Then he got
up restlessly.

"I be goin' out for a bit, lass," he said. "You stay 'ere."

"Oh, please, father," said Connie, "ef you be goin' out, may I go 'long
and pay Giles a wisit? I want so much to have a real good talk with
him."

When Connie mentioned the word Giles, Harris gave quite a perceptible
start. Something very like an oath came from his lips; then he crushed
back his emotion.

"Hall right," he said; "but don't stay too long there. And plait up that
'air o' yourn, and put it tight round yer 'ead; I don't want no more
kidnappin' o' my wench."

There was a slight break in the rough man's voice, and Connie's little
sensitive heart throbbed to the tone of love. A minute later Harris had
gone out, and Connie, perceiving that it was past four o'clock, and that
it would not be so very long before Sue was back from Cheapside,
prepared to set off in quite gay spirits to see little Giles.

She went into her tiny bedroom. It was a very shabby room, nothing like
as well furnished as the one she had occupied at Mammy Warren's. But oh,
how glad she was to be back again! How sweet the homely furniture
looked! How dear was that cracked and handleless jug! How nice to behold
again the wooden box in which she kept her clothes!

The little girl now quickly plaited her long, thick hair, arranged it
tightly round her head, and putting on a shabby frock and jacket, and
laying the dark blue, which had seen such evil days, in the little
trunk, she hastily left the room.

She was not long in making her appearance in Giles's very humble attic.
Her heart beat as she mounted the well-worn stairs. How often--oh, how
often she had though of Giles and Sue! How she had longed for them! The
next minute she had burst into the room where the boy was lying, as
usual, flat on his back.

"Giles," she said, "I've come back."

"Connie!" answered Giles. He turned quickly to look at her. His face
turned first red, then very pale; but the next minute he held up his
hand to restrain further words.

"Don't say anything for half a minute, Connie, for 'e's goin' to speak."

"Big Ben? Oh!" said Connie.

She remembered what Big Ben had been to her and to Ronald in Mammy
Warren's dreadful rooms. She too listened, half-arrested in her progress
across the room. Then, above the din and roar of London, the sweet
chimes pealed, and the hour of five o'clock was solemnly proclaimed.

"There!" said Giles. "Did yer 'ear wot he said now?"

"Te