be near.

Granger called after her, but she neither heeded nor heard him. Like
most cruel men, he was a coward. He dared not follow her into the place
where she was seeking shelter.




CHAPTER X.


A few of the worst courts in Liverpool are absolutely without gaslight.
It was into one of these now that Bet ventured. She leaned her back
against the slimy, slippery, dirty wall, and breathed hard and fast.
Her father could not see her nor find her there, and she was in a mood
at that moment to fear no other living creature. Boys and men, girls
and women, talked and swore and quarreled and jostled one another in
the bad dark court. A lad of about twenty being pushed up against Bet,
seized her familiarly by the arm; she flung him off like a young fury,
and, wrapping her mother's plaid shawl which she wore about her
shoulders over her head, ran out into the street. Her father was gone.
Midnight was approaching, but the place was gayly lighted, for this
was Saturday night, and the women, who could only get what was left
of their husbands' earnings on their return from the public-houses,
were eagerly buying and chaffering, and making what preparations they
could for the coming Sabbath. No one molested or looked at Bet as she
walked rapidly back to Paradise Row. She reached her destination about
midnight, to find the whole house in what seemed to her the most awful
state of uproar. Shouts and eager voices filled the air; loud laughter,