herself, they made a tightly-packed quartette.

'I say, I didn't bargain for extras inside,' grumbled the cabman.

'You can't reckon these children,' said Natalya, with confused legal
recollections; 'they're both under seven.'

The cabman started. Becky stared out of the window. 'I wonder if we'll
pass Mrs. Elkman,' she said, amused. Joseph busied himself with
disentangling the tails of his kite.

But Natalya was too absorbed to notice their indifference to her. That
poor little Daisy! The image of the baby swam vividly before her. What
a terrible fate to be left in the hands of the public-house woman! Who
knew what would happen to it? What if, in her drunken fury at the
absence of Becky and Joseph, she did it a mischief? At the best the
besotted creature would not take cordially to the task of bringing it
up. It was no child of hers--had not even the appeal of pure Jewish
blood. And there it lay, smiling, with its beautiful blue eyes. It had
smiled trustfully on herself, not knowing she was to leave it to its
fate. And now it was crying; she heard it crying above the rattle of
the cab. But how could she charge herself with it--she, with her daily
rounds to make? The other children were grown up, passed the day at
school. No, it was impossible. And the child's cry went on in her
imagination louder and louder.

She put her head out of the window. 'Turn back! Turn back! I've
forgotten something.'

The cabman swore. 'D'ye think you've taken me by the week?'

'Threepence extra. Drive back.'

The cab turned round, the innocent horse got a stinging flip of the
whip, and set off briskly.

'What have you forgotten, grandmother?' said Becky. 'It's very
careless of you.'

The cab stopped at the door. Natalya looked round nervously, sprang
out, and then uttered a cry of despair.

'_Ach_, we shut the door!' And the inaccessible baby took on a tenfold
desirability.

'It's all right,' said Becky. 'Just turn the handle.'

Natalya obeyed and ran in. There was the baby, not crying, but
sleeping peacefully. Natalya snatched it up frenziedly, and hurried
the fresh-squalling bundle into the cab.

'Taking Daisy?' cried Becky. 'But she isn't yours!'

Natalya shut the cab-door with a silencing bang, and the vehicle
turned again Ghettowards.

VI

The fact that Natalya had taken possession of the children could not
be kept a secret, but the step-mother's family made no effort to
regain them, and, indeed, the woman hers