pushed it
out of sight on the shelf, and sat down again to her book. Her mother
ought to be coming in now. Susy would have to do a lot of exercises;
these she could not by any possibility do in the shop. She had also some
mathematical work to get through or she would never be able to keep her
place in class. Why didn't Mrs. Hopkins return? Half-an-hour went by;
three-quarters. It was now a quarter to eight. Susy felt quite
distracted. With the exception of the two ladies, there had been no
customer in the shop up to the present. The fact was, they did not
begin to appear until soon after eight on Wednesday evenings. Then the
schoolgirls and schoolboys and many other people of the poorer class
used to drop in for penn'orths and ha'p'orths of stationery, for pens,
for ink, for sealing-wax, &c.

"Mother must be in soon. I know what I will do," said Susy. "I will open
the door of the parlor and sit there. If any one appears I can dash out
at once."

No sooner had the thought come to her than she resolved to act on it.
She turned on the gas in the parlor--it was already brightly lighted in
the shop--and sat down to her work.

"An hour and a quarter before the meeting of the Wild Irish Girls," she
said to herself. "Strange, is it not, that I should call myself a Wild
Irish Girl when I am a Cockney through and through? Well, whatever
happens, I shall be at the meeting."

CHAPTER X.

THE WILD IRISH GIRLS' SOCIETY IS STARTED.

While Susy sat in the parlor a tramp happened to pass the brightly
lighted shop. He was weather-beaten and slipshod, and altogether made a
most disreputable appearance. A hand was thrust into each of his
pockets, and these pockets were destitute of coin. The tramp was hungry
and penniless. The little shop with its gay light and tempting articles
of stationery, and books and sealing-wax displayed in the window, were
quite to the man's taste. He could not see the parlor beyond, nor the
peep-hole where Susy was supposed to be able to watch the shop; he only
noticed that no one was within. The tramp was in the humor to do
something desperate; he entered the shop under the pretense of begging;
made straight for the till, pulled it open, and took out a handful of
money. He had no time to count his spoils, but leaving the till-drawer
still open, he dashed out of the shop.

Now it so happened that Susy, just when the tramp stole in, had gone
upstairs to fetch a fresh exercise-book. She noticed not