CHAPTER II


That troubled evening was followed by a quiet period, lasting from
Wednesday to Saturday, during which there were no brawls indoors, and Fan
was free of the hateful task of going out to collect pence in the
streets. Joe had been offered a three or four days' job; he had accepted
it gratefully because it was only for three or four days, and for that
period he would be the sober, stolid, British workman. The pleasures of
the pot-house would claim him on Saturday, when he would have money in
his pockets and the appetite that comes from abstention.

On Saturday morning after he had left the house at six o'clock, Fan
started up from her cot and came to her mother's side at the table.

"Mother, may I go out to the fields to-day?" she asked. "I know if I go
straight along the Edgware Road I'll come to them soon. And I'll be home
early."

"No, Fan, don't you try it. It's too far and'll tire you, and you'd be
hungry and maybe get lost."

"Can't I take some bread, mother? Do let me go! It will be so nice to see
the fields and trees, and they say it isn't far to walk."

"You're not fit to be seen walking, Fan. Wait till you've got proper
shoes to your feet, and a dress to wear. Perhaps I'll git you one next