care of my basket, please, till I come back."

And without a word more, the flower-girl put down her little basket
at the foot of the vegetable-stall, and ran away as fast as she could
go.

When she turned out of the market-place, she found, early as it was,
that the street before her was pretty full; but as from the passage
the gentleman had taken to leave the market-place, she knew he could
only have gone in one direction, she had still hopes of finding him;
and she ran on and on, until she actually thought she saw the very
person before her; he had just taken off his hat, and was wiping his
forehead with his handkerchief.

"That is him," said the little flower-girl, "I am certain;" but just
as she spoke, some persons came between her and the gentleman, and
she could not see him. Still she kept running on; now passing off the
foot-path into the street, and then seeing the fat gentleman still
before her; and then again getting on the foot-path, and losing sight
of him, until at last she came up quite close to him, as he was
walking slowly, and wiping the drops of heat from his forehead.

The poor child was then quite out of breath; and when she got up to
him she could not call out to him to stop, nor say one word; so she
caught hold of the skirt of his coat, and gave it a strong pull.

The gentleman started, and clapped one hand on his coat-pocket, and
raised up his cane in the other, for he was quite sure it was a
pickpocket at his coat. But when he turned, he saw the breathless
little flower-girl, and he looked rather sternly at her, and said,