hich stuck out over it, and held it firmly down.

The man's lameness was only a limp. It did not prevent him from walking
very fast indeed. He was evidently bent on business; nevertheless, the
business was not so pressing but that he could stop now and then to look
at anything that interested him in the crowded streets.

And how crowded they were--and cheerful too: for it was Christmastide,
and people seemed to be more excited and hearty than usual. The shops
were resplendent--filled to overflowing with everything that could tempt
man to spend money, and blazing with gas-light, so that the streets
seemed even brighter than at noon. The poulterers' shops, in
particular, were so stuffed, that rows of fat geese and ducks,
apparently finding the crush too much for them inside, seemed to have
come outside the shops and hung themselves up round the doors and
windows!

The lame man did not linger long, however, but hurried onwards until he
reached that quarter of the city near to the Bank of England, where very
poor and wretched people lived upon wondrously little of that gold which
lay in such huge quantities so near them.

In the back slums of this region there were no bright gas-lights. The
shops were ill-lighted and miserable, like the population, except a few
at the corners of streets, where rough men and ragged women, and even
children, went to poison themselves with gin.

In one of the darkest and dirtiest of these streets the lame man found
an open door and entered, taking off his greatcoat and shawl, which he
handed to a pleasant-faced man who stood there.

"I'm in good time, I hope?" said the lame man.

"Oh yes, they're on'y 'alf through their tea yet. Miss Home's bin
singin' to 'em."

The lame man's body was very thin and not very strong, but his face was
particularly handsome and grave, with a strange mingling of humour and
sadness in his expression.

Opening an inner door, he entered a large schoolroom, and, going to the
upper end of it, took his place behind some gentlemen, who nodded to him
as he passed.

The room was filled with the very lowest classes of the London poor.
Among them were ferocious-looking, dirty, ragged men, who might have
been thieves, burglars, or pickpockets. Not less disreputable-looking
were the women and children. The air of the room smelt horribly of
dirty clothes and drink. They were all very quiet, however, and
well-behaved at the time, for all were busily engaged