of artists. Torrents of rain followed, enough to
wash away whole pyramids of flowers and piles of art-materials. If the
downpour did nothing else it cleared the crowded street, with the
celerity of magic only seen in such circumstances, and left Rose
cowering in a doorway, alone as it seemed to her, but for a cab-driver
who took refuge in his cab, drawn up before one of the opposite houses.
The rain looked as if it meant to continue, while, laden as Rose was,
she could not have held up an umbrella even if she had found one ready
to her hand.

Her slender funds did not set her up in cabs, as she had told herself on
many a weary trudge in fog and drizzle between Mr. Foy's class-rooms and
Welby Square. Besides she would like to see Hester Jennings's face when
she (Rose Millar) proposed to indulge in such a luxury. But there would
be more lost than gained if she stood shivering in that doorway till her
best spring frock was ruined, waiting for an omnibus which was sure to
arrive with every available inch of space occupied. She would catch a
chill or an influenza with no kind father near to save her a doctor's
bill, and cure her simply for the pleasure of doing it. She would brave
Hester's eagle eye, supposing it could scan Rose's misdeeds from some
coigne of vantage commanding this end of the street. She signalled to
the cab-driver opposite, who put his head out of the cab window and
signalled back that he had a fare besides himself at present ensconced
in one of the inhospitable-looking houses.

Should she bid the thunder, lightning, and rain do their worst, and set
out to walk home in defiance of them? While she still paused irresolute,
peeping out disconsolately at the inky sky from which the downpour fell,
a young man in the conscious superiority of a waterproof and an ample
umbrella, walked leisurely along the sloppy, deserted pavement. He
looked at her, seemed arrested by something which struck him in her
appearance, hesitated a little undecidedly, stopped short, and addressed
her, colouring up to his frank, honest blue eyes as he did so.

"I am afraid you have been caught in this tremendous shower. Can I do
nothing to help you--call a cab, for instance?"

"Oh! thank you very much," she said gratefully, forgetting all about the
cunning enemy in disguise for whom she was to be always looking out.
Indeed she had felt so lonely a minute before that she was rather
disposed to welcome a comrade in misfortune. "The cabma