id. "This isn't our house. Perhaps the
people will be angry with us for pushing the door open."

But it was too late--the door had been a little open before we touched
it, for there were people standing in the hall just inside, and one of
them, an errand boy, was coming out, when the push Tom had given caught
their attention. The door was pulled wide open from the inside and we
saw plainly right into the brightly-lighted hall. A man-servant came
forward to see who we were--or what we were doing.

"Now get off the steps you there," he said roughly. "My lady can't have
beggars loitering about."

Frightened as we were, Tom's indignation could not be kept down.

"We're _not_ beggars, you rude man," he cried, "we thought this was our
house, and--and--" he could say no more, poor little boy--for all his
manliness he was only a very little boy, you know--the tears would not
be kept back any longer, he burst out sobbing, and immediately he heard
Tom's crying Racey of course began too. I did not know what to do-- I
threw my arms round them and tried to comfort them. "Don't cry, dears,"
I said, "we'll go back to the chemist's, and he'll show us the way home.
And nobody shall scold _you_, I don't care what they say to me."

The man-servant was still standing holding the door; he seemed on the
point of shutting it, but I suppose something in our way of speaking,
though he could not clearly see how we were dressed, had made him begin
to think he had been mistaken, and he stared at us curiously. I think
too, for he wasn't an unkind man, he felt sorry to hear the boys crying
so. The bustle on the steps caught the attention of the other person in
the hall--who had been speaking to the errand-boy when we came up,
though we had not noticed her. A voice, which even at that moment I
fancied I had heard before, stopped us as we were turning away.

"What is the matter, James?" it said. "Is it some poor children on the
steps? Don't be rough to them. I'd like to see what they want."

Then she came forward and stood right in our sight, though even now she
couldn't see us well, as we were outside in the dark, you know. We all
looked at her, and for a minute we felt too surprised to speak. It was
the young lady in the black dress with the pretty goldy hair that had
come one day to our house. We all knew her again--she looked sweeter and
prettier than ever, with a nice grave sort of kindness in her face that
I think children love even more t