Lang seemed to turn to Jessie with more real affection than she
had ever shown before. Jessie had loved her dead darling, and any
one who had loved him or been good to him had all the grateful
devotion of the poor mother's aching heart.

Charlie's little room was re-papered and painted, his little bed was
put away, and another bought for Jessie, and on the floor was spread
a new rug. Jessie soon grew to take quite a pride in her little
room. She scrubbed the floor every week, and polished the window
until it put to shame most of the windows in the neighbourhood.
Miss Patch gave her a piece of pretty chintz to hang at the back of
her looking-glass, and Tom Salter actually brought her home one day a
china vase to stand on her mantelpiece. Jessie was proud and pleased
sure enough then! and, as time went on, and she grew to miss Charlie
less, she would have been quite happy if she might but have written
to her grandfather and grandmother, or could have had some tidings of
them.

But month after month went by, and still the same suspense continued.
She did not even know if they were alive or dead.

Lodgers came and went, some pleasant, some very much the reverse;
some kind, some exacting. Jessie worked early and late at school and
at home. The school did not count for much in her life, and she made
no real friends amongst the children. Her earlier delicate training
made her feel she was not one of them; their speech and manners
jarred on her, and having lived most of her life with grown-ups, she
had no knowledge of games, or play, nor any skill in either, and
their tastes did not interest her, nor hers interest them. She would
far rather sit with Miss Patch, and talk or read to her, or be read
to. Miss Patch was teaching her some different kinds of needlework,
and while Jessie worked her teacher would read to her; and those
readings in that peaceful room were Jessie's greatest delight.

Then one day, when they least expected it, came an end to it all, and
all the ordinary everyday life they had lived together in that house
for months past was finished by a violent knocking at the front door.
At least that was the first sign they had of the change that was
impending!

Such a knocking it was! it echoed through the house, and up and down
the street, making them both spring to their feet in dire alarm.
Miss Patch gave a sharp cry and her hand flew to her side.
Jessie's face blanched, and her eyes grew dark with f