eech was stifled by the atmosphere of Shooter's
Gardens.

Having drunk her tea, Mrs. Candy lay down, as she was, on the already
extended mattress, and drew the ragged coverings about her. In half an
hour she slept.

Pennyloaf then put on her hat and jacket again and left the house. She
walked away from the denser regions of Clerkenwell, came to Sadler's
Wells Theatre (gloomy in its profitless recollection of the last worthy
manager that London knew), and there turned into Myddelton Passage. It
is a narrow paved walk between brick walls seven feet high; on the one
hand lies the New River Head, on the other are small gardens behind
Myddelton Square. The branches of a few trees hang over; there are
doors, seemingly never opened, belonging one to each garden; a couple
of gas-lamps shed feeble light. Pennyloaf paced the length of the
Passage several times, meeting no one. Then a policeman came along with
echoing tread, and eyed her suspiciously. She had to wait more than a
quarter of an hour before Bob Hewett made his appearance. Greeting her
with a nod and a laugh, he took up a leaning position against the wall,
and began to put questions concerning the state of things at her home.

'And what'll your mother do if the old man don't give her nothing to
live on?' he inquired, when he had listened good-naturedly to the
recital of domestic difficulties.

'Don't knew,' replied the girl, shaking her head, the habitual surprise
of her countenance becoming a blank interrogation of destiny.

Bob kept kicking the wall, first with one heel, then with the other. He
whistled a few bars of the last song he had learnt at the music-hall.

'Say, Penny,' he remarked at length, with something of shamefacedness,
'there's a namesake of mine here as I shan't miss, if you can do any
good with it.'

He held a shilling towards her under his hand. Pennyloaf turned away,
casting down her eyes and looking troubled.

'We can get on for a bit,' she said indistinctly.

Bob returned the coin to his pocket. He whistled again for a moment,
then asked abruptly:

'Say! have you seen Clem again?'

'No,' replied the girl, examining him with sudden acuteness. 'What
about her?'

'Nothing much. She's got her back up a bit, that's all.'

'About me?' Pennyloaf asked anxiously.

Bob nodded. As he was making some further remarks on the subject, a
man's figure appeared at a little distance, and almost immediately
withdrew again round a winding of the P