The ragamuffin laughed.

"But ve be's goin' to 'ave Reform now, Beck. The peopul's to have their
rights and libties, hand the luds is to be put down, hand beefsteaks is
to be a penny a pound, and--"

"What good will that do to she?"

"Vy, man, ve shall take turn about, and sum vun helse will sveep the
crossings, and ve shall ride in sum vun helse's coach and four, p'r'aps,-
-cos vy? ve shall hall be hequals!"

"Hequals! I tells you vot, if you keeps jawing there, atween me and she,
I shall vop you, Joe,--cos vy? I be's the biggest!" was the answer of
Beck the sweeper to Joe the ragamuffin.

The jovial Joe laughed aloud, snapped his fingers, threw up his ragged
cap with a shout for King Bill, and set off scampering and whooping to
join those festivities which Beck had so churlishly disdained.

Time crept on; evening began to close in, and Beck was still at his
crossing, when a young gentleman on horseback, who, after seeing the
procession, had stolen away for a quiet ride in the suburbs, reined in
close by the crossing, and looking round, as for some one to hold his
horse, could discover no loiterer worthy that honour except the solitary
Beck. So young was the rider that he seemed still a boy. On his smooth
countenance all that most prepossesses in early youth left its witching
stamp. A smile, at once gay and sweet, played on his lips. There was a
charm, even in a certain impatient petulance, in his quick eye and the
slight contraction of his delicate brows. Almaviva might well have been