right, and you'll be on Fifth Avenue before you know it."

Had Mrs. Roberts been looking at his face, she would have seen the
wicked light dancing in his eyes over the thought that he had thus
mapped out for her a walk through the very worst portion of the city,
every step, of course, leading her further and further away from Fifth
Avenue. The sights that she might see, and the mishaps which might occur
to her,--a handsomely-dressed woman alone,--before she made her way
through the horrors of these streets were too much even for Nimble
Dick's imagination, who knew the locality well. He did not try to
calculate them, but gave himself up to the enjoyment of imagining how
long it would be before she would reach home if she followed his
directions. "She won't see no swallowing serpents that I knows of," he
reflected, gleefully; "but I'll miss my reckoning if she don't see what
will scare her worse than they would."

But Mrs. Roberts was already "scared." She felt her heart beating hard,
and knew that her cheeks were aglow with excitement and vague terror.
She was not used to walking such streets alone. She looked ahead at the
way pointed out, and could see that the swarming life grew more turbid
as far as her eye could reach. She felt that she could not brave its
terrors unprotected. Suddenly she turned from looking down the alley,
and her hand, a small, delicately-gloved hand, was again laid on Nimble
Dick's arm; he could feel it trembling.

"I suppose I shall seem very foolish to you," she said, gently; "but I
am afraid to walk down there alone. Would you mind going along with me
to protect me? I am only a woman, you know, and we are apt to be
cowards."