"I knew I was right," said the woman, who was now all smiles. "Bless you,
miss, you ain't fit to make your own living like one of us. Well, I'm
real pleased your friends has found you."

Fan got into the cab again, and they proceeded in silence to Dawson
Place. A small boy in buttons, who had only been engaged a day or two
before, opened the door to them. They went up to the bedroom on the first
floor.

"Sit down, Fan, and rest yourself," said Miss Starbrow, closing and
locking the door; then after moving about the room in an aimless way for
a little while, she came and sat down near the girl. "Before you tell me
this dreadful story, Fan," she said, "I wish to ask you one thing more.
One day last week when it was raining you came home from Kensington with
a young man. Who was he--a friend of yours?"

"A friend of mine! oh no. I was hurrying back in the rain when he came up
to me and held his umbrella over my head, and walked to the door with me.
It was kind of him, I thought, because he was a stranger, and I had never
seen him before."

"It was a small thing, but you usually tell me everything, and you did
not tell me this?"

"No, I was waiting to tell you that--and something else, and didn't tell
you because you seemed angry with me, and I was afraid to speak to you."

"What was the something else you were going to tell me?"

Fan related the scene she had witnessed in the drawing-room. It had