l as they should have been, the
doors and windows were small; and the very children that played in the
gutter, with an exceedingly small amount of clothing on them, were
rather diminutive. Some of the doors stood open, revealing the fact
that it had been thought wise by the builders of the houses to waste no
space in lobbies or entrance halls. One or two, however, displayed
entries, or passages--dark and narrow--the doors to which were blistered
and severely battered, because, being the public property of several
families, they had no particular owner to protect them.

There was a small flat over a green-grocer's shop to which one of the
cleanest of those entries led. It consisted of two rooms, a
light-closet and a kitchen, and was low-ceilinged and poorly furnished,
but there was a distinct air of cleanliness about it, with a consequent
tendency to comfort. The carpet of the chief room was very old, but it
had been miraculously darned and patched. The table was little larger
than that of a gigantic doll's-house, but it was covered with a clean,
though threadbare, cloth, that had seen better days, and on it lay
several old and well-thumbed books, besides two work-baskets.

In an old--a very old--easy-chair at one side of the fire sat a lady
rather beyond middle age, with her hands clasped on her lap, and her
eyes gazing dreamily at the fire. Perhaps she was speculating on the
question how long two small lumps of coal and a little dross would last.
The grate in which that amount of fuel burned was a miniature specimen
of simplicity,--a mere hollow in the wall with two bars across. The
fire itself was so small that nothing but constant solicitude saved it
from extinction.

There was much of grey mingled with the fair tresses of the lady, and
the remains of beauty were very distinct on a countenance, the lines of
which suggested suffering, gentleness, submission, and humility.
Perchance the little sigh that escaped her as she gazed at the
preposterously small fire had reference to days gone by when health
revelled in her veins; when wealth was lavished in her father's house;
when food and fun were plentiful; when grief and care were scarce.
Whatever her thoughts might have been, they were interrupted by the
entrance of another lady, who sat down beside her, laid a penny on the
table, and looked at the lady in the easy-chair with a peculiar,
half-comical expression.

"It is our _last_, Jessie," she said, and as s