah, Elizabeth, I am glad you have arrived," she said. "I have just
left your mother; she has been crying for you, and--and--she is very
ill indeed."

"Oh, I know that, Sister Mary; let me go upstairs now."

Bet pushed past the girl almost rudely, and ascended the dark rickety
stairs with a light step. Her head was held very far back, and in her
eyes there was a curious mixture of defiance, softness and despair.
Two little boys, with the same reddish-brown hair as hers, were playing
noisily on the fourth landing. They made a rush at Bet when they saw
her, climbed up her like little cats, and half strangled her with their
thin half-naked arms.

"Bet, Bet, I say, mother's awful bad. Bet, speak to Nat; he stole my
marble, he did. Fie on you, Cap'n; you shouldn't have done it."

"I like that!" shouted the ragged boy addressed as "Cap'n." "You took