t understand why--pawnbrokers gave things back after
paying for them, in the most amiable and engaging of fashions.

"That's my business! If you would kindly direct me--"

"We haven't got no pawnshop," said the porter gruffly. He stared at her
slowly up and down, down and up, appeared to awake to a suspicious
interest, and opined gruffly, "You'd better go 'ome!"

"Just what I'm trying to do," sighed poor Darsie to herself. She turned
and went slowly back to her leather seat, and a second disconsolate
review of the situation. In time to come this experience would rank as
an adventure, and became an oft-told tale. She would chill her
listeners with hints of The Tramp, evoke shrieks of laughter at her
imitation of the porter. Darsie realised the fact, but for the moment
it left her cold. Summer evenings have a trick of turning chill and
damp after the sun is set, and the vault-like waiting-room was dreary
enough to damp the highest spirits. _How was she going to obtain that
eightpence for a ticket_?

The station clock struck nine; the porter took a turn along the platform
and peered curiously through the dusty window; a luggage train rattled
slowly past, an express whizzed by with thunderous din. The station
clock struck the quarter, and still the problem was as far as ever from
solution.

"Well," sighed Darsie miserably, "I must just wait. I'm perished with
cold already. In two more hours I shall be frozen. Rheumatic fever, I
suppose, or galloping decline. It will settle Aunt Maria, that's _one_
good thing! but it's hard all the same, in the flower of my youth! To
think of all that a human creature can suffer for the sake of a
miserable eightpence!"

She got up stiffly and pressed her face against the pane. People were
beginning to assemble for the nine-ten. An old man with a satchel of
tools, two old women with baskets. "The poor are always generous to the
poor. Suppose I ask them? Twopence three farthings each would not kill
them!" But when one is not used to begging, it is extraordinary how
difficult it is to begin. Darsie tried to think of the words in which
she would proffer her request, and blushed in discomfort. No! she
_could_ not. Of the two disagreeables it really seemed easier to shiver
two hours, and retain one's pride intact, and then, suddenly, the door
of the waiting-room opened with a bang, and Dan's heavy figure stood on
the threshold! The cry of delight, of breathless incred