pavement, trembling lest she should run against some Moon Street
acquaintance, and stung with the thought of the miserable scene in store
for her should she be compelled to return empty-handed, she walked not
less than half a mile before pausing. Then she drew forth the concealed
matches and began the piteous pleading--"Will you please buy a box of
matches?" spoken in a low tremulous voice to each passer-by, unheeded by
those who were preoccupied with their own thoughts, by all others looked
scornfully at, until at last, tired and dispirited, she turned to retrace
the long hopeless road. And now the thoughts of home became at every yard
of the way more painful and even terrifying to her. What a misery to have
to face it--to have to think of it! But to run away and hide herself from
her parents, and escape for ever from her torturing apprehensions, never
entered her mind. She loved her poor drink-degraded mother; there was no
one else for her to love, and where her mother was there must be her only
home. But the thought of her father was like a nightmare to her; even the
remembrance of his often brutal treatment and language made her tremble.
Father she had always called him, but for some months past, since he had
been idle, or out of work as he called it, he had become more and more
harsh towards her, not often addressing her without calling her
"barstard," usually with the addition of one of his pet expletives,
profane or sanguineous. She had always feared and shrunk from him,
regarding him as her enemy and the chief troubler of her peace; and his
evident dislike of her had greatly increased during her last year at the
Board School, when he had more than once been brought before a magistrate
and fined for her non-attendance. When that time was over, and he was no
longer compelled by law to keep her at school, he had begun driving her
out to beg in the streets, to make good what her "book-larning," as he
contemptuously expressed it, had cost him. And the miserable wife had
allowed it, after some violent scenes and occasional protests, until the
illegal pence brought in each day grew to be an expected thing, and