==- — 
 
 GIFT or 
 
 Elisabeth '.Vhitney Putnaii 
 
LOST PROPERTY 
 
 THE STORY OF MAGGIE CANNON 
 
 W. PETT RIDGE 
 
 METHUEN & CO. 
 
 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. 
 
 LONDON 
 
LOST PROPERTY 
 
 PART ONE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE hour had come when the City station prepared for rest. On one 
 or two of the platforms lights had been extinguished, and the red 
 and green stars set near the signal-box over the broad river showed the 
 more plainly. Occasionally a train crept in with an apologetic air, and, 
 having discharged passengers and a few parcels, backed out, still excusing 
 itself for having troubled the station at so late an hour. Ecstatic youths, 
 heated from smoking concerts, came imitating The Great Vance, and 
 when these shouted " We're all picked fighting men, Every blessed one of 
 us," the empty station feebly repeated the assertion, with a sleepy attempt 
 to join in the hilarity, and, "One of us, one of us, one of us, of us," 
 echoed from the advertisement-covered walls. On the square with its 
 closed bookstall, porters arranged their cases of luggage labels, and lads 
 with giant-handJed brooms gave a last sweep up for the night ; young 
 ladies of the refreshment-rooms came, in the absence of customers, to the 
 swing doorways, and, discarding the coquettish manners of which even 
 they had begun to tire, talked sensibly with the manageress on the subject 
 of winter hats. Across the square a porter carried on his shoulder a 
 stoutly-made wicker wine-basket ; he also held an umbrella, two pairs of 
 gloves, and a railway novel. 
 
 " Still at it, Willyum?" remarked one of the labellers, pausing in his 
 work, 
 
 " Always at it," replied William, with gloom. 
 
 " Why, you ought to be the 'appiest man on earth," said the labeller. 
 He added, " With a face like yours." 
 
 William swung the wine-basket from his shoulder, and as ho set it 
 down sharply there came a sound. 
 
 " Kindly repeat that. Say it again, that's all ! " 
 
 " All I "inted was," remarked the other, shaking up a bundle of Folke- 
 stone labels, "that you chaps from Wateringbury are so good-lookin' you 
 don't give the rest of us a chance." 
 
 The young porter, conciliated, marched on with his load to a corner of 
 the square, went a few steps along the dim corridor, and knocked. A 
 man half in uniform and half in mufti appeared. Inside, the place was 
 dimly illuminated by one or two gas-jets in wire helmets ; rooks and 
 ravines of luggage crowded the irregularly-shaped ofiice. 
 
 " Knew it was you ! " he said. " So sure as I get ready to cut off and 
 catch my train to Spa Road, so sure do you come in at the last moment. 
 Were you born like it?" he asked, with bitter interest, " or has it all come 
 by practice? " 
 
 " ' Good-bye, Sweetheart, Good-bye,' and a umbrella out of the 10.37 up 
 
6 LO&T PEOPERTY 
 
 Loop," said Wiiliam ptolidly "These gloves and this 'amper out of a 
 tliird in the last Mid Kent.' 
 
 " What's in the 'anoper? " demanded the man. lie led the way along 
 a narrow gorge between the mountains of left luggage to a desk lighted 
 by a green-shaded lamp. " Don't you answer when I ask you a civil 
 question." 
 
 " Wha' say?" inquired William casually. 
 
 " Oh ! " snapped the man of the Lost Property Office ; " you make my 
 head ache. I can't keep up to your standard of brilliancy at this time of 
 the evening. Got a knife?" 
 
 " A knife ? " 
 
 " Yes," said the other fiercely, "a knife. Not a fork, a knife. Now 
 see if you can cut the strings of that basket whilst I enter up my book." 
 
 William knelt, with the sigh of a man called upon to endure labour 
 which is not strictly his, and took from his pocket a Kentish knife which 
 might have been used for the felling of trees. 
 
 " I say ! " he remarked, with much concern. 
 
 " Now begin again." 
 
 " There's something in this yere 'amper." 
 
 " Number six five three four," said the man, writing at the desk. 
 " Course there's something in the 'amper. All I want you to tel! me is, 
 what. If it's perishable, we shall have to — " 
 
 "Strikes me," remarked the porter, "it's more perishable than usual. 
 Looks to me very much like a kiddie." 
 
 The man at the desk whirled round on his four-legged stool. He stared 
 at the bundle of clothes in the hamper, sciecned his eyes w-ith one hand, 
 and without moving inspected the brig)it-oyed face of a baby looking up 
 and blinking at the light from the lamp which William held. The baby 
 chuckled good-humouredly, rather as though it had itself arranged all this 
 and felt exultant now with success. 
 
 " Well, I'm jiggered! " said the Lost Property man. A white terrier 
 round the corner strained at its cord, eager to inspect the scene. 
 
 " So 'm I," remarked William. 
 
 " Third-class carriage ? " 
 
 " Third-class carriage," said the porter solemnly, in the manner of one 
 giving sworn evidence, " in the last up Mid Kent. I were walkin' along 
 glanein' into the various compartments when suddenly my eye lighted on 
 what appeared to be a 'amper." 
 
 " I shall never catch my 'levcn-forty," said the Lost Property man 
 regretfully. " And the wife was goin' to have a hot supper too." 
 
 " Inferaiptin' you," said William, with respect, " but isn't this more of 
 a woman's job than ourn ? " 
 
 "It is a woman's job," agreed the other, nearing the hamper cau- 
 tiously. "Nobody's got no right to go and place responserability on our 
 shoulders." 
 
 "Then," suggested William, with a brilliant inspiration, " how'd it be 
 to call in a woman, or a lady, or a female, and get her to have a look at 
 the little beggar ? " 
 
 The Lost i'roperty man seemed divided between desire to catch his 
 train and the indignity of giving way to a suggestion from a mere porter. 
 Meanwhile, he nodded to the infant and declared gruffly it was a saucy 
 old gentleman. 
 
 " There's Mrs. Whafs-her-name outside on the square talking to her 
 young refreshment ladies," urged William. " What's to prevent me 
 popping my 'ead out of the door and asking of 'em to kindly walk this 
 way Y " 
 
LOST PEOPERTY 7 
 
 " What you'd better do," said the other, resuming command, is to go 
 out to them and give them my compliments, and will they step iu this 
 direction." 
 
 William, thus ordered, went out of the office, returning instantly with 
 the band of women-folk. He led the way towards the hamper, but found 
 himself at once set aside by the ladies, who hurried excitedly to the small 
 infant. The matronly woman with great gentleness lifted the bundle, one 
 of the girls secured the empty feeding-bottle, all chattering away to the 
 small bundle with vivacity. 
 
 " Miss Parker ! " cried the manageress, " go instantly, like a dear, and 
 warm some milk. Miss Baruett, your handkerchief, please, to rub the 
 sweet little mite's mouth with. Miss Lincoln, rouse yourself just for once 
 in your life and see that the fire is made up in my room, and you shall 
 have an estra egg for your breakfast in the morning and half an hour oflf 
 for sleep in the afternoon. Miss Barnett will go with you. Oh, you dear 
 lil' thing ! / see your big eyes, saucy." 
 
 The baby, much diverted at being thus rallied, gurgled a repartee. The 
 young women obeyed orders. 
 
 "Ah," remarked the manageress, with mock severity, "that's sheer 
 impudence on your part. W^e're going to have none of that, so you may 
 just as well understand it first as last. No back answers, if you please." 
 
 " It's a licker to me," said the Lost Property man, " how in the woi'ld 
 a mother that calls herself a mother can have the 'eart to go and leave 
 her baby like this. It's against human nature ; it's against common 
 feeling ; it's against the law." 
 
 " I daresay," interrupted the manageress, " she had some good reason, 
 if the truth was known." The baby, being held up, rubbed its soft, 
 plump cheek against the manageress's face and cooed insinuatingly. " At 
 any rate," — her eyes softened, but she still spoke crossly, — " it's not for 
 you to cast the stone." 
 
 "Nothing further from my thoughts, ma'am. I've got a kind 'eart 
 under a rough exterior, 'aven't I, William ? " 
 
 William, standing well back in the dusk, hesitated to pledge his word 
 on this point, and suggested that it was a matter of which the Lost 
 Property man himself knew most. 
 
 "You must understand, ma'am," said that o£Bcial, left to provide his 
 own defence, " that this isn't the first case of the kind that I've come 
 across. When I were on the South-Western — -" 
 
 "What's your name, you dear little thing?" inquired the matronly 
 lady. " Where d'you come from ? Is there anything in the basket to 
 show ? " 
 
 " There's no label on the basket," — disappointed at being stopped in his 
 reminiscences, — " and, so far as I can see, there's nothing inside the 
 basket to give any clue. There never is. I could show you entries in 
 that book on the desk over there that'd astonish you. I rememljer once 
 when I was clearing up for our annual sale one of our men came up to 
 me, and he said, ' Guess what's inside this long box ? ' " 
 
 ("Eyes see 'em," lectured the manageress to the baby, "nose smell 
 'em, mouth eat 'em.") 
 
 " So I says, 'Oh, I don't know,' I says (just like that) ; and he says, 
 'Why, it's a bloomin' mummy, come straight from Egypt very like.' 
 And sure enough it was too. We sold him with two umbrellas and 
 German dictionary, and the whole lot only fetched about twelve and sis." 
 
 " Who takes charge of a baby left like this ? " 
 
 " Police ! " The white terrier gi-owled. 
 
 " Police? " echoed the lady, with great indignation. " Why, you — you 
 
8 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 dreadful man, you, do, you meau to tell me you're going to have the sweet 
 little thing locked up for travelling without a ticket ? " 
 
 " You do no good by callin' me names, ma'am. I can look facts in the 
 face as well aa any one. This baby is a human being." 
 
 " Fancy that! " said the manageress ironically. " Miss Lincoln," she 
 added, addressing the indolent girl who had returned, " we must be sure 
 to bear that in mind. A human being I " 
 
 " Left by its parent or parents without visible means of subsistence. 
 Therefore it becomes chargeable to the parish in which it was found, and 
 what the police will do is to hand it over to the proper authorities. 
 There 1 " said the Lost Property man emphatically, " now I've given you 
 the law on the subject, « William, fetch in a City constable." 
 
 "You'll do nothing of the kind," said the lady. "Not to-night, 
 anyhow." 
 
 " P'r'aps you'll kindly tell me what I am goin" to do, then ? " 
 
 " You're going to let us look after the dear baby. In the morning you 
 can see the Station Superintendent, and then something can be done ; 
 but for to-night — " 
 
 " 1 know what my place is worth," said the man doggedly, " and I'm 
 not going to do nothin' to risk it. I got into trouble once over a hat 
 box." 
 
 "I'm not sm-prised," retorted the lady. "A man like you would get 
 into trouble over anything." 
 
 " And I'm not going to be talked over, ma'am. You might do it with 
 some on this station, but — " 
 
 " So you're going to turn the dear little thing out on a chilly night like 
 this to catch its death of cold ! Very well," said the manageress 
 resignedly, " go on, then I If you must be a murderer, I suppose you 
 must." 
 
 " You put the case very 'arsh," said the other uneasily. 
 
 "Goon!" urged the lady. "If it's your duty to endanger innocent 
 little lives that liave never done a ha'porth of harm, why, do it by all 
 means." 
 
 " There's just this advantage about your suggestion, ma'am," admitted 
 the Lost Property official, " and that is that if you like to take the 
 responserability on of my shoulders, I shall be able to catch my train 
 and do justice to the hot beef-steak puddin' that will otherwise become icy 
 cold." 
 
 " You can catch forty trains," said the lady generously, " and you can 
 eat forty steak puddings, but to-night I'm going to take charge of the dear 
 baby. Ain't I, you little sweet, you ? " 
 
 " So be it," said the man, with resignation. " William, you're witness 
 to the fact that this is a matter I wash my hands of." 
 
 " Not before they wanted it, I daresay," said the manageress. "Come 
 along, duoksie ! Miss Lincoln, do wake up and wrap the shawl well round 
 its little head. Not a very good shawl, but it will just do." 
 
 William opened the door politely, the women vrith the bundle picked 
 their way. 
 
 " You'll excuse me, ma'am," said the Lost Property official apologetically 
 as he turned down the gas, "if what I've said has seemed at all — well, 
 you know — but I'ules is rules, regulations is regulations, orders is orders." 
 
 " And men," retorted the lady mystically, " men are men. Good- 
 night I " 
 
 The official, his overcoat collar turned up, locked the door behind him 
 and walked across with William to the barrier of a platform, where a 
 silk-hatted ticket collector announced that the much-desired train was 
 
LOST PROPERTY 9 
 
 on the point of arriving. They watched the two women as the others came 
 forward from the refreshment room to announce that all was ready. 
 
 " I've never," he said solemnly to the porter, " never in all my born 
 days had a argument with a woman but what I've come off second 
 best." 
 
 Notice the genuine interest excited by the presence of Number 6534. 
 In the rooms over the refreshment bar (now closed and darkened for the 
 night) the young ladies had the rarest games in looking after their small 
 charge ; old disputes were forgotten, new grievances put aside, ambitions 
 silenced. (Miss Parker, who read Bow Bells, had vague dreams of marrying 
 an artist, not at present selected, and of living at Neasden ; whilst Miss 
 Lincoln, whose life had not been without incident, allowed her mind to go 
 forward more lazily. Miss Lincoln's Christian name was Elizabeth, but 
 she always gave it to inquisitive customers as Isobel.) The ladies having 
 constituted themselves relatives of the now sleeping baby. Aunt Barnett 
 and Aunt Parker contested in their desire to execute the orders of the mana- 
 geress, who for her part might have been directing the conduct of a whole 
 colony of infants, to judge from her attitude of importance. Knowing 
 them only as attendants at the bar below, with speech of acquired 
 refinement and the air of enduring a life of monotonous luxury, one would 
 not have recognized these young women as they went about softly, 
 anticipating the wants of the happy mite on the manageress's bed. By 
 orders issued, it was arranged that Aunt Parker, armed with a bottle of 
 warm milk, should keep a sleepless eye on the baby from twelve tiU two ; 
 that Aunt Barnett, similarly equipped, should thereupon take charge ; to 
 be relieved of duty by Aunt Lincoln, who had gone to sleep with a guarded 
 promise to wake at four, if possible. 
 
 " At which hour," said the manageress authoritatively, " Z shall bo up 
 and about, if not earlier, and Heaven grant that all will be well. But wake 
 me, girls, if there's the least necessity." 
 
 In after years, when Miss Barnett had grown older in the service — but 
 of course looked younger — -they always spoke of this as the happiest time 
 of their li\-es. Each as she took charge and watched the sleeping baby 
 thought out elaborate romances to account for its presence ; romances 
 which were checked by occasional sight of the cheap and worn clothing in 
 the hamper. But for this circumstance, a suggestion of Miss Barnett's 
 (who artfully refrained from waking her relief), that the infant was of 
 noble blood, would have been received by her colleagues with less of 
 incredulity. 
 
 At an early hour, when boys were folding morning papers furiously, 
 the lad who scrubbed out the refreshment rooms was despatched to the 
 half-open bookstall to borrow a volume of some kind on the rearing of 
 children, because Lost Property Number 6534 had sneezed twice ; 
 returning with a book on poultry management, as the nearest approach to 
 the desired volume that could be obtained, he found himself denounced as 
 a thoughtless loon and no gentleman. Later, the stress of traffic was so 
 great (without being unusual) that official attention could not be paid 
 immediately to the affair of Number 6534. Trains arrived from the 
 suburbs, slipping in directly that room was made for them, and from each 
 before it stopped poured black crowds of silk-hatted men, who filtered 
 swiftly through the corridors of the station out into the City. Not until 
 the hour of half-past ten, when the attack on the City showed signs of 
 weakening, did William find himself able to sit down in the porters' room, 
 to square his shoulders and prepare to compile his report. Twenty 
 minutes later the document which formed the basis of 6534's dossier was 
 finished. 
 
10 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 " Sib, — I beg respectfully to inform you that last night I Trere on duty 
 on Number Nino Platform and I notised in an empty third a basket or 
 hamper or pkgo. I called the attention of the Inspector to the fact, and 
 ho said, Take it to the L.P.O. I done this, and there it were found to 
 contain a Child. I beg to state this is all I know of the matter. — Thank- 
 ing you for past favours, I am, sir, yours obedtly, 
 
 " William Neat, Porter." 
 
 This document being formally handed in at the Station Superintendent's 
 oflSce, action commenced. A juvenile clerk whistled as he registered the 
 report and made an extremely satirical remark about women and their 
 ways ; the Station Superintendent, finding the memorandum on his desk, 
 pressed two bells and spoke through a speaking-tube sharply. In two 
 minutes the office contained all the useful witnesses ; in another minute 
 they received the addition of a tall City Constable. 
 
 " I don't care what you say," declared the Superintendent definitely, 
 " the youngster ought to have been handed over last night." 
 
 "When I were on the South — " 
 
 " You may talk," interrupted the Station Superintendent, " until you're 
 black in the face, but you can't alter facts. You'd no business to run any 
 risk. All you'd got to do was to call in a City policeman — isn't that so, 
 constable ? " 
 
 City Constable, speaking from his height in a slow, judicial way, gave 
 it as his opinion that the Station Superintendent was undoubtedly correct. 
 How were the force, argued City Constable's bass voice, how were the 
 force to hunt up clues if they were kept in a state of ignorance for jolly 
 near twelve hours ? 
 
 "Exactly my argument," declared the Station Superintendent. " It's a 
 kind of a gift that some of you men have of always doing the left-handed 
 thing." 
 
 " Where I was wrong," urged the Lost Property ofiBcial, with respect, 
 " was in allowing myself to be talked over. That's what comes of having 
 a soft 'eart." 
 
 " It's what comes of having a soft head," retorted the Station Super- 
 intendent hotly. " 'Pon my word, if some of you men aren't enough to 
 make a saint lose his temper. Fetch the baby, someone." 
 
 The Lost Property man, anxious to retrieve his character, started for 
 the refreshment room, but found himself anticipated by William, who 
 returned with a bundle carried aw-kwardly. The Station Superintendent, 
 fixing his pince-nez, scanned the baby's face carefully, as though it were a 
 new time-table. A fat little hand made its way out of the shawl and 
 pulled the cord of the pince-nez. 
 
 " Fine little chap, sir," submitted the Lost Property man. 
 
 " You'll take him to the workhouse, constable, of course ? " 
 
 To the workhouse (said City Constable) soon as possible. 
 
 " Won't handcuff him, I suppose ? " 
 
 City Constable, with a glimmer of a smile, as a man not used to this 
 relaxation, remarked that no doubt he would go quiet. If the worst came 
 to the worst, there was always the frog's march. 
 
 "Now tell me," said the Station Superintendent, giving up his pince-nez 
 to the chuckling baby, " what name will they give him at the workhouse ? " 
 
 " When I were on the South Western," said the Lost Property official, 
 " there was a sim'lar — " 
 
 City Constable replied that this was a matter not, strictly speaking, in 
 his department, but he assumed that almost any name would be good 
 enough- Had the Superintendent any suggestion to make ? 
 
LOST PROPERTY 11 
 
 " Why not give him the nainc of the station where he was found ? " 
 
 City Constable declared this to be a most excellent idea and one which, 
 assuming that the job of going toHomerton were entrusted to him, should 
 certainly be submitted there to the consideration of the matron. On the 
 Station Superintendent saying that he supposed the police would find out 
 to whom the baby belonged, the constable replied that this didn't follow. 
 Except in books. 
 
 "Good-bye, little chap," said the Station Superintendent, taking the 
 pince-nez gently from the baby's finger. "Be a goo5 boy, and if they 
 don't find your mother take care to grow up strong and hearty. Why, 
 bless my soul, he might become an admiral or a Disraeli, or even a station- 
 master some day. Carry him gently, constable, and let's know how he 
 goes on. Here's something for yourself." 
 
 The manageress of the refreshment rooms, out on the square with no 
 hat, watched the constable as he strode off through the carriage way, the 
 shawled bundle in his arms. She found her handkerchief and with it 
 patted her eyes. The Lost Property man winked at William, remarking 
 that this was just like a woman, ready to cry for the leastest thing, 
 especially when it did not concern her. As the manageress turned to go 
 back to her duties, the Lost Property man touched his cap and spoke. 
 
 " Well, ma'am," he said, " that little affair's over." The manageress 
 did not reply, and he repeated the observation. "I say, ma'am," he 
 remarked, raising his voice, "that little affair's over." 
 
 The lady held in her hand a twisted, crumpled copy of that week's 
 Upper Ten, which she now straightened out with great care and par- 
 ticularity, sniffing a little as she did so. The Lost Property man coughed 
 and once more repeated his remark. 
 
 " Over ? " repeated the manageress distantly. " I don't understand." 
 
 " What I mean to say is, we've got rid now of responserability of the 
 little chap." 
 
 "Chap ? " 
 
 " This baby boy, I mean, that we found last night and you kindly looked 
 after." 
 
 " You never left any boy with me last night, my good man." 
 
 "I say," protested the good man, with concern, " don't go playin' any 
 half larks. I've got the entry in my books. The constable's only just — " 
 
 " You poor man," said the manageress pityingly, as she prepared to go 
 through the swing doors, " you poor silly man ! That wasn't a boy : that 
 was a dear little baby girl." 
 
 " Lor' bless my soul ! " exclaimed the Lost Property man. 
 
 " He won't," returned the lady tartly, " if you don't use common 
 sense." 
 
 CHAPTER n 
 
 THE amused and slightly astonished attitude that Number 6534 had 
 presented to the world at the railway station vanished presently, 
 and gave way to loud-voiced alarm and distrust. The City Constable 
 (himself something of a family man not unused to the management of 
 infants) had carried her dexterously, the while long bachelor colleagues 
 directing traffic in the centre of the busy roadway had rallied him upon bis 
 
12 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 capture. The brief jouruey safely accomplished, and 6534 taken up the 
 steps of the building, she no sooner gazed open-eyed at the white lamp 
 bearing the words Police Station than she commenced to wail aloud. 
 
 " 'Ush, 'ush I " said the constable soothingly. "Thought you was going 
 to be a good lil' thing ! Look at the pretty helmets." 
 
 Sight of helmets banging on nails only increased the baby's anguish. 
 There were no tears, but perturbation of mind was made evident. The 
 sergeant on duty having made an oflScial inspection counselled a bottle as 
 remedy, but constable with respect submitted that the manageress at the 
 station had assured him that the baby had just had a second breakfast, 
 and he declined (still with deference) to be a party to over-feeding. On 
 this there ensued some dispute, and constables off duty in their flannel 
 shirt-sleeves, interrupted in the act of shaving, came up to add to the 
 difficulty by offering advice. The sergeant had just rcinarked that the 
 sooner the baby was fetched the better for all parties concerned, when the 
 problem found itself temporarily solved by arrival of a depressed 
 whining goat which had been found loitering under Buspiciouseircumstances 
 outside Mansion House Station. 
 
 " We're makin' some important finds this morning," remarked the ser- 
 geant satiricaUy. " Some of us will be getting our names in the papers 
 soon." 
 
 To the satisfaction of all, it soon became evident that the two new 
 arrivals were able to comfort each other. The goat cheered up a good 
 deal on seeing the baby, and, trotting over to her, tickled her plump little 
 hand with his beard, whereupon the baby tried to pull it, and, forgetting 
 her grievances, cooed brightly. The two seemed to understand that they 
 were companions in distress, and discovery by each that it had not the 
 monopoly of unhappiness evidently encouraged a good deal. Thus it was 
 that when a plump young woman (who proved to be the daughter of the 
 female searcher, in nurse's dress and fortuitously spending holiday at 
 home) hurried in an hour later, the baby complained as urgently at having 
 to leave the police station as she had done on being brought there. 
 
 "Enough to upset anyone to see such a lot of plain faces about her," 
 said the young woman, adjusting the wraps. 
 
 " She'll find some types of English beauty where she's going to," 
 retorted one of the constables. " 'Omerton, the 'ome for the 'andsome." 
 
 " Come along, my dear little precious. I'll look after you all right." 
 
 " Speaking to me, Miss "Watson ? " 
 
 " You" said the young woman scornfully, "I'd be sorry to have to 
 look after you.' 
 
 " You'd jump at me if you had the chance." 
 
 "I'd jump on you," corrected Nurse Watson. " Now over its lil' facey- 
 facey. That's right ! We shall soon be away from these nasty, horrid 
 men, dearie, and then we shan't have anything at all to worry about." 
 
 The men, including those off duty, who were standing around laughed 
 ironically at this, and had scarce concluded when the nurse, who had run 
 off to say good-bye to her mother, announced herself ready to depart. 
 The baby's hand being rediscovered, it was allowed to pat the head of the 
 goat (now almost himself again, and prepared to butt anybody who came 
 within his reach), he very graciously permitting this farewell, pulling at the 
 string which held him in order to accompany the nurse as far as possible. 
 
 " All right for the first Sunday in November, I s'pose," cried one of the 
 constables as the plump nurse carried her charge down the stone steps. 
 " What time shall we come to tea? " 
 
 " Don't come down," begged the nurse, " unless it's the Fifth. We 
 shan't know what to do with you any other time." 
 
LOST PEOPERTY 18 
 
 It appeared that a walk, a train, and a 'bus would be necessary. The 
 baby held in Nurse Watson's arms slept contentedly, exciting, without 
 knowing it, interest from the rare and infrequent ladies in the City ; men 
 were in too great a hurry to find lunch and swallow it, to take notice of 
 anything not eatable. Nurse, going very carefully near the Bank and 
 crossing the confusing junction of streets, turned out of Cornhill into a 
 quieter asphalted space with tubs of laurels and a seated statue of what 
 one would guess to oe a gentleman of colour, only that all London statues 
 have this appearance. Here the quiet was but comparative, for bare- 
 headed young men caiTying pocket-books ran about with an anxious, 
 hunting air, meeting each other occasionally, exchanging mysterious con- 
 fidences, and making a note of them on the spot. Nurse Watson had 
 stopped near the black statue to rest a moment and shift the position of 
 her load — 
 
 " She's a heavy girl," said nurse to the sleeping baby with affectionate 
 reproach, " that's what she is," — when a brougham with a stolid coach- 
 man pulled its way in between the Old Ford 'buses, to the great and 
 unconcealed annoyance of the drivers, and from it stepped a lady in 
 befurred velvet cloak, and gowned and bonneted in a manner that seemed 
 to murmur, "Bue de la Paix." She was not old; she might be called of 
 a young middle-age. Without carrying good looks to the point of 
 exasperation she was pleasant to look upon, and City men put the brake 
 on their hurry for a moment to glance in her direction. 
 
 " Mistress I " 
 
 " Why, how do you do, Watson I I thought in this dreadful place I 
 should not meet a sool I knew. I wonder how on earth one is to find 
 Bartholomew Lane." 
 
 " What is the gentleman like, ma'am ?" asked Nurse Watson respect- 
 fully. 
 
 " It is not a man," said the lady irritably, " it's a place. What are you 
 carrying, Watson ? " 
 
 "Only a baby, ma'am. Mr. Maiden quite well, if it isn't a rude 
 question ? " 
 
 " Mr. Maiden," she said hghtly, " is always well. Who is the father, 
 Watson, of your little one? " 
 
 " I scarcely know, ma'am." 
 
 "Watson! " 
 
 " You don't quite understand, ma'am. After I left you I went as 
 housemaid in Gordon Square, and Bloomsbury mskde me tired of service, 
 so I decided to go to the workhouse — " 
 
 " My good Watson I Why didn't you come back to Regent's Park ? " 
 
 " — As nurse, ma'am, at twenty-five pounds a year and me meals. And 
 I'm now taking this dear little mite to our place, because it's been left 
 with no one to look after it." 
 
 " Let me look," commanded Mrs. Maiden. The face of the sleeping 
 infant was disclosed. " Rather pale, isn't it? " 
 
 " We'll remedy that," said Nurse Watson confidently. " You ought to 
 oome and see our set, ma'am, when you can spare time. Having no 
 children of your own — " 
 
 " You know what a busy woman I am, Watson. Just now I'm up to 
 my eyes in financial matters." 
 
 "Yes 'm?" 
 
 " Mr. Maiden and I have argued it out, and he admits that my really 
 strong point is finance. Of course I know that stupid women are taken 
 in when they commence to dabble in money matters ; bat whatever my 
 faults may be, I'm not a stupid woman, Watson." 
 
14 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 " S'pose not, ma'am," said the other doubtfully. 
 
 " I threshed the mattei- out thoroughly with Mr. Maiden the other night 
 after dinner, and he was obliged to confess that I am quite right in giving 
 up art." 
 
 " Your last hobby was a florist shop, ma'am, when I was with you." 
 
 " That was a long time ago," said Mrs. Maiden, allowing the sleeping 
 baby to hold her gloved finger. " I was swindled by that Irish widow. 
 Afterwards I went in for painting." 
 
 " For fun, ma'am ? " 
 
 " IHin ?" echoed Mrs. Maiden indignantly. "Certainly not! I did 
 work something in Mr. Rossetti's manner but not exactly in Mr. Rossetti's 
 manner, because I don't believe in plagiarism ; and I sent them in to the 
 various shows, but," — here Mrs. Maiden sighed, — " it is no easy task for 
 a woman with money to get herself taken seriously. There's a ring in all 
 these matters." 
 
 " Is cook married, ma'am ? " 
 
 "I forget," said Mrs. Maiden, glancing at her watch. " She is either 
 married or unmarried, I am not sure which. Good gracious ! I had no 
 idea it was so late!" 
 
 "I must be getting on too, ma'am," said Nurse Watson, adjusting the 
 baby in her arms. 
 
 " The fact remains," remarked the lady helplessly, " that I'm no nearer 
 Bartholomew Lane than ever I was." 
 
 Nurse Watson caught one of the bareheaded young men and he gave 
 the required direction. 
 
 "What a head you have, Watson," said Mrs. Maiden enviously. "I 
 wish I had your powers of concentration. Call and see the other servants 
 any time you are passing. Good-bye, you queer httle soul." Mrs. 
 Maiden lifted her violet veil and kissed the small face. " I wonder what 
 will become of her'? " 
 
 " All according to luck, ma'am," said nurse. " Good-bye, ma'am, 
 good-bye. Some of 'em get adopted." 
 
 Nurse Watson hurried off, brightened by the meeting, and Mrs. Maiden 
 looked after her for a moment before returning to her brougham, where 
 the wooden-faced coachman had become quite inured to the badinage of 
 the 'bus men. 
 
 "Adopted," echoed Mrs. Maiden curiously, as one pinning a word into 
 her memory, " adopted." 
 
 Around the Homerton buildings, when nurse and the baby girl, after a 
 railway journey, arrived, floated a vague scent of cooking. A long high 
 wall ran along the street side, and, when one had decided that the wall 
 would never finish, a break did occur, and there was a round-eyed brass 
 circle with a big bell-pull in the centre. Nurse Watson rang, and a 
 peaked capped face peered through the barred peephole in the doorway, 
 and saying, " What ho ! " unlocked the door and let her in. The porter, 
 about to speak, found himself pushed aside by the porteress, who, on 
 being furnished with the facts by Nurse Watson, at once accompanied 
 her down the lane inside the walls (covered here with ivy) and conducted 
 the way to the matron, a stately lady, with a bunch of keys so numerous 
 that they might well have unlocked every cupboard in the world, who 
 looked narrowly at the sleeping baby, inspected the admission order which 
 Nurse Watson had brought, and, finding no argument against reception 
 of the child, despatched a polite old gentleman in corduroys to find the 
 master. Then the master arriving, with a North Country accent that was 
 pleasant to hear. Number f^'SS-i, late of the Lost Property oflice, became a 
 fre^h entity, being recorded iu the Admission and Discharge Book as 
 
LOST PKOPERTY 15 
 
 "Female Child Nameless;" entered also in the Creed Book, where, as 
 she had at present expressed no theological views with any distinctness, 
 she was written down as belonging to the Church of England. 
 
 "Who shall be her mother, nurse?" The baby opened one white- 
 lidded eye as though detecting here a matter of personal interest, and 
 Nurse Watson swung her gently. 
 
 " I suppose Annie Eamsden will be the best, ma'am." 
 
 '•Annie Eamsden," repeated the matron severely, "is not manitv.!." 
 
 " But she's had — " 
 
 " I know, I know, I know," interrupted the matron. " More blame to 
 her. This little person will go to Lucy Tilner." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Nurse Watson. 
 
 " See that Lucy Tilner has a large bed, and tell her to take every care 
 of the dear." 
 
 " I'll tell her what you say," remarked Nurse Watson, doubtfully. 
 
 Lucy Tilner, found in the large room enjoying with a hundred other 
 women (mostly old, and all in white caps, short red plaid shawls, and 
 striped print dresses) a cup of tea after midday dinner, seemed to take 
 melancholy pleasure in finding a grievance that had novelty. They 
 grumbled intermittently, these women, and much practice of di'ooping the 
 under lip had made them look as though they did nothing else. Upstairs 
 in the nursery, Female Child Nameless found herself, on opening her eyes 
 definitely, one of a small set of babies numbering, as she would have 
 known had she been able to count, six in all. At one end of the room 
 stood small cots on stilts for the occasional daytime dozes to which infants 
 are inclined. The room contained also two large tables for meals. Near 
 the protected fireplace a Noah's ark, with so many of the animals imperfect 
 that it appeared to have been wrecked before reaching Mount Ararat. A 
 wooden horse with about half a head leaned against the fireguard tiying to 
 think. On the walls coloured pictures of the Prince and Princess of Wales 
 as they had appeared at their wedding, of cats and children, and a grocer's 
 almanac presenting the face of a well-known society lady vrith devotional 
 aspect. The babies, clean and well fed, seated at table, were in striped 
 print of the style that grown-up women wore. They too showed interest 
 in the new arrival ; some cheerfully, some with a gloomy air, as though 
 resenting the inroads of competition. 
 
 " Now I've got to slave meself to a skileton, I s'pose," said Lucy 
 Tilner, truculently, " watching after tJiat. Pity people don't look to their 
 own children." 
 
 " For the matter of that," retorted Nui-se Watson, " it's a pity anybody 
 comes to a place like this." 
 
 " We don't all get paid to do it." 
 
 " Well, upon my word!" cried the nurse indignantly; "what next, I 
 wonder ! You come here and live and boai'd and sleep at the expense of the 
 ratepayers, and now you grumble because you aren't allowed a handsome 
 weekly salary. Hold that dear baby properly." 
 
 " Seems a bright little thing," remarked one of the younger mothers. 
 " Tommy, stroke the baby girl's face." 
 
 Female Child Nameless found her small self admitted to the society 
 atforJed by the nursery without delay. Because she was the youngest of 
 all, the title of " Baby " became hers, previous owner of the title receiving 
 a Christian name, and swelling with pride at this unexpected promotion. 
 The women in the nursery held long, long debates on the hardships of 
 women in this world as compared with the life of selfish pleasure led by 
 men ; debates to which the infants listened open-eyed, as who should say, 
 aatirically, " Well, this is a nice sort of world we've been born into I " 
 
16 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 until, tiring of the sound of women's voices, they dozed. The women, too, 
 had warlike quarrels sometimes, using then in argument certain facts 
 which had been confided to them by opposition parties in time of peace ; 
 and the unmarried mother who had had but two children waxed very con- 
 temptuous at the expense of her similar who had three ; one woman 
 who had relatives in the retail coal trade became almost hysterical 
 ill directing sarcasm against those who could claim kindred only 
 with riverside labomers. All enjoyed these contentions of words, for 
 monotony by this means found itself relieved ; the subsequent apologies 
 and personal explanations would have done credit to the House of 
 Commons, leaving everybody as they did in a perfect glow of dignified 
 content. The behaviour of baby was excellent. When, a week later, the 
 task of finding a name for the new arrival had to be undertaken by the 
 sub-committee of guardians, she had become popular in the nursery by 
 reason of the fact that she cried only as reminder that meal times had 
 arrived. 
 
 The important duty came late on the agenda paper, after the sub- 
 committee had decided how to treat an inmate on the male side with a 
 weakness for tearing up his clothes, some on the female side who had 
 shown acute signs of insubordination, and others who had outstayed leave 
 granted to them. 
 
 " One more small affau-, gentlemen," said the master at his big ledger, 
 with respect. " Sorry to trouble you, but there's that female child found 
 at a railway station in the City." 
 
 " Something," said the chairman wisely, " something ve-ry wrong in the 
 state of society at large when an infant is allowed — " 
 
 " We ought to christen her next Sunday," interrupted the master, as 
 polite suggestion for brevity. 
 
 " Here are mothers going about wholesale," went on the chairman in 
 his high-backed chair, shaking a paper-knife threateningly at the other 
 guardians, " leaving goodness knows how many children — " 
 
 " After all," said a mild young guardian, hesitatingly, " it's better to 
 leave them in railway trains than to — Only the second this year, I 
 beheve ? " 
 
 "Only the second," agreed the master. " Question is, what are we to 
 caliber?" 
 
 "Is there," asked the young guardian, "is there any objection to the 
 name of- — er — Agatha? " and blushed. 
 
 " Good gracious I " cried one of the elders, explosively. " What on 
 earth do you want to burden a girl with a name like that for ? Agatha, 
 indeed? " 
 
 " Something," said the chairman, " will certainly have to be done to put 
 a stop to this persistent — this continual — this deplorable — " 
 
 " As regards the surname," said the master, " it is suggested to me, in 
 view of the station where the infant was found, that Cannon wouldn't be 
 bad." The sub-committee considered the suggestion in silence for half a 
 minute ; a scarlet-faced guardian became purple with a suppressed joke. 
 The sub-committee, finding no objection to the surname of Cannon, nodded 
 agreement. " And as concerns a Christian name, gentlemen, why, what 
 do you say to Margaret? " 
 
 " You prefer it to — er — Agatha? " asked the young guardian, shyly. 
 
 " Important subject," said the chairman, " for us to consider is how in 
 the future we are to prevent these — " 
 
 " I say I " remarked the purple-faced guai'diau apologetically, "I say I 
 girl with a name like Cannon ought to go oS well when she's grown up." 
 He wept tears of amuseonent. 
 
LOST PEOPERTY 17 
 
 " Margaret," said the explosive member, " is a good, straightfonvarrl, 
 honest name. My second wife's name was Margaret. I vote for Mar- 
 garet." 
 
 And as the others assented — the young guardian alone abstaining from 
 giving a vote — the name was agreed upon. The entry from the Admission 
 and Discharge Book, " Nameless Female Child," had thereupon to be 
 deleted and the name " Margaret Cannon " inserted in its place. 
 
 See now the old parish church on the following Sunday afternoon. See 
 infants and their mothers and rather nervous godfathers and godmothers 
 at the porch and on the pavement resting against the leaning tombstones : 
 Sacred to the memory of So-and-So, who died on a date in 1792, aged 64. 
 Erected by his sorrowing parents. See the baby from the Union in the 
 arms of Nurse Watson (who by strategy and device has ousted Lucy Tilner 
 and obtained the duty) approaching from the gate with the master and the 
 matron in their best clothes ; baby enveloped in a pelisse which did duty 
 for the matron's family in the sixties, and has been kept in a camphor- 
 scented chest of drawers since its retirement from active work ; baby with 
 a veil, bought by Nurse Watson, over her little face (now rounder and 
 healthier for her stay in the nursen,') and a robe that wanders down in 
 the reckless manner of a debutante s Drawing-Eoom dress in the illustrated 
 papers. Behold the condescending interest shown by mothers in Nurse 
 Watson's charge, and listen to their whispered comments, which the 
 excellent Watson overhears, and being not altogether an amateur in the 
 sport of repartee, sends stinging darts in their direction, causing mothers 
 to change their attitude for one of extreme amiability. See hats touched 
 to the master (by way of being a personage of importance in the neighbour- 
 hood and one with whom it were wise to keep on friendly terms, in that 
 the future had its secrets and you never knew your luck) . See the respect 
 shown to the matron by those who recognize her out of the accustomed 
 lace cap and into a marvellous bonnet, in regard to which the general 
 opinion seems to be that it can have left but precious little change out of a 
 sovereign. See the sun piercing the grey clouds in a determined manner, 
 as though to hint that with twenty youngsters taking their titles it was no 
 time to be in hiding, and that, clouds or no clouds, it was going to see that 
 at this important era in their young lives they had brightness. Observe 
 unruly youngsters who, brought to see the newest baby christened, are 
 already at an end of their small stock of decorum, and organizing an 
 elaborate steeplechase meeting over graves, once round the church counting 
 as a lap ; sport rudely interfered with by male parents, who, urged to 
 action by a frown from the long-gowned verger at the porch, and being 
 specially anxious that the spiritual welfare of the newest babies shall not 
 be imperilled by any untoward act on the part of the rest of the family, 
 catch the sportsmen by the collar of Sunday jackets and eject them from 
 the churchyard with force and contumely, the expelled ones peering after- 
 wards through the railings and saying defiantly, — 
 
 " Yah ! Who wants to come to yer silly old christenin' ? ' 
 Movement at the porch, and a slow, reverential entrance into church ; 
 in the cool, still building a swift removal of hats and, with creaking boots, 
 a march towards the font ; bearded, spectacled clergyman near the font, 
 severe verger acting as sergeant instructor and marshaUing the new recruits 
 and their parents in proper semicircular form. 
 " Dearly beloved, for.ismuch as all men — " 
 
 Nurse Watson is in the first detachment (not being of those who permit 
 themselves to be pushed aside), and on the small face of her charge twitch- 
 ing, as signal that she is about to scream. Nurse Watson soothes her and 
 whispers, " It's all right, dearie ; soon be over. Don't you worry, my pet; 
 
18 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 I'll see they don't hurt you," and the baby, agreeing, leaves the whole 
 concern in her hands. 
 
 " — In the name of these children renounce the devil and all his works, 
 the vain pomp — " 
 
 " I renounce them all." 
 
 Master and matron make this reply, joining confidently in the chorus. 
 The chorus as a whole gains assurance as the service proceeds, some of 
 the members commencing their responses before they receive their cues, 
 causing the verger to frown himself out of all recognition. Nurse Watson 
 in her turn puts back the woollen veil and dances the baby gently and 
 solemnly ; the master steps forward ; the clergyman takes the wbite bundle 
 from Nurse Watson's arms. 
 
 " Name this child ! " 
 
 " Margaret." 
 
 " Margaret, I baptize thee in the name of the — " 
 
 The clerg)-man, bending down to kiss her in kindly recognition of the 
 fact that her lot is exceptional, is rewarded by a tug of the beard. 
 Margaret's hand has to be tapped reprovingly in order to induce her to 
 relax her hold. 
 
 " God bless you, little girl." The clergyman whispers this benison and 
 goes on to the next. Finally the general exhortations. 
 
 " Ye are to take care that those children are brought to the bishop — " 
 
 Out of the quiet church into the now blazing sunlight, whore babes, 
 having repressed conversation with difficulty, made up for lost time by 
 shouting to the skies. General congratulations at the ceremony being 
 safely over ; discovery by men of half-finished cigars ; hopeful desires of 
 tea by the women. One or two offer felicitations to Nurse Watson. 
 
 " Yours was a good little gal, miss." 
 
 "Course she was," says Nurse Watson, looking at her proudly. " You's 
 going to be a good lil' gal always, ain't you, dear? " 
 
 Margaret Cannon winked her little eyes. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 WHEN the Board gave up attempts to discover those responsible for the 
 presence of the small inmate, the next step was taken by placing 
 in the columns of a severe Church paper an advertisement. To this came 
 answers of various kinds, some from careless readers who had overlooked 
 the particulars of age and begged to be informed whether the girl could 
 cook well, High Church or Low Church, fond of children, capable of help- 
 ing a young lady of eight with the violin. Others sent advice to the 
 matron, and a cheerful old maid at Festiniog, North Wales, forwarded a 
 pamphlet that had reference to a lethal chamber. A few people called. 
 One, a mellowed lady, objected to the baby because it had brown eyes and 
 she desired one with pale blue. 
 
 " To match her furniture, I s'pose," said Nurse Watson, not displeased 
 to see the visitor go without taking her little protegee. 
 
 Another found it just three and a half months too young ; yet another 
 appeared so much disappointed at finding that the little maid had, when 
 found, no precious locket marked vnth a coronet that she said harsh things 
 concerning the Poor Law System generally. Finally, on the last day of 
 
LOST PROPERTY 19 
 
 the week following the appearance of the advertisement came, in her 
 brougham from town, Mrs. Maiden — Mrs. Maiden walking majestically 
 round by the circled space in front of the main entrance, wearing a set of 
 furs that caused intense excitement on the female side of the building. 
 The windows of the sitting-room became white with caps struggling to get 
 an accurate view. 
 
 " I desire to see," stud Mrs. Maiden, panting slightly after her walk 
 from the gates, " the matron." The polite old gentleman shuffled from 
 the fireplace. " I desire also to see Nurse Watson. I have happened to 
 see an advertisement in some preposterous paper, and — " Mrs. Maiden 
 found herself talking to the mailed warrior in the hall. 
 
 " Madam," said the matron, appearing with a chink of keys, 
 "I have already explained the reason of my call," remarked lilrs. Maiden 
 irritably. " Be kind enough to produce the chUd." 
 
 The matron, seeing that she had to deal with one of imperious manners, 
 conducted the lady to the drawing-room and expressed a guarded opinion 
 about the weather. 
 
 " I don't agree with you, "said Mrs. Maiden shortly. "My husband is 
 coming here. Kindly see that he is received." 
 " Not as an inmate, madam ? " 
 
 " Not as an inmate," agreed Mrs. Maiden. " He is out there now trying 
 to find the way." She tapped at the window. Mr. Maiden, a shy man 
 with a startled air and apologetic manner, obeyed her pantomimic instruc- 
 tions, and a minute later appeared in the room. " My dear," said Mrs. 
 Maiden definitely, "pull yourself together. I shall want your advice here ; 
 the best advice you can give me." 
 
 " By all means, my love," said Mr. Maiden. He bowed nervously to 
 the matron and glanced with some anxiety at his wife. 
 
 " Mr. Maiden," declared the lady, in a showman style, " is not perhaps 
 the shrewdest man to be found in the entire town of London, but he is 
 always willing to admit when he is wrong. Whatever successes I may have 
 made in life have been made after cool and deliberate discussion with Mr. 
 Maiden." 
 
 " My sweet! " 
 
 "I am saying nothing new," said Mrs. Maiden firmly. " I am simply 
 repeating what I have said before on many occasions. When recently I 
 found that I was being swindled by these so-called financiers I rang for Mr. 
 Maiden and I put the question to him plainly. ' Mr. Maiden,' I said, 
 ' what do you advise ? ' He thought for a moment and then said, ' Why 
 not go on until you win ? ' " 
 
 The matron, endeavouring to sustain a look of great interest, changed it 
 now to one of approbation aimed at Mr. Maiden. Mr. Maiden looked in 
 his silk hat, confused. 
 
 " But I argued him out of that attitude," said Mrs. Maiden emphatically, 
 " and I have never regretted my action. Similarly," she went on, pointing 
 at her husband with her muff, " similarly, when my new idea occurred 
 to me, I begged Mr. Maiden to favour me with a few words of counsel. 
 His first reply was, ' Have nothing at all to do with it.' " 
 
 Matron, with deference, begged— if it were not too curious on her part — 
 to be furnished with some details of the new idea. 
 
 " My project," said the lady, with something of exultation, " is simply 
 this. I live in a house on the north -side of Regent's Park. It is a large 
 house — too large, in fact." 
 
 " Well, you know" — said her husband shyly. 
 , " And we have no family. What more natural, what more appropriate, 
 what more wise, than that I should secure some half-dozen friendless 
 
20 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 children, and prople the place, so to speak — rearing them, bringing thorn 
 up, having them taught, and making them, in short, pcr-fect men and 
 women." 
 
 Mrs. Maiden sepmed touched by her own eloquence, and Mr. Maiden, 
 noting this, shook his head and patted his own eyes with his handkerchief. 
 Matron said, with doubtful approval, that children were sometimes a bitter 
 handful. 
 
 "That," said Mrs. Maiden austerely, "I have foreseen. Having, 
 however, put my hand to the plough, I am not the woman to turn back. 
 My mind is made up, and henceforth I intend to devote my life, my 
 energies, my intellect — • Ah, Watson ! Here at last, then. And is 
 this — " 
 
 " Ma'am," said Nurse Watson, beaming, " if you take her I shall say that 
 this all seemed as if it was to be." The baby gazed curiously at Mrs. 
 Maiden's face as that lady bent down. " She's taking stock of you, 
 ma'am," added Watson proudly. 
 
 " Is she," asked Mrs. Maiden, looking around, and with her muff 
 waving her husband back into the discussion, " is she intelligent ? " 
 
 " There's something in that," murmured Mr. Maiden approvingly. 
 " Can't do without intelligence nowadays." 
 
 " She begins to take notice of nearly everything," declared Watson, with 
 decision. " I never saw her equal. Did you, ma'am ? " (to the matron). 
 
 " I've seen a lot of babies," said the matron cautiously, " from first to 
 last. They're all good at the start." 
 
 "After six months you can begin to tell," urged Nurse Watson. 
 " What's a sure thing is that if you, ma'am, take her, I shall have a jolly 
 good cry this afternoon." 
 
 "Ah," remarked the matron, " you're a silly girl." 
 
 " Mr. Maiden," cried the lady excitedly, " whatever you may say against 
 it, a most brilliant idea has occurred to me." Mr. Maiden assumed a look 
 of great admiration, but, remembering that this was not appropriate to 
 the part he usually played, changed it swiftly to one of polite antagonism. 
 " Why shouldn't Nurse Watson come back to Regent's Park and be my 
 manager with thee new children ? " 
 
 " Would that answer, my dear ?" 
 
 " She has had experience here, and she would be the veiy woman for 
 the post." 
 
 " Nurse Watson," interposed the matron importantly, " knows when she 
 is well off." 
 
 " She knows when she's well ofif," remarked Watson dancing the baby 
 in her arms, " but she don't mind knowing that she is likely to be better 
 otf." 
 
 " There shall be no ti'ouble about that," agreed Mrs. Maiden. " Consider 
 it settled." 
 
 "Isn't she," asked Mr. Maiden, privately of the testimonial over the 
 fireplace, " isn't she sim-ply amazing? " 
 
 Wherefore Margaret Cannon's name in the large book found itself 
 endorsed " Discharged 21st — ," and Nurse Watson on the following day, 
 being permitted by elaborate and special strategy to leave without the 
 usual notice, said good-bye to her colleagues, to the nursery and to her 
 favouritfes among the invalid old women, and leaving her tin trunk to come 
 on by Parcels Delivery, bore the little maid off to commence another stage 
 on her recently commenced journey. Margaret Cannon took the changes 
 with the good-nature of early youth, content so long as meal times were 
 not by inadvertence overlooked, excited only when a milk bottle appeared 
 in sight. She gave her farewells to the children in the nursery with 
 
LOST PROPERTY 21 
 
 equanimity. On Tommy presenting her with a glass marble, the only 
 real property he possessed, she promptly tried to swallow it, and the gift 
 was therefore returned to Tommy, who received it with no signs of dissatis- 
 faction. The cluster of whitecapped old faces saw them off from the 
 windows of the female side ; through the iron railings of the other half, 
 peak-capped, corduroyed men watched them with gloomy curiosity. 
 
 Nurse Watson talked a good deal to the baby in her arms on the journey 
 to Liverpool Street and thence to Baker Street Station, giving counsel in 
 regard to future behaviour, which golden advice seemed to create no great 
 impression on the mind of the small listener. Watson walked from Baker 
 Street instead of taking a cab, the better to receive comments and fehcita- 
 tions from mothers on the way, and arrived at Albert Terrace in a state of 
 great content because of complimentary remarks which she had overheard. 
 At the barred third-floor window facing Primrose Hill young heads looked 
 oat, one voice haiUng the new arrival with a shout of welcome — 
 
 " 'Ere's another of 'em ! " 
 
 It seemed that Miss Margaret Cannon made the sixth recruit to the 
 regiment in course of formation at Albert Terrace, and here, as at Homer- 
 ton, found herself the youngest of all. For the rest, Nurse Watson's 
 charges ranged from five years downwards, and it appeared that the enlis- 
 ting had been done rather hurriedly — this Mrs. Maiden herself confessed 
 — for the day had not expired before one parent came to the house, from 
 Lisson Grove, gave a dance outside the gates and an Irish concert, finally 
 forcing her way into the house to demand the return of her child, and the 
 sum of two shillings and ninepence as solace to a parent's woxmded feelings, 
 and reparation of insult to the sister island. This incident checked sUghtly 
 the hopeful anticipation of Mrs. Maiden, and but for the fact that Nurse 
 Watson relieved her of all trouble in connection with the scheme, it is 
 possible that the undertaking might have been at this early point 
 relinquished. 
 
 In a few weeks the youngsters of the household, under the control of 
 the excellent Watson, made some attempt to settle down to the new exis- 
 tence. Mrs. Maiden paid visits to the nursery at stated hours, giving 
 unreasonable orders which Watson ignored, and a few harmless commands 
 which Watson obeyed. Mr. Maiden found a new and a welcome occupa- 
 tion in taking the elder children out into Regent's Park for constitutionals, 
 on which occasions he put off the shy manner of contention which he wore 
 in the presence of his wife and became a precise, insistent autocrat with 
 opinions of his own and a stem determination to be obeyed. Put roughly, 
 Mr. Maiden's procedure was to ascertain first what the children desired to 
 do, and then to see that on no account were they allowed to do it. In this 
 sternly commanded party the baby was an exception. If Mr. Maiden 
 spoke to her in the nursery, there came a frowning look to the baby's eyes 
 that forced him to resume hastily his usual attitude of respectful opposition ; 
 when Mr. Maiden assumed the tone of raillery to her, Miss Cannon sneered 
 slightly with a " We are not amused " air. Visitors at Albert Terrace 
 found that one item of their duties was to inspect the nursery and make 
 complimentary criticisms ; and these, occurring at intervals, served to 
 revive Mrs. Maiden's enthusiasm. 
 
 " I feel," said Mrs. Maiden, at afternoon tea in the drawing-room, " that 
 at last 1 am doing something to improve the world. I have wasted my 
 time hitherto—" 
 
 " Well, my dear," urged Mr. Maiden, " you know what I always said." 
 But the lady callers declarer emphatically that they could not agree with 
 either. 
 
 "I have I" declared Mrs. Maiden determinedly. "My other hobbies 
 
'22 LOST PBOPKKTY 
 
 have boeu purely selfish. Now I am doing something which may perhaps 
 entirely regenerate the world." 
 
 " How many of the charming little children are there? " asked a visitor. 
 
 " It only requires," said Mrs. Maiden, moving her Sbvres tea-cup to 
 the rhythm of her speech, " it only requires that every other woman in 
 England shall do as I am doing, and the whole character of the country 
 will be improved out of all recognition." 
 
 " Magnificent idea," murmured Mr. Maiden ; " but really — " 
 
 "There are few," suggested a short-sighted lady, "able to be as 
 generous as yourself." 
 
 " Oh, but pardon me." 
 
 "And some," mentioned another, " have children of their own." 
 
 " I don't see the force of that argument," retorted Mrs. Maiden lightly. 
 " Lammer, the cups are empty again." 
 
 " At the same time," said the young woman with an eyeglass, giving up 
 her cup and saucer in an absent way, " that does not destroy the fact that 
 you are doing a most noble, a most delightful, a most — " 
 
 " Hush ! " said Mrs. Maiden, touching the bell. " Tell Watson to bring 
 the baby girl down." 
 
 Baby grl appearing, found herself handed around as though she had 
 been cake, an experience to which she was becoming accustomed. Tw > 
 frock-coated youths standing in a corner of the room with something of the 
 appearance of having been blown in from the Park by error, looked on, 
 fearful of being called upon to nurse the open-eyed baby, and seemed to 
 be meditating flight, but only went so far as to say in a duet, " Well, I 
 suppose we ought " — and then, astonished at the sound of their own voices, 
 stopped and smiled foolishly. Margaret Cannon in white, the centre, 
 and object of an admmng group of large-hatted women, crowed 
 exultantly, and at Wats.on's particular request endeavoured with some 
 success to pronounce one word sounding like Baloo-baloo, but which niu'se, 
 as interpreter, declared to be the word Watson as plain as plain. 
 
 " I suppose," said the eyeglass young woman, with a cough of apology, 
 " she will — hem — change a good deal as she grows older." 
 
 " The amelioration," lectured Mrs. Maiden, " will under my system be 
 gradual. It will be as unlike the sharp, acute alterations which are met 
 in ordinary lives as it is possible—" 
 
 " Glig — a — glig — a glig," said the baby suddenly. j 
 
 " You're right there, you little dear," agreed Nurse Watson. " You are 
 indeed, as you say, a lucky girl to be looked after and to have all these 
 ladies admirin' you. Bless your heart!" added the affectionate young 
 woman. 
 
 " And you think that their course in life, dear Mrs. Maiden, is not 
 already determined by — by — what is the word ? " 
 
 The baby looked up at the puzzled lady with an amused air, as though 
 she knew but preferred not to tell. 
 
 " Yoic know the word I mean." 
 
 One of the two young men started at being thus pointedly appealed to, 
 and dropping his gloves came forward blushing. 
 
 " What is the word that means — I understand what it means — but I 
 can't find the word." The short-sighted lady tapped her forehead with 
 the single eyeglass to arouse dozing memory. "Please help me. You 
 know everything I " 
 
 The youth confessed that he did know a tolerable lot of things, but in the 
 present instance — was the word (this with sudden intuition) — was the 
 
 Wol'-.l prsycholngy ? 
 
 " No," with regret, " not psychology. Not in the least like psychology." 
 
LOST PROPERTY 23 
 
 The youth, holding himself tightly by tho lapels of his frock coat, baiJ, 
 really, don't you know, if tho word was not psychology, bit difficult to 
 guess what it could be. The youth seemed wishful to hail his colleague, 
 now intent on the view across the Hill, but the lady turned appealingly to 
 Mrs. Maiden. 
 
 " Can't you give me the word, dear Mrs. Maiden ? " 
 
 " Sorry," replied Mrs. Maiden, twisting one of her rings so that the 
 baby could clasp it with her plump fist, " but I've forgotten what you were 
 talking about." 
 
 " I fear," acknowledged the other helplessly, "I've forgotten that now." 
 
 The baby twitched its mere incident of a nose and chuckled aloud, as 
 though diverted by the dead-lock in which the conversation had found 
 itself. 
 
 " I hear," whispered one of the other ladies mysteriously, as the youth 
 returned to the window, " that the engagement between that awfully good 
 man in Harley Street and — you know who I mean — has been broken off 
 because she discovered, to her gi-eat surprise, that—" 
 
 "Watson," interrupted Mrs. Maiden commandingly, "take the dear 
 child upstairs." She turned to the others with a warning manner as 
 Watson and the baby left the room. " One can't be too careful," she 
 added, " before children." 
 
 The life of the youngsters at Albert Terrace was not of unruffled joy, for 
 the elders of five or sis were taught, under Mrs. Maiden's direction, by 
 a governess from Havcrstock Hill. Here, as in other matters, Mrs. 
 Maiden had her own views, and in this regard she insisted that no time 
 should be lost in teaching elementary facts, hut that the start should bo 
 made at a more advanced stage. Special attention, moreover, was paid 
 individually to the children who already bore, in theory, a label indicating 
 the particular form of talent which they were in after life to eshibit. Thus 
 the eldest boy, having been marked out for the stage, had Stakespeare 
 read to him by the lady from Haverstock Hill, to his great distress ; the 
 eldest girl (aged four), being destined for the profession of a nurse, found 
 herself furnished with a toy hospital, and, entering into the spirit of the 
 game with too much zeal, broke up the arms and legs of all her dolls, and 
 eventually beheaded them. Mrs. Maiden found encouragement in this, 
 and declared to Mr. Maiden that twenty years hence the eldest girl of four 
 would be nursing wounded soldiers ; a possibility which Mr. Maiden did 
 not feel himself in a position to deny. Also in the nursery a politician who 
 could recite the first sentence of one of Burke's speeches, and an authoress 
 who could spell several words : it was only the career of Margaret Cannon 
 that had not been determined. Parents of her companions came at certain 
 intervals to see them, and she stared at them curiously as though under 
 the impression that mothers and fathers were new inventions ; Nurse 
 Watson always on these days assured her that she was a lucky little dear 
 not to have any horrid relatives, and indeed those who came to Albert Terrace 
 wore not the finest flowers of their class. The lady's maid especially 
 disliked them, for they seldom agreed to go away without some article of 
 clothing, to be promptly pawned in High Street, Camden Town. 
 
 The children, goaded by the carefully directed and well-meant efforts of 
 the governess, sometimes broke out into rebellion, and in Regent's Park 
 rushed away from Watson and the mail cart with her favourite charge, to 
 play muddy games of Franco-German war, near the fountain, with deplor- 
 able youngsters ; returning to the demure house in Albert Terrace in a 
 condition that made the ready tear come to Mr. Maiden's eye and caused 
 Mrs. Maiden to upbraid everybody. After these outbreaks they would 
 conduct themselves for a space with df^corum ; but, as Watson said in the 
 
24 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 kitchen, you never knew how long this would last. It was in the kitchen 
 that baby seemed happiest. This might be explained by the fact that 
 cook, an excellent woman but stout, and ever adopting, with no success, 
 advertised devices for reducing the figure, had always some sweet delicacy 
 for the mouth where four little white teeth were now in evidence ; what- 
 ever the explanation, the fact remained that it was in the kitchen that baby 
 crowed and talked and laughed the most, learning new words with greater 
 facility when they represented articles of food. At this period her voca- 
 bulary consisted of no less than six words, which Watson, as professor of 
 the language, declared to be — 
 
 First, Watson. 
 
 Second, Jam. 
 
 Third, Ta-ta (variously an expression of farewell and a desire to take air 
 in the park). 
 
 Fourth, Master (meaning Mr. Maiden). 
 
 Fifth, Bow-wow (otherwise dog). 
 
 Sixth, Baby (herself). 
 
 Further, the sport of moving on the floor was being relinquished for a new 
 game, which was to push a chair along on the kitchen floor and thus learn the 
 first rudiments of the art of walking ; her admirable efforts in this direction 
 extorted compliment even from Mr. Lammer the footman, a gloomy young 
 man with a morbid desire to be cremated after he had ceased to be, and 
 with no great interest in anything alive. Mr. Lammer sometimes went out 
 for an hour and found recreation by flattening his face against the windows 
 of busy undertakers' shops ; this and a doleful admiration for Nurse 
 Watson made up his joys. For Number 25 Albert Terrace came a day of 
 importance, on the occasion when a philanthropic girl Duchess consented 
 to visit the house and inspect the working of Mrs. Maiden's scheme. The 
 intervening space between Mrs. Maiden and the Duchess had to be reached 
 by using three or four junctions, so that Mrs. Maiden first communicated 
 with the wife of Canon A. (the first junction), who thereupon journeyed to 
 the honourable Mrs. B., who in the kindest manner saw Lady C, who 
 happened to be the Duke's aunt on his mother's side. Mrs. Maiden, self- 
 possessed in regard to her own manner, felt anxious for the good behaviour 
 of the nursery. 
 
 For the greater certainty of perfection, rehearsals were held in the large 
 room upstairs, with Mrs. Maiden as the Duchess entering importantly and 
 making gracious inquiries after the health and behaviour of the members. 
 
 " Are you quite well, my little man? Progressing excellently, I trust, 
 with your studies, eh ? " 
 
 " Be always respectful to your elders, my dear child, and remember that 
 George Washington — " 
 
 To Mrs. Maiden's annoyance, most of the children declined to regard 
 the matter seriously, and danced with amusement whenever Mrs. 
 Maiden entered. The very eldest boy seemed to be working out 
 some problem of an ahtruse character and declined to show any interest in 
 the proceedings, preferring to examine the pattern of the linoleum : for his 
 obstinacy he was made to recite thirty times in public the words, " I will 
 behave, 1 will be good," which he did in a manner that belied the spoken 
 promise. A few guests were invited by Mrs. Maiden to assist her in 
 receiving the Duchess ; she requested also the attendance of two ladies 
 from prominent fashion and society journals. The Duchess had begged to 
 be excused from coming to lunch (" If anything can make me grow thin," 
 said cook, "this disappointment '11 do it"), and the inspection was fixed 
 for three o'clock in the afternoon. 
 
 Margaret Cannon, affected by the unusual stir and atmosphere of 
 
LOST PROPEETY 25 
 
 importance, permitted herself to be dressed in her best belaced pinafore ; 
 hut her excitement seemed nothing to the agitation of the others. The 
 eldest boy aloue remained calm. Half an hour before the appointed time 
 Watson left the nursery that she might, as she expressed it, titivate herself, 
 and in leaving gave to the entire family the most specific advice. 
 
 " So much as wink," said Nurse Watson strenuously, " before I come 
 back and I'll punish you all, if it lakes me the day to do it. Bye-bye, 
 baby ! " 
 
 The Duchess arriving, proved to be a quick-eyed young woman with a 
 very slight American accent and a girlish quality of enthusiasm, so that 
 even Mr. Maiden, brought from the seclusion of the curtains at her request, 
 soon recovered confidence. 
 
 " And you have them here from mere infancy onwards ? " 
 
 "The youngest," said Mrs. Maiden proudly, "is but fourteen months." 
 
 " You find they behave well? " 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Maiden doubtfully, " I — " 
 
 " Their behaviour," interrupted Mrs. Maiden, " leaves nothing to be 
 desired." 
 
 The ladies around murmured an approving cheer. 
 
 "This is real interesting," declared the Duchess. "There is no doubt 
 to my mind that you are doing a gi'eat work." 
 
 " I propose," said Mrs. Maiden proudly, " to train them up and up and 
 up, until they are fitted for that great battle in the world to which — " 
 
 "I know what you mean," said the young Duchess briskly. " I'd like 
 to see them right away." 
 
 "Duchess," said Mrs. Maiden importantly, " pray follow me." She 
 whispered to Lammer, " Tell Watson to be ready." 
 
 Nurse Watson, pinning ou her cap, flew upstairs to warn the children. 
 The party followed in procession, the short-sighted- lady declaring sportively 
 that it reminded her of her schooldays. Mrs. Maiden flung open the 
 nursery door, and the young Duchess, entering fii st, discovered Watson in 
 tears, baby Margaret near her waving plump little bands vigorously. 
 
 "All dawn," announced the baby, " all dawn." 
 
 " Watson," exclaimed Mrs. Maiden, with sudden fear, " explain I " 
 
 "Read," sobbed Watson, "read this — this letter, ma'am." 
 
 " Yoiur eyes are young, Duchess." 
 
 The otllers crowded around. 
 
 " We liav gone to never rettum. We are tired of this Iiose. Manny 
 thanks. We have gone to our horns. N.B. No staiyc for vie '. " 
 
 " That decides it," declared Mrs. Maiden, with awful emphasis, after a 
 pause. "The ungrateful little wretches! I'll never do anything for 
 them again! " 
 
 " If my advice had been taken—" remarked Mr. Maiden. 
 
 " This is too funny," said the Duchess cheerfully. " The Duke will be 
 tremendously amused when I tell him." 
 
 " It may amuse the Duke," said Mrs. Maiden ; " it does tiot divert me. ■ 
 From this day henceforth I give it all up." 
 
 " It just occurs to me^" began the lady with the eyeglass. 
 
 " The dearest httle baby," cried ttxe young Duchess bending to Margaret 
 Cannon. " Is she the only one left ? " 
 
 " I'll keep none of them any longer." 
 
 " You can't give up baby, ma'am," wailed Watson. 
 
 " With all respect, my dear," said Mr. Maiden hesitatingly, " I really 
 think you must send )ier away." 
 
 " If I keep her," deolared Mrs. Maiden, " she will have to be very 
 good." 
 
26 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 Margaret Cannon crowed delightedly and pressed her plump clieek 
 against the young Duchess's face. 
 
 " I wish," whispered the young Duchess to her, " I wish you were my 
 little girl." • 
 
 The visitors went downstairs to the drawing-room. If the affair had 
 not been a pronounced success it had at least been interesting. 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Maiden," said the short-sighted young woman when the 
 Duchess had left, " I have just thought of a word I wanted a month or 
 two since." 
 
 " It has taken you some time," snapped the lady of the house. 
 
 " Tlie word I wanted was," said the other, " heredity." 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 FROM the fact that Mrs. Maiden, bereft of her latest interest in life, 
 now gave all energies to the searching for some object which should 
 really deserve attention, it will be guessed that small Maggie Cannon 
 became more than ever a resident on the gound floor of the house. Some- 
 times, when Mrs. Maiden was away attending meetings in lordly drawing- 
 rooms with an air of wisdom that, reflected iu a casual mirror, made her 
 tear that she was carrying intelligence to excess, the mite would be taken 
 upstairs by Nurse Watson, and Mr. Maiden would spend a happy hour in 
 teaching her the elements of pedestrianism. To this end Chippendale 
 chairs were willingly brought into use and Louis Quatorze tables shifted, 
 that the young amateur might have a clear run. For better encouragement, 
 Mr. Maiden would arrange walking matches against her, handicapping 
 himself by a painful limp which caused Maggie to laugh exhaustedly, and 
 ever encountering accidents at the approach to the grand pianoforte which 
 prevented him from gaining the sweetmeat constituting the prize. At 
 times came disaster, with bumped heads and little knees abraded, on which 
 occasions Nurse Watson had to be rung for, because no one else had the 
 magic healing power of kissing the place to make it well, thus ejecting an 
 instant cure. When the end of the athletic meeting was suggested by the 
 uneasy rubbing of a mere incident of a nose and two large eyes, then Mr. 
 Maiden for his pains received a somewhat sticky embrace and indistinct 
 speech, which Watson, now appealed to in her character of interpreter, 
 declared without hesitation to be, " Much obliged to you, sir, for taking so 
 much trouble with me ; I shall never forget all your kindness, and thanks 
 esj)ecially for the sweeties." 
 
 It was still in the kitchen that Maggie scored her most conspicuous 
 triumphs. There the cook was her enthusiastic patroness, the housemaid 
 her geuerous critic, Watson a proud stage manager. When Maggie could 
 be induced by flattery and succulent gifts to give her series of imitations, 
 even Mr. Lananer, the morose footman, put aside thoughts of Woking, 
 and stood with one hand placed absently on Nurse Watson's agreeable 
 shoulder, watching the entertainment. A marvellous reproduction of the 
 manners of a steam engine was given on the request being issued, " Now 
 be a pufi'-putf, baby " ; her imitation of a galloping horse was declared to be 
 a masterpiece ; an impersonation of a soldier going to the Ashanti War 
 (asked for by the housemaid, who had a military friend in Albany Street 
 barracks) was done by the assumption of a very long stride and as much 
 
LOST PEOPERTY 27 
 
 of a scowl as a cheerful little two-year-old face could manage to assume. 
 Leaving these subjects, Maggie could be induced by elaborate praise to 
 extend her programme and come to more intimate subjects, and on the 
 footman (his arm now by accident around the waist of Nurse Watson) 
 demanding an imitation of mistress, the small girl would affect to take 
 tea with an air of great gentility, babbling all the time incessant and 
 incomprehensible talk. Her simulation of cook was to sit with hands on 
 extended knees in cook's own chair and yawn ; of the housemaid, to sit 
 at the table writing letters. At this point the performance was usually 
 stopped, because on one occasion, when requested to include Nurse 
 Watson in her repertoire the knowing little person had toddled to Mr. 
 Lammer, kissing him with every show of affection. Watson remarked 
 on this that it was possible for a child to be too knowing, and tliut in 
 future every one would have to be a great deal more careful in Maggie's 
 presence. 
 
 It was at the age of two years and four months that Maggie Cannon 
 electrified the basement of the house in Albert Terrace and exhalted the 
 general opinion of her intellect and culture by showing suddenly, if you 
 please, an abihty to find in the Morning Post the letter 0. The rumour 
 went that this extraordinary gift had been imparted to her in a course of 
 private lessons by Watson, but Watson denied this, adding that it simply 
 confirmed what she had all along felt, that Maggie was nothing less, and 
 perhaps something more, than a born genius. This statement, solemnly 
 made, found acceptance in the kitchen, and when Maggie, thus encouraged, 
 followed up her first success in literature by giving proof that she could 
 not only detect capital O's but also small o's, then it seemed to every one 
 downstairs that the only thing remaining was to watch and note the 
 particular direction in which her marvellous powers would go. The 
 footman suggested thut she would probably, when grown up, effect some 
 epoch-making reform in our funeral customs ; but this was waved aside as 
 childish, and, ordered by Nurse Watson to leave the house until he could 
 think of something sensible, Mr. Lammer spent a quiet, thoughtful after- 
 noon in the cemetery at Keusal Green. 
 
 Although too youthful to be gifted with great powers of observation, 
 even Maggie (getting more sure every day in the perilous art of coming 
 downstairs alone, until the joyous power was reached of being able to 
 shde down the banisters), even Maggie Cannon probably noticed that Mrs. 
 Maiden's interest and visitors changed more frequently than the seasons. 
 At one time the craze was for the imported Communist, at which period 
 Albert Terrace, to the terror of Maggie, was never without its unwashed 
 visitors in the hall or area, desiring sympathy and the gift of old or new 
 garments. They sometimes waited their turn out on Primrose Hill, 
 an-angiug amicably the order of calls, that the courteous act might not 
 assume the appearance of a foreign invasion. Sympathy with these 
 necessitated visits to the neighbourhood of Tottenham Comt Road, and 
 whilst Maggie and Nurse Watson remained in the carriage watching the 
 reflection of themselves and the pair of greys in a shop window, Mrs. 
 Maiden went with tremendous mystery into dark clubs where the ground- 
 floor windows were always shuttered, to join in deUberations with men 
 who spoke many languages, and spoke them all so badly that it seemed 
 they might have done better to have secured the perfect knowledge of one. 
 At these meetings projects of a revolutionary nature were talked of vaguely, 
 and Mrs. Maiden, for the dear privilege of assisting in magnificent 
 undertakings, handed over gold to the Propaganda Fund. Mrs. Maiden 
 bought portraits of Mazzini and Felix Pyat, deposing from frames in her 
 rooms- porUaits of serene relatives ; Mr. Maiden found himself persuaded, 
 
2S LOST PROPERTY 
 
 albeit the month was Juae, to wear a sealskin overcoat ; Maggie appeared 
 for public promenade gowned as a foreign princess with a military 
 iippointment, to the great diversion of other children in Regent's Park. 
 This would have continued for quite a long time but for excess of zeal on 
 the part of the most bearded and least clean of the gentlemen in Windmill 
 Street, who, feeling perhaps that it was possible to extract more funds by 
 increasing the interest of the schemes, boldly, one afternoon in the dimly 
 lighted room at the back of the club, offered a suggestion which he 
 characterized as simple but effective. On hearing presently the word 
 bombs, the English lady seated at the ring-stained table turned pale ; the 
 word petroleum made her complain of sudden faintness and beg for an 
 adjournment of the meeting. Out in Tottenham Court road, poor Mrs. 
 Maiden begged advice from Maggie and from Nurse Watson. Watson 
 strongly recommended an instant call at a convenient police station ; 
 which course the perturbed, trembling lady adopted. 
 
 " That lot? " said the jovial detective to whom she confided the informa- 
 tion. " They're quite happy so long as they can get a few stupid — I mean 
 to say generous old — what I mean is, that they live cheap, and so long as 
 they can get their smoke and their drink, they ain't really discontented." 
 
 " Are you surd"? " 
 
 " Look 'ere, ma'am," said the detective reassuringly, " I know them all, 
 and I can tell you this. If forty of 'em, say, was to start anything like a 
 serious plot, I should hear all about it the next minute from thirty-nine. 
 -'Vll the same, my advice to you is — drop 'em I " 
 
 Mi-s. Maiden, relieved of fear but annoyed at deception, took the advice 
 and dropped the French immigrant with so much decision that callers of 
 that country were henceforth sent off with a threat of police. The 
 portraits of revolutionary patriots were disposed of at the area door for a 
 noble-looking fern (which, wilting the next day, had to be planted event- 
 ually in the dust-hole), and Maggie was able again to look from the nursery 
 window without tears. There followed, after a period of quiet, a strenuous 
 season of down-trodden Armenians, who speedily reduced their popularity 
 by taking from the hall mementoes of a pleasant visit in the shape of 
 umbrellas and the sealskin overcoat. At a later period an attack of 
 advanced womanhood, with the short-sighted lady for general, was made 
 on the house, and this detachment harried Nurse Watson so much with 
 advice on the proper treatment of Maggie, and the necessity for early 
 inculcation of independent thought, that the excellent woman declared 
 herself willing for two pins to take the extreme step of packing her hoses, 
 going to a registrar's with the melancholy Mr. Lammer, and saying thus 
 good-bye to service once for all. But this being spoken of in Maggie's 
 presence she at once climbed, with the dexterity that comes of practice, 
 fii'st to Watson's knee, thence well on the lap to a higher stage, where she 
 hugged the indignant maid with great fervour, saying, " Don' go, don' go, 
 don' go, don' go!" until Nurse Watson was forced to appease her by 
 promise to stay with her for ever and ever and a year after that. Mr. 
 Lammer, who had removed temporarily the mask of gloom from his 
 countenance, put it on again, and going into the pantry wrote a newspaper 
 account of his own demise, tinishine with the sentence, " The unfortunate 
 incident cast quite a gloom over tne neighbourhood." This apparently 
 terminated the affair, but there were consequences. Nurse Watson, 
 touched by Mr. Lammer's tearful devotion, irritated by the continued 
 interference of the short-haired maiden ladies who now controlled the 
 household, found herself goaded to the point of giving a mouth's notice, 
 not necessarily for acceptation but as warning (this she mentioned to the 
 kitchen) as warning of truth in the saying, that a worm will turn. The 
 
LOST PROPERTY 29 
 
 notioe being oonsidered at an opportune committee meeting in the drawing- 
 room that afternoon, where the talk not infrequently drifted from Imperial 
 questions to the closer and more homely topic of servants, the members 
 entered into a consideration of it with great zest and a fine sense of 
 irresponsibility. Mrs. Maiden's excuses for Watson's behaviour were 
 derided ; her comforting aphorism that servants would be servants was 
 bitterly contested ; the final plea that there must be a certain amount of 
 give and take in the management of domestics excited the committee 
 almost to the point of screaming. For the sake of peace, Mrs. Maiden had 
 to promise further consideration of the matter; and this question settled, 
 and everybody's dinner hour being near, members of the committee post- 
 poned debate on the political question which had brought them together, 
 and the meeting broke up. Tnat evening Nurse Watson went through 
 with the wondering Maggie her main arguments for the coming scene, 
 placing for convenience the situation in the past tense. 
 
 " ' Well, ma'am,' I says, ' I don't mind staying on at your own particular 
 request, but understand this once for all,' I says, ' I'll work for one 
 mistress,' I says, ' but I will not work for forty, so there I Further than 
 that,' I says, ' there's this to be said. If it happens again, I shall simply 
 on with my hat and ' " — When a bell rang demanding her presence in the 
 dining-room. With a hasty " Peep-bo " she put Maggie's belaced night- 
 gown over the small head, swung her playfully into the elaborately draped 
 swinging cot, and bidding her be a dear good girl, and say her prayers to 
 herself like a little lady, she hastened downstairs, prepared to receive, with 
 the pride becoming to a valuable and privileged servant, the apologies of a 
 penitent mistress. Mr. Maiden was not dining at home ; he was away at 
 the meeting of the British Association, the one desperate piece of revelry 
 allowed to him each year. Mrs. Maiden, alone at the head of the elaborate 
 table, set with enough of rare dessert to furnish a West End fruiterer's, 
 fingered the silk centrepiece rather nervously. 
 
 " Watson ! " she said. 
 
 " Ma'am," replied Watson coldly. 
 
 "You gave me your month's notice to-day." 
 
 " I did so, ma'am, and although I have no desire to place you in a 
 comer, still, at the same time — " 
 
 " Silence ! " ordered Mrs. Maiden unexpectedly. 
 
 " But," said Nurse Watson, astonished, " mustn't I speak, ma'am 7 " 
 
 " No," sajd her mistress. 
 
 " Things are coming to a pretty pass, I must say." 
 
 "The same idea has occurred to me," said her mistress. "Unfortu- 
 nately, Mr. Maiden is not here to discuss the matter with me, and I have to 
 decide unaided. You have friends in London, Watson ? " 
 
 " No, ma'am," said Watson, with less asperity. " Only a sister." 
 
 " She lives near?" 
 
 " In Camden Town." 
 
 Mrs. Maiden, folding her serviette carefully, rolled it and gave it a silver 
 ring as waistband. 
 
 " I shall pay you your wages at once, Watson," she said deliberately, 
 " and you will go now, with," she added, " a ten-pound note in acknow- 
 ledgment of your services.-" 
 
 " But," urged the perturbed maid, " you — you can't, ma'am." 
 
 " Can't? " echoed Mrs. Maiden in an awful voice. 
 
 " No, ma'am," said Watson, regaining some of her assurance. " What's 
 to become of Miss Maggie? " 
 
 Mrs. Maiden gave a smile of triumph and relief. 
 
 "That difficulty," she said, taking up the grape scissors, " that difficulty 
 
30 LOST PROPEllTY 
 
 is solved. In a newspaper left here in error by one of the members of my 
 society — " 
 
 "Ah," said Nurse Watson, " I know now who I've got to thank." 
 
 " I find there are several worthy and estimable people who, for a sum 
 down, are willing to take charge of such a little girl and bring her up care- 
 fully and well." 
 
 " Rather than which," cried Nurse Watson hysterically, " I'd take her 
 away myself and bring her up as me own. If you had a heart, 
 ma'am — " 
 
 "Watson," commanded Mrs. Maiden, " leave this house." 
 
 " I should be jolly sorry, ma'am," said Watson, trembling, to take it 
 with me." 
 
 Ilere was a junction in the travels of the small liost Property girl in 
 the cot upstairs. Watson having packed her boxes with tearless determin- 
 ation, announced solemnly to the other servants her immediate departure. 
 !Mr. Lammer, weeping, went at once to the " York and Albany " to obtain 
 a four wheeler, the while Watson embraced her colleagues and received 
 their sympathy. They heartily agreed with her proposal to take Maggie 
 so soon as she should become settled in the house on which Mr. Lammer 
 and herself had for a considerable space of time kept a wary eye, and on 
 the way in the four-wheeler to King Street, Camden Town, Watson sub- 
 mitted the whole of this proposal to that desolate gentleman. To her 
 great surprise, Mr. Lammer, whilst consenting in part, objected to the 
 rest. To the marriage he agreed with a sigh, which in his case meant 
 ecstatic ap,proval ; to the further suggestion that Maggie should come to 
 live with them, after the three weeks necessary for the preliminaries of the 
 marriage ceremony, Mr. Lammer said, with extraordinary emphasis, " That 
 be blowed for a tale." Urged to give some further explanation of his views, 
 Mr. Lammer said, with reserve, that it was a delicate matter to talk of in 
 the presence of a lady, but there was such a thing as Scandal (this he 
 whispered that the driver of the four-wheeler might not hear), and rather 
 than endure the breath of that pernicious thing he would gladly jump out 
 of the cab into the Eegent's Canal, which they w-ere fording at that moment. 
 Nurse Watson, amazed and shocked by a dire prospect which she had not 
 foreseen, consented with regret to give up her proposal concerning Maggie, 
 and Mr. Lammer at the door in King Street said, with the air of one 
 arranging a funeral, that under these circumstances he would see about 
 the banns the very next morning. 
 
 Mrs. Maiden, an,\ious to show all her usual business-like aptitude, wrote 
 to three of the advertisers letters marked " Urgent and Immediate " in 
 order that the disposal of the small girl (just then being cried over by the 
 housemaid in the nursery) should be effected before Mr. Maiden's return. 
 Proof of the extreme benevolence of the advertisers was given by their 
 prompt replies. All of them called the following evening at Albert 
 Terrace, but only two were admitted, because the third, a lady of very 
 ruddy and almost hilarious appearance, sang at the front door, under the 
 impression that she was a Christmas Wait, giving the refrain of " Noel, 
 Noel," in a shrill, quavering soprano that tore the air of Primrose Hill and 
 brought from Eegent's Park two policeman, who at the earnest request of 
 Mr. Lammer induced her to go away and finish the carol at a police station. 
 _ Each of the others impressed Mrs. Maiden greatly by preciseness of 
 " behaviour and exuberant affection for children. 
 
 " Your name," said Mrs. Maiden, seated in her study at a wfiting-desk 
 with blotting-paper and memoranda before her, " your name is — I have it 
 here somewhere." 
 
 " If you don't mind, ma'am," said the first caller respectfully. 
 
LOST PROPERTY 31 
 
 " You are a widow," continued Mrs. Maiden in a legal manner, " and 
 you live in Chalcot Street, Somers Town." 
 
 " And respected by all me neighbours," said the woman, with sudden 
 volubility and no stops, " to an extent you'd scarcely credit they can't say 
 enough about me with the exception of the lady who has the upper 'alf of 
 the 'ouse I reely don't believe there's a soul in the street from end to end 
 who'd say a bad word for me and I've been living there up'ards of three 
 weeks I " 
 
 " You are fond of children ? " 
 
 " Fond ? " echoed the Chalcot Street lady rapturously. " Fond isn't the 
 word for it I simply doat on 'em I sometimes wish I'd had thousands." 
 
 " I think," said Mrs. Maiden, " I wanted somebody in a rather better 
 position of life." 
 
 " Ah lady position isn't everything I've been in good positions in my 
 life but I don't know that I was any the 'appier then than I am now and 
 mind you it isn't as though I was new to the game." 
 
 " New to what game, pray ? " 
 
 " When I say game," explained the Chalcot Street lady, hedging and 
 going more slowly, " of course I don't mean game. I mean that I've had 
 charge of children before this." 
 
 " And what has become of them ? " 
 
 " All flesh is grass," whimpered the woman, her eyes at the ceiling 
 reverently. " We're 'ere to-day and gone to-morrer. In the midst of 
 life— " 
 
 "Thank you," interrupted Mrs. Maiden, touching the bell, "I am 
 sure you are not the kind of person I want. Lammer, show this lady 
 out." 
 
 " What? " soreamed the Chaloot Street lady, " me ? Me to be chucked 
 out of a 'ouse jest for all the world as though I'd thrown a pint pot at the 
 barman. You dare," she went on to Mr. Lammer, shivering with indig- 
 nation, " you dare to lay so much as a hand on me, you white-faced, 
 'alf-baked, under-done — " 
 
 Mr. Lammer urged piteously that he only proposed to show the way 
 down ; it was the usual thing ; no need to call him names just because he 
 was doing his duty. 
 
 " You'll 'ear from me," cried the woman to Mrs. Maiden, going un- 
 willingly. " I'll send my 'usband round to talk to you. Who's to pay 
 me for shoe leather traipsing all the way up from Somers Town to ba 
 insulted and — " 
 
 " Give her half a crown," ordered Mrs. Maiden. 
 
 " Ah," said the Chalcot Street lady amicably, " now you're talking ! " 
 
 The second applicant made a much more favourable impression. 
 Dressed quietly in black and with everything neat but her shoes, which 
 were indeed deplorably old, she created, with her low voice and decent 
 manner, and by force of contrast with her predecessor, a feeling of relief 
 in the mind of Mrs. Maiden. A widow, she came from Brook Green, 
 Hammersmith. Her husband had been in a good way of business ; a fire 
 on uninsured premises, in the course of which he had saved her life at the 
 expense of his own, and — here she was. Mrs. Maiden did not attempt to 
 hide her content. 
 
 " What I propose is," she said, " to place a sum in the hands of a 
 solicitor which shall ensure the payment of five shillings a ^eek to you 
 until the child is fourteen." 
 
 " The question of money," remarked the Brook Green lady, " is not 
 important, but — if you don't mind my suggesting it — would it not be 
 better that you should pay the amount down ? Since my poor husband's 
 
32 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 death," she added somewhat inconsequently, " I have shuddered at the 
 very sound of the word lawyer." 
 
 " My plan is best," said Mrs. Maiden. 
 
 " Your name," continued the visitor, glancing at her boots and hiding 
 them under the hem of her black skirt, " is known to me as that of an 
 active philanthropist. I belong only to the middle classes, but I trust I 
 am not ignorant of your great and noble work." 
 
 This was most satisfactory. To Mrs. Maiden no other credentials 
 were necessary, and Maggie found herself disturbed iu putting her 
 dolls to bed, and in making all of them say their prayers, and brought 
 down. The Brook Green lady expressed boundless delight at Maggie's 
 appearance. 
 
 " The sweet cherubim ! " she cried ; " I shall love her as I would one 
 of my own." Maggie aimed a blow with her plump fist at the lady's 
 bonnet and hit the ecstatic woman in the eye. " What spirits she has, to 
 be sure. Come here, you sweet little pot." 
 
 Far from ol)eying this request, the sweet little pet took ambush under 
 the housemaid's plump arm, declining to come into the open, and wailing 
 aloud when amateur efiforts of playfulness were made to catch her. Mrs. 
 Maiden, still impressed by her visitor, took the lady aside and admitted 
 that she had been convinced by the other's chance remark in regard to 
 the legal profession ; she had now desided (being above all things a woman 
 of strict business habits) to hand over by cheque the amount of the lump 
 sum that she had proposed to invest on behalf of Maggie. To this the 
 Brook Green lady demurred slightly and with politeness, thereby increas- 
 ing Mrs. Maiden's determination ; and on the housemaid being despatched 
 to pack a large box with the child's dresses and toys, a cheque was 
 written. Afterwards, on suggestion, notes were substituted, and the 
 visitor quoted a few iippropriate remarks, which she credited variously 
 to the Bible and to Shakespeare, expressive of her gratitude to Providence 
 for thus filling a void in her lonely heart. Maggie, rendered genial by 
 prospect of going out to see baa-lambs, was taken to a hansom. Mr. 
 Lammer placed the box a-top, wet-eyed women looked up from the area 
 to blow kisses of farewell, and the cab was well away ere into Mrs 
 Maiden's mind peeped the knowledge that she had handed a baby girl 
 and a generous sum to a lady whose precise address she had omitted to 
 ascertain. 
 
 Two days later Maggie, being put up for sale by private treaty, changed 
 hands again, this time for a ridiculously small amount, and the lady from 
 Brook Green, in a fashionable costume and a pair of new boots, spent a 
 brilliant holiday with her husband at Yarmouth. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 " TF you 'aven't been a good gel down at the creesh," said the tall, 
 I worn woman, in the way of one who performs a duty, " I shall 
 
 cert'inly have to punish you." 
 "I've been good ! " 
 " Ah," said the woman, untying with a snatch the rusty black ribbons 
 
 of her bonnet, "that's your version. No tea ready, of course!" She 
 
 looked carefully at herself in a triangular piece of looking-glass supported 
 
LOST PEOPERTY 33 
 
 hy tin tacks on the wall, smoothing the creases near her eyes, and wotting 
 the palms of her hands to press back her hair. " Six years of age, or very 
 nigh," she added bitterly, "and can't get tea ready. I sh'd be ashamed. 
 Why. when I was a little gel of your size — " 
 
 "Kettle's on the boil, Mrs. Dadswell," said Maggie shrilly, "and I've 
 put in one spoonful of tea and the toast's in the oven." 
 
 " I shall never be able to learn you to say hoven," remarked the thin 
 woman despairingly. " What you'll be like when you have to meet ladies 
 and 'old conversation with them like what I do, goodness only knows." 
 
 Maggie looked up, an old-fashioned little girl dwarfed by print skirts 
 that reached to her ankles, an alert look on her face, and an evident desire 
 to know everything with the least possible delaj*. She might have been a 
 miniature lady's maid, to judge by the way she received Kirs. Dadswell's 
 bonnet and, blowing the dust from it, hung it upou a stour., obtrusive 
 nail ; she might have been all the other domestics of a household from 
 the way she arranged cups and plates on the black shining American 
 cloth covering the table, whisked a plate of toast with a triumphant air 
 from the oven, and presented the enamelled iron teapot that a libation of 
 hot water might be poured in by the more experienced hand. 
 
 "My son Will," said Mrs. Dadswell, scrunching her toast slowly with 
 her few remaining teeth, " always aspirated his aitches. He had his 
 faults — wouldn't 'ave been a sou of mine if he hadu't," she sighed — " but 
 you could scarcely tell him from a gentleman. He wasn't 'appy unless he 
 washed his face and hands at least twice a day." 
 
 The girl listened with a polite air, nodding her little head at each full 
 stop, so that the narrow piece of blue ribbon which hound her straight 
 back hair fell over each time in clumsy agi-eement. 
 
 " And so partic'lar too about his food," the woman v,-ent on. She held 
 her cup as though about to propose his health. Veins on her thin, water- 
 soddened hand stood out; tlie Iwny arm went shapelessly to the elbow. 
 " I've fried him a chop." d^^cUred Mrs. Dadswell impressively, "and I've 
 fried it a shade too much, and he'd no more touch it than he'd fly. Up 
 he'd get from his chair, on with his bowler hat, and out he'd go, slamming 
 the door to like anything." 
 
 Maggie endeavoured to express, by the roundness and largeness of her 
 eyes, respectful admiration of this estimable conduct. 
 
 " He's been away for two year now," said Mrs. Dadswell, " two year 
 come next month, and when he returns I reckon I shan't know him." 
 
 " Had he got a merstarche ? " asked Maggie. 
 
 " W'ell," said the other, pleased with the novelty of this question, " he 
 had and he hadn't, if you can understand that. It was coming on, but ho 
 shaved it off to make it grow stronger. He was always very manly, and 
 so fond of horse-flesh. But then his father was a cab-driver — a four- 
 wheeler, mind, not one of your flighty 'ansoms." 
 
 " What made him go away ? " 
 
 '■ It was hke this! " Mrs. Dadswell's relish in telling the story was bo 
 great that she overlooked the fact that both question and answer appeared 
 almost every evening. If the walls of the first floor front in No- Way- 
 Through had ears — and the blue roses of the wall-paper were so much 
 worn that they might have l)ecn human heads — they roust have tired of 
 the recital, but neither Maggie nor Mrs. Dadswell seemed weary of the 
 subject. " He had a bit of a disappointment in love — she was a married 
 woman, and ought to 'ave known better— and he went straight down to 
 'Ounslow and enlisted." 
 
 " For a soldier'.' " 
 
 "For a soldier." ncrer.l Mrs Dn.l.w.)), lowering her voice as she 
 
31 LOST rKOi'ERTY 
 
 otnptied the leaves from the teapot into the wooden box which served as 
 coal-scuttle. " Mind, don't you never go repeatin' what I tell you to the 
 neighbours, Maggie, or else I'll — " 
 
 The threat, taken literally, was enough to make the stoutest heart quail, 
 but repeated usage had blunted its edge. Maggie shook the blue 
 ribbon emphatically to intimate that she could be relied upon. 
 
 " The way they used him, poor dear," said Mrs. Dadswell, in an awed 
 tone, " was somethin' terrible. Drill, drill, drill, work, work, work, march, 
 march, march ; it drove my poor Will, who wasn't used to such treatment, 
 nearly out of his mind. One night," said Mrs. Dadswell, allowing Maggie 
 to unlace her boots, "one night he come 'ere looking as white as a sheet. 
 Something had 'appened. Nothing would do for him but I must go out 
 into Blythe Eoad and buy a suit of ready-made clothes. By the time I 
 got back he'd taken oflf his uniform — careful with that knot, please — and 
 when he'd dressed in the ready-mades he did up his uniform in the brown 
 paper I'd brought 'em "ome in, and he was downstairs and off without so 
 much as a kiss. I've never seen him," said Mrs. Dadswell, looking at the 
 fire, " from that day." 
 
 " He might have said ' Thank you,' " Maggie ventured to remark. For 
 her pains she found herself threatened with a flexible old slipper and sent 
 to stand in the corner with her face to the wall. 
 
 " You," screamed the woman, "you attempt to dictate to me what my 
 son ought to have done ! How — how dare you ! Who are you, J sh'd like 
 to know ? " The little girl in the corner bent her head ; the blue ribbon 
 hung limply and forlorn. " I've kept you these eighteen months or more 
 because I was lonely and wanted company, and I've slaved and slaved and 
 slaved to keep you when you ought to 'ave gone to the work'ouse, and 
 this is how you pay me back. Oh ! " cried Mrs. Dadswell, in a paroxysm 
 of temper, " you young — " 
 
 Maggie, after a pause, looked round shyly to see whether the tempest 
 had passed. 
 
 "Who are you?" screamed the woman, returning to the attack so 
 suddenly that Maggie, frightened, knocked her little forehead against a 
 faded rose on the wall-paper in the huiTy to resume a penitent attitude. 
 " Who are you ? Tell me that? That woman who went away and left 
 you called you Maggie Cannon. Where's your father? Where's your 
 mother?." 
 
 The print shoulders shook with anguish. 
 
 " What would 'ave become of you if I hadn't played the part of the good 
 Ishmaelite to you ? " demanded Mrs. Dadswell, appealing to the child's 
 better instincts. " Is there anyone else, d'you think, that would have 
 done what I've done ? S'posin* you'd fell into the 'ands of that soaker 
 over the way, who's always so pleasant and carneying in her manners 
 when she's had a drop too much ? S'posin' you'd been took up by that 
 lazy lout of a creature that reads penny books and calls herself Isobel an^ 
 sleeps all day long? But for you, I might be rolling in money at this 
 moment, with a good twenty pound of me own like the miserly party 
 downstairs. What's that you say ? " 
 
 " Never," sobbed Maggie, "never — said — nothing." 
 
 " No, and you wouldn't ! " declared Mrs. Dadswell triumphantly, " you 
 cross-tempered little 'ound, you. Daring to tell me what my son ought 
 to have done or what he ought not to have done, indeed ! Bah ! " cried 
 Mrs. Dadswell, in a fruitless eflfort to express her annoyance in words, 
 " go to bed, do, and get out of my sight." 
 
 Maggie, her apron at her eyes, obeyed. 
 
 "Come back !" cried the old woman. "Don't you dare go ofif like- 
 
LOST rROPERTY 3£ 
 
 that without saying your prayers. ' Gen'le Jesus ' I " she prompted 
 aggressively. 
 
 " ' Meek an' mild,' " said Maggie between her tears. 
 
 " ' Look upon — ' " 
 
 " ' A Httle child.' " 
 
 " ' Pity my ' " — said Mrs. Dadswell severely. " Come on now, you little 
 'orror. ' Pity my — ' " 
 
 " ' Simplicity,' " said Maggie, with reluctance. 
 
 " ' Suffer me — ' " 
 
 " ' To come to Thee.' ' 
 
 " ' Amen,' and if you ain't out of my sight," warned Mrs. Dadswell, 
 " before I count one, I'll give you such a shaking that you won't know 
 ■whether you're standin' on your 'ead or your 'eels ; I'll 'alf murder you." 
 Maggie disappeared. " It's the only way to bring up children," said Mrs. 
 Dadswell to herself consolingly. " They thank you for it later on." 
 
 Maggie, because wisdom was growing in her mind, perceived that other 
 children in No- Way-Through were treated vrith less considerat'.on than 
 herself, and therefore took the system adopted by her protector with calm. 
 The street in which she lived had started with an idea of going somewhere, 
 but being discouraged had come to a definite stop as at the bottom of a 
 sack. The houses, it seemed, had been built yeai-s ago rather hastily, and 
 unfortunate incidents spotted their career from the first, so that tenants 
 now reported the loss of slates or the collapse of a tired wash-house with 
 casual interest. The presence of a blank wall opposite the house which 
 Mrs. Dadswell shared was not without advantages; optimists with no 
 desire for publicity said that it was better than being overlooked, and 
 wickedness declared the position enviable. By the aid of fly-posters, the 
 scene changed frequently, and a picture advertising Somebody's Food for 
 Infants, with a giant baby of extraordinary ruddiness, found its attractions 
 curtailed by an artistic study of a Boman maiden tasting with a most 
 distinguished air the New Unsurpassable Cocoa. One lamp illuminated 
 No- Way-Through at night ; red blinds preserved the mysterious beer-house 
 from wasting its gas on the outer world, but the one lamp was sufficient 
 to show up the posters, and, in this way Maggie was able to select a fresh 
 mother every week. The posters of the local theatre changed late on 
 Friday nights, so that by the time Maggie was tired of introducing to her 
 dreams as mother the lady with hair down and a revolver in each hand, 
 keeping back and defying a regiment of soldiers (apparently, from the fit 
 of their uniforms, French), there appeared a very amiable, resigned person 
 with a simper, who said, as it seemed, to nobody, " Spare my husband but 
 kill me," and of this mother the girl felt quite proud. Occasionally, when 
 a rollicking farce came to stay for a week, with sixty laughs a minute, the 
 small girl found herself unable to adopt a creditable parent and spent a 
 lonely time as an orphan, showing, because of this, a greater affection for 
 Mrs. Dadswell. On the early days of her transfer to Brook Green, she 
 bad exhibited temper, and her guardians had declared her to be a spoilt 
 child ; but the severe treatment in No- Way-Through had obliterated any 
 defect of this kind that Albert Terrace may have encouraged. Maggie's 
 days were spent at the crdche in Harland Street, which she had once joined 
 as undergraduate but where she had now become something like a Don, 
 in that the Sister allowed her to look after smaller infants and generally 
 play the mother to them. She took her responsibiUties seriously. Leaving 
 the rooms after Mrs. Dadswell had gone to work, she, with the door key 
 hung round her neck by a piece of stay-lace, ran to the children's hotel, 
 arriving there generally before either manageress or patrons. The crrche, 
 which had be^ in its time a consistently unsuccessful shop, opeuud ai 
 
ir, LORT PROPERTY 
 
 ihe hour of sovon a m., and very youthful children, whose parents were 
 compelled to be iiwiiy from home during; the day, could board there for a 
 sum tliat included care, general attention, and moderate meals. The 
 Sister, a placid, spectacled young woman in the white linen-hooded bonnet 
 that framed her face, was, fortunately for herself, slightly deaf, and this 
 fitted her specially for the task ; for the creche shook with noise through- 
 out the day, each boarder trying to out-scream the others, and everybody 
 succeeding fairly well. Maggie, with her small list of games, picked up by 
 learning in Albert Terrace and by accident elsewhere, assumed all the 
 airs of an experienced matron in teaching them to the others, showing a 
 willingness to play small parts, excepting with the proclamation of the 
 Empress of India, where, with tablecloth around her and inverted metal 
 mug on her head, she insisted on taking the character of Queen Victoria. 
 She listened to comments of the Sister in regard to the tiresomeness of 
 children, and repeated them with an elderly air whenever opportunity 
 came, sighing deeply as she remarked that youngsters were a bitter trouble, 
 and that she sometimes wondered, with all respect, why they were sent 
 into this world. 
 
 There arrived an evening when a silk-hatted man groped his way down 
 No-Way-Through, despite the warning shrieks from outposts, to make 
 searching inquiries about children. Maggie, to her great regret, found 
 herself reduced from the position of an experienced matron at the creche 
 to that of a mere student in the lower standards of a Board School. 
 
 "This," said Mrs. Dadswell vehemently, as she shook her lean 
 fist at Maggie after the inspector's visit, " is what comes of trusting to 
 you." 
 
 The studies of Maggie were not without some tangible result. Able to 
 spell out to Mrs. Dadswell the contents of a Sunday paper, and to give 
 that lady news for which she had hitherto been dependent on hearsay and 
 on placards, it was discovered that this useful journal had an amiable way 
 of assisting its readers to discover long-lost relatives and friends, thus 
 bringing them again into communication with each other ; and when one 
 evening Mrs. Dadswell recited to Maggie the usual story of her son and 
 his hardships, it was to Maggie that the brilliant thought occurred of 
 making inquiry in this way for Mrs. Dadswell's ofifspring. The idea 
 startled the woman so much that intuitively she threatened to box the 
 girl's ears, upbraided her with mechanical violence for half an hour by the 
 church clock. A week later, having given her mind to the subject whilst 
 engaged at the Baths and Wash-houses, she announced with triumph that 
 this course had just suggested itself to her ; wherefore Maggie tore care- 
 fully a page from her copy-book and wrote that Mrs. Dadswell of Hammer- 
 smith, laundress by trade, would be glad to hear of the whereabouts of her 
 son Will, who had left London some three years previously. For the 
 better verification of spelling, this was submitted by Maggie to the man 
 downstairs (reputed to be a millionaire), and this eccentric person, having 
 padlocked the oven beside his fire grate, consented for the sum of three 
 halfpence to correct its faults of style and of orthography, offering a 
 suggested addition to the effect that Will Dadswell, on replying, would 
 hear of something to his great advantage. 
 
 (The millionaire downstairs was something of a specialist in correspon- 
 dence, being, in point of fact, a begging-letter writer ; he made an excellent 
 living out of this, and by dint of posing variously as a soldier back from 
 the war, a city merchant who had tasted misfortune, a university man who 
 had backed a bill for a thoughtless friend, and many other characters, be 
 was able to live comfortably and to save money. Sometimes he was a 
 widow with eight children and a ninth expected, in which case Maggie 
 
LOST PROPERTY 37 
 
 assisted him by penning a letter with a convincing touch of femininity in 
 the hand-writing.) 
 
 The next Sunday this paragraph appeared, and, to encourage Providence, 
 Mrs. Dadswell took Maggie to a draughty church where they sat near the 
 doorway, receiving with an apologetic air the minister's denunciation of those 
 who dropped only small silver in the plate. Towards the end of tiie 
 following week, when Maggie was at home by herself, nursing a cold that 
 had made her feverish, the postman left a card. 
 
 " Send five and three to above address, and I will com up." 
 
 On Mrs. Dadswell's return that night she heard this, and taking Maggie 
 in her arms she nearly kissed her. The shop in Blythe Road where gay 
 costumes wrestled and tumbled with drawing-room clocks, and stringless 
 guitars leaned helplessly near imperfect musical boxes, lent five shillings, 
 with a proper show of reluctance, on a couple of blankets and a wedding 
 ring. Maggie, for her part, willingly agreed that the sixpence which was 
 to have beeu the doctor's fee for intended consultation and medicine should 
 be diverted. 
 
 It appeared afterwards that by a lapse of wisdom which might have 
 happened to the worst of us, the son, on receipt of the amount in a racing 
 town where (so he said) he was at that time hunting up a job — apparently 
 rather an unsuccessful sportsman at the game and never running his job 
 to earth — took the order and stamps to the post office and changed them. 
 So far good ! But coming out of the post ofltice he was so unfortunate as 
 to encounter, not fifty yards off, a public-house. The day Ijeing warmish 
 or coldish (he was not afterwards sui'e which), he said to himself (as 
 anyone might have done), " How'd it be to stand myself a tonic '? " 
 
 (" That's bis pKX>r father again," commented Mrs. Dadswell, in giving 
 Maggie the information.) 
 
 Deciding this question in the affirmative, he entered the pubUc-house 
 and caused his prescription to be made up. It had a most agreeable effect, 
 so agreeable, indeed, that it seemed unwise, as he neatly expressed it, to 
 spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar, and he therefore took, not, of course, 
 ;i ha'porth of tar, but again some beer with a dash of rum in it. Fellow- 
 members of the Hunt looking in at this moment, he stood drinks to them, 
 and they all very generously wished him good luck in regard to the fortune 
 that presumably awaited him at Brook Green. Some put it at a thousand 
 pounds; others, less cheerful, said fifty. On one of the gallant sportsmen 
 hinting moodily that the whole blooming business might prove a blooming 
 ■sell, Mr. Will Dadswell, brave with liquor, promptly knocked him down, 
 and within the briefest possible space of time found himself shoved against 
 the zinc edge of the counter, which he met with his head ; an accident 
 necessitating his removal to a hospital kept up by voluntary subscriptions 
 for the relief of the afflicted and distressed. Consequently another five 
 shillings and threepence had to be found, and Maggie being by this time 
 seriously ill and in urgent want of remedies, the task proved arduous. But 
 Mrs. Dadswell had determined to see her son ; besides, she was a woman 
 so accustomed all through her life to meet difficulties that she would have 
 felt lonely without them. True, she lamented the fact that she possessed 
 but one pair of hands, but this was an old grievance ; she bewailed it 
 more acutely when, in the midst of turbulent thought necessary to the 
 re-importation of her son, the doctor announced that unless Maggie was 
 carefully nursed she would certainly not remain long in this world. Then 
 it was that Mrs. Dadswell put her back to the wall and faced her troubles 
 like a woman. Her neighboiurs, with whom commonly she was not on 
 speaking terms, offered at this moment their assistance, and, to enable her 
 to continue the indispeusable work at the Wash-bouses, organized a series 
 
38 LOST PROPRKTY 
 
 of watches by day, pressing others into the service, so that even the 
 indolent woman called Isobel over the way rose at the unusual hour of ten 
 to take her two hours with the rest of them. By night Mrs. Dadswell 
 herself attended the distressed little girl, terrified sometimes at the thought 
 that she might lose Maggie, and deferring all upbraidings until a time of 
 convalescence. The doctor told Maggie later (and Maggie never forgot 
 ihe announcement) that she owed her life to Mrs. Dadswell. The Sister 
 at the creche, hearing of the illness of her former assistant, had sent a 
 poke-bonneted colleague to relieve in the duty of nursing, when— Mrs. 
 Dadswell said that this almost induced one to believe in a Providence — 
 her son made his appearance, stumbling up the wooden stairs and swearing 
 at eafth. 
 
 " 'Ullo ! " said Mr. Will Dadswell. " How goes it? " 
 
 " Oh, Will ! " she cried. " Thank 'Eaven I've seen you once again." 
 
 " I don't know that there's much to thank 'Eaven for," he grumbled. 
 " What's the news ? " 
 
 " Maggie's been terrible ill," said the woman, crying with delight sta she 
 led the way to the front room, " but she's on the mend." 
 
 "Who's she?" 
 
 " Little girl I took care of after you left." 
 
 " You always was a fool," said Mr. Will, entering the room. " What's 
 the other news?" 
 
 " I don't know that there's anything else," said his mother, stroking his 
 face. "You're looking older, Will." 
 
 " Leave my dial alone," he growled, " and let's talk sense. I want to 
 'ear the rights of this." He found in his waistcoat pocket a folded news- 
 paper cutting, and, straightening it out on the table, rapped his fist 
 upon it. 
 
 " Don't wake her up," begged his mother. " She's in a nice 
 sleep." 
 
 " I'm going to wake everybody up," he shouted, " if so be as I've been 
 had. I can stand a certain amount of nonsense, but, mind you, I know 
 where to draw the line. Look at this ! ' Hear of something to his 
 advantage.' Now," said Mr. Will DadsweU fiercely, " that's in print, 
 mind you. You can't get away from that. What I say to you now is, 
 perduce the advantage. By the law, I can compel you to do it." 
 
 " Will, dear," she said soothingly, " there's the advantage of — of— seeing 
 your poor old mother." 
 
 " Bah 1 " said her son, with great disgust. " That ain't good enough for 
 me. Who's to pay me for aU my trouble? Who the — " 
 
 " Don't make a row," she begged ; " Maggie's sure to wake up if you do, 
 and — Oh, Will, you wouldn't 1 " 
 
 He had lifted his fist. Partly from a disinclination for any sort of 
 unnecessary work, he did not strike her. 
 
 " Tell me who done it," he demanded hotly. " That's what I want to 
 get at. Give me the party's name, and I'll — " 
 
 His mother, frightened, informed him at whose suggestion tlie phrase in 
 the advertisement had been added. 
 
 " Then," said Mr. WiU, dabbing his cap on his head, " I'll make mince- 
 meat of him! " 
 
 "Don't go doing nothing rash," she cried appealingly. "And come 
 hack 'ere to sleep." 
 
 He returned later, in, to his mother's proud delight, a perfectly sober 
 condition ; he had had a long talk with the begging-letter writer down- 
 stairs, and it appeared that after the first white heat of conversation had 
 cooled, and the natural irritation of the old gentleman at being roughly 
 
LOST PROPERTY 3W 
 
 interrupted whilst engaged in matters of finance had passed oft", they had 
 become on almost friendly terms. 
 
 "We thor'ly understand one another," said Mr. Will, with a most 
 reasonable air. " You see, he's a man of education, and I'm a man of 
 tact." 
 
 He agreed quite good-temperedly to sleep on the horse-hair sofa, after he 
 had made an excellent meal of pressed beef and ale ; his obvious considera- 
 tion for others, when he begged her not to disturb herself if she should 
 hear him moving about in the morning, touched his mother. Maggie 
 awoke at about two in the morning, and the proud old woman, seeing that 
 she was better, gave an idealized account of the son's return. 
 
 " There's bad," she whispered, " and there's good. I've got one of the 
 good. Go to sleep again, dear." 
 
 In the morning, commotion in No- Way-Through — commotion taking 
 strange forms, as, for instance, a disturbed old man rushing out of the 
 house, up the street, and seizing first a fireman oft' duty, and next a railway 
 guard going home to breakfast, in his desperate anxiety to communicate 
 with some official person. Finding at last the poUce station in King Street, 
 and, being left to himself for five minutes, able to explain with comparative 
 coherence that he had been robbed, robbed, robbed ; that twenty-five golden 
 sovereigns, twenty-five of them, five-and-twenty, had been taken in the 
 night from his room. He was ruined, ruined, ruined I He who had worked 
 until he was horny-handed — 
 
 " Stop that talk ! " ordered the Inspector. " Larking, go with him and 
 see what you can make of it." 
 
 Arrival of Mr. Larking in the street caused excitement to reach its 
 highest point. The indolent woman from over the way was just then 
 reading Bow Bells in Maggie's room, and Maggie, hearing a disturbance, 
 expressed anxiety to know the cause ; but her attendant preferred to remain 
 near the dance at Walsingham Towers, and ascertain whether the lovely 
 heiress in the story said " Yes " or " No." Thus it was only when Mr. 
 Larking, with many apologies for entering a lady's bedroom, and urging as 
 some excuse that he was himself a married man, came in to make inquiry, 
 that the two were made acquainted with facts. Where was Mrs. Dads- 
 well? At her work, sir. And where was her work? At. the Baths and 
 Wash-houses, sir. Good. Any objection to my remaining here whilst my 
 mate goes round to fetch her ? None at all, sir. Good again ! Mr. Lark- 
 ing, seating himself in a fatherly way at the foot of the bed, told Maggie 
 that he had a Uttle girl about her age at home ; that she too had been ill, 
 but was pulling round with the help of good nursing, and he was jolly sure 
 Maggie had been well looked after. And what did Maggie think of this 
 new Channel Tunnel scheme that people were talking about? Fo" his 
 part — The arrival of Mrs. Dadswell snapped off the end of the con- 
 versation. 
 
 " Your son was here last night ? " 
 
 " He was," said Mrs. Dadswell, readily. " Are you a friend of his ? " 
 
 " I'm a detective. Here's my card." 
 
 Mrs. Dadswell held the blue iron rim of the bedstead tightly with both 
 of her stringy hands. 
 
 " Did you see him this morning? " 
 
 " No, sir," she answered in a choked voice. " He left before I could 
 give him his breakfast." 
 
 " Know which way he's gone? " 
 
 '* I — I reely couldn't tell you, sir. le the — the military after him ? " 
 
 "Worse than that." And explained. 
 
 Outside the door the old begging-letter writer was shouting through the 
 
40 LOST PROPEBTY 
 
 keyhole. INTrs. Dadfiwell's gaze went wearily around the bedroom and 
 rested presently on Maggie's excited face. She smiled in a hopeless way. 
 
 " And we shall have to catch him," went on the detective. " He can't 
 have gone far." 
 
 " He didn't take the money," said Mrs. Dadswell, her breath coming 
 quickly. 
 
 " Quite a natural remark from your point of view," said Mr. Larking's 
 ooUeagne, turning to go, " but it ain't evidence." 
 
 'I know he didn't," she repeated in a low voice. "I — I took it 
 mesclf." 
 
 The two men looked at each other. Maggie clutched her flannel bed- 
 gown at the neck. The neighbour from over the way, putting down her 
 journal wdth a sigh, applied her attention lazily to the present scene. 
 
 "I've been very much pressed for money lately," said the woman, 
 speaking steadily now. " I took it. My son didn't know nothing about 
 it." 
 
 "Then," said Mr. Larking, "that being so, you'd bettor come along 
 with us." 
 
 She went to the chest of drawers and took her best shawl, a Paisley 
 phawl which she had worn at her wedding. Smoothing her hair at the 
 mirror, she nodded to the lazy-eyed neighbour and went out. 
 
 " Oh, come back, come back, please," wailed Maggie, "and kiss me ! " 
 
 " Would you like to ? " asked Mr. Larking, in the next room. 
 
 " Don't dare trust meself," the woman said in a broken whisper ; " I've 
 got fond of her." 
 
 CHAPTER VT 
 
 CRISES in the life of Maggie Can.ion could scarcely impress her equally 
 at each repetition ; already she felt enough of confidence in the world 
 to be sure that somewhere or other she would discover a friend. Listening 
 earnestly to the talk of women, she vws able to understand little more than 
 that Mrs. Dadswell had passed out of her life, and that she had now to 
 look for a new grown-up companion. Maggie addi-essed herseK, therefore, 
 to the lady from opposite, who was taking but a languid interest in the 
 Kubjeot, and suggested naively to her that *hey should in future live together. 
 The lady from opposite put her through au indolent examination, the first 
 question which was. Could she light a tire ? This being answered in a prompt 
 afKrmative with details added — "First paper, then wood, then co-els"— 
 — the lady, ordering Maggie to call her Lady Isobel, signified consent to 
 Maggie's proposal, and took her across the road to her single room, in 
 this way furnishing a new topic for debate to the bare-armed women at 
 doorways, who, flurried by swift succession of events, decided to put aside 
 for the day all thoughts of household work, and to give themselves up to 
 luxurious consideration of public matters. 
 
 " Here we are," said Lady Isobel. The mere exertion of kicking open 
 the door seemed to exhaust her. " Here's your new home, Martin." 
 
 " Maggie," corrected the girl, as she stared aroimd the untidy room. 
 
 •' I think," said the other affectedly, " I shall call you Martin. You will 
 have to consider yourself as my maid." 
 
 " I'm ready," said Maggie, " to play any part you like in the pan'ermime. 
 Where's your dustpan ? " 
 
 " Oh, don't bother me with such matters," said Lady Isobel, with a 
 shiver of contempt. " If you want anything in this place you must find 
 it. I want a rest and a read." 
 
LOST PROPERTY 41 
 
 Maggie Cannon enjoyed so much the task of reforming the state of the 
 deplorable room that the week or two which might have been devoted to 
 lamentation over the loss of Mrs. Dadswell became a period of busy happi- 
 ness. She regretted the time that had to be given to school, although the 
 hours spent there were usually attractive, and working early, staked out 
 claims in different portions of the room, dusted and brushed and scoured 
 them until Lady Isobel, reclining with more or less grace on the chair 
 bedstead, foresaw nervously a time when she herself would be taken in 
 hand by the industrious young person and similarly treated. Delight came 
 for the little maid in the fact that her new mistress seldom took the trouble 
 to upbraid her ; by cautious experiment she found that there were times 
 when Lady Isobel, dazed with reading stories of the highest possible 
 society, could be lectured in plain language and imperfections in her con- 
 duct pointed out. Lady Isobel's income, it appeared, was fifteen shillings 
 a week ; the amount came by post office order every Friday morning, and 
 Friday was therefore the one day of the week devoted to luxury, a scheme 
 that did not include drink, for which fact Maggie, in whom the sight of 
 people exceeding in this direction inspired fear, felt thankful. Lady Isobel 
 indeed cared little for any beverage stronger than claret. She occasionally 
 sent Maggie for a tenpenny bottle of this wine, called Chateau Something ; 
 the grocer's assistant told Maggie you could always teU good wine from 
 bad by the label. The landlord's agent, who had the first call on the 
 weekly fifteen shillings, appeared so quickly on the heels of the postman 
 that, but for his broad and pleasant jokes, you might have thought him a 
 suspicious youth and one fearful of not getting his money ; this paid, and 
 the landlord's agent having presented as a gift his opinion of Mr. Gladstone, 
 and the latest scandal concerning other landlords of the neighbourhood, 
 there remained ten shillings to be spent. 
 
 It never occurred to Lady Isobel that there existed any alternative to 
 immediate expenditure of the amount. By a great effort she rose on 
 Friday mornings immediately before the departure of Maggie (her usual hour 
 for rising being noon), and the maid, nervous at the possibility of being 
 late at school, hurriedly dressed her ladyship's ban-, Jindiug for this purpose 
 the hairpins that had been idle for a week. This done, the maid hurried 
 off, lacing up her own boots as she went, and her mistress then began to 
 plan out the business of the day, which generally included a visit to some 
 enormous shop selling off, in a perfectly wanton manner, mountains of 
 perfectly useless articles. Lady Isobel, with all her aristocratic tendencies, 
 prided herself on the fact that she could pick up a baigain as well as most 
 people. At these sales she purchased sometimes an astounding garment 
 for Maggie — on one occasion buying for her a tea-gown, in many ways 
 admirable, but better suited to a woman of about three times the height of 
 the little girl^and Maggie would taste delight until her colleagues at 
 school pointed out en'ors and incongruities. Lady Isobel, against her will, 
 was forced by Maggie into buying necessaries. One of the earliest 
 improvements made by the new maid came in regard to parcels sent to 
 the laundry ; Lady Isobel's plan hitherto had been to send things to be . 
 washed and ironed and to take no further notice of the matter, on the 
 grounds that it cost money to pay the laundress and one might as well 
 buy new. An inordinate sum out of the half-sovereign still went in penny 
 weekly journals at the newsagents ; a small amount went to the baker's 
 and the grocer's, and Lady Isobel was sometimes (but not often) puzzled 
 how to dispose of the remainder. On one occasion, finding herself in 
 High Street, Kensington, with a full shilling to dispose of, she had taken 
 a cab home to her own content, astounding the neighbours, \\ ho, on seeing 
 the hausom bad fell ueriaiu of a cau of inebriety or, an the next bast 
 
49 LOST PROPfiRTY 
 
 thing, an accident. No-Way-Through people had the habit of criticising 
 publicly each other's conduct, a system of reviewing that theoretically 
 should have made for improvement but in practice led only to altercation. 
 Lady Isobel's harshest critics were the women slightly less indolent than 
 herself, or those possessing some other failing but not the one with which 
 she might fairly be charged, and as she was too much disinclined for 
 active service to formulate replies, it was left to Maggie, In whose presence 
 the acrid comments were usually made, to retort on her behalf. 
 
 "And there she lolls," cried a \yoman next door, raising her voice that 
 her words might go far, " there she lolls jest for all the world as though 
 she was the 'ighest of the 'igh. No wonder her poor 'usband got rid of hei'." 
 
 " He soon found her out, / lay." 
 
 " And that poor little dear," — this as Maggie arrived with her exercise 
 hook under her arm and a hoop that trundled in a crippled fashion by 
 leason of the fact that it was flattened at one place — " that poor little dear, 
 no older than my Gladys, 'aving to do all the work and slaving her fingers 
 to the very bone." 
 
 " Talkin' 'bout me ? " asked Maggie. 
 
 " Yus, dear ! Would you like a liit of 'ome-made cake?" 
 
 " I'd rather live a little while longer," said Maggie. "'Aven't you got 
 any work to do indoors? " 
 
 " If you was a child of mine," said a scarlet-faced neighbour, taking up 
 the word because the first had become too indignant to speak, " I'd use 
 the strap." 
 
 " .\nd if you was a mother of mine," retorted Maggie, " I'd keep you 
 from the public-house." 
 
 " This," said the insulted woman to the others, " this is what comes of 
 your Board Schools. This is what we pay rates and taxes for. Nice 
 thing, isn't it, to think that — " 
 
 " Anything more to say to me? " asked the girl, politely waiting on her 
 doorway. 
 
 " Yus," cried the first neighbour violently, recovering powers of speech, 
 " yus, we 'ave. You're nothing more than a — " 
 
 As the strong advance guard of adjectives came, intimating the approach 
 of an offensive noun, Maggie, defeated, put her hands to her ears and ran 
 in. The neighbours felt surprised at this easy victory, the words being in 
 such common use that it seemed odd anyone should be frightened by them ; 
 for in No-Way-Through, as in other places of a similar kind, the limitations 
 of language were noticeable, so that sometimes an expression of the most 
 fervent praise became identical with one used to pronounce bitterest con- 
 tempt. To Maggie the words and phrases never failed to be obnoxious, 
 and if Lady Isobel, from absent-mindedness, used one of them, she had to 
 endure silence from her young companion for the rest of the evening. 
 This was more endurable to that apostle of comfort and peace than the 
 methods sometimes adopted by Maggie, hot from wrestling with difficult 
 subjects at school and anxious that her knowledge should not become cool. 
 Who was Goliath? Wliat was William the Conqueror famous for? 
 Which were the six principal rivers of England ? What was a peninsula ? 
 Who was it who went to heaven in a chariot of fire? Supposing twelve 
 eggs cost — 
 
 "Oh, for goodness gracious sake," cried the bewildered Lady Isobel, 
 stung into protest, " do leave off asking questions, Martin I You make 
 my poor head ache." 
 
 " But don't you know ? " 
 
 " Why, my dear creature," said Lady Isobel, affecting to doze, " I WBOt 
 to a boarding school." 
 
LOST PROPERTY 43 
 
 " What did you learn there ? " persisted Maggie. " Tell me something 
 you learnt." 
 
 "Go on making that toast," commanded the other, yawning, " and 
 don't pester me with silly questions. I haven't had a thing to eat all day." 
 
 " Your own fault. You should get up and work about, like other people 
 do. D'you know how long Jonah was in the whale? " 
 
 " I used to know." 
 
 " D'you know now ? " 
 
 " If you let that toast get black," said Lady Isobel, " I shall moat 
 certainly get annoyed with you." 
 
 " Who signed the Magna Charter?" demanded the }'oung student at 
 the fireplace. " Come on, now. Who signed the Magna Charter ? Who 
 signed — " 
 
 " Moses ! " said Lady Isobel, with an effort. 
 
 " Thought you didn't know," said Maggie triumphantly. " Now sit up 
 at the table, and button your blouse, and — First let me brush that head 
 of hair of yours." 
 
 It was ahiiost an ideal life for both ; Lady Isobel content to have some- 
 one to take all the work from her bands, and Maggie, important and old 
 iu assuming the duties of housekeeping. At times when work was done, 
 her ladyship could he induced to dress herself, and the two would go out 
 on Brook Green, where Maggie, reminded by this small space of the moun- 
 tainous scenery of Primrose Hill, would describe, with the exaggeration 
 necessary to make a story interesting, her baby life, so far as she could 
 recollect it. She could remember Watson vaguely, and sometimes a scent 
 of dinners reminded her of a famous kitchen ; one or two incidents of her 
 three-year-old life stood out more distinctly than her recent experience 
 with Mrs. Dadswell. (Mrs. Dadswell, they heard, had been sent away, 
 and could, therefore, no longer be considered.) Maggie was old enough 
 now to realize that she could not claim a father or mother, and Lady 
 Isobel on this point founded a somewhat conventional romance which 
 required only a birthmark (which did not exist) or a piece of jewelle1•^' 
 bearing a crest (similarly wanting) to order to make it perfect. 
 
 With the regular arrival of the fifteen shillings each week there seemed 
 to the two no occasion for anxiety, no reason why their Uvea should not 
 amble quietly along. Came, however, a black Friday, when no post ofiBce 
 order arrived. Lady Isobel, startled out of her normal apathy, became 
 seriously perturbed by this unprecedented fact, and when the day closed, 
 and still no letter arrived, she took counsel with Maggie, her only friend, 
 and told the little girl more of her own history than she had hithei-to 
 troubled to disclose. Maggie counselled patience, and an almost sleepless 
 night was spent in anxiety not to miss the next morning's post. This post 
 brought a letter, but no remittance. The letter was from a Dr. James in 
 Gower Street, Bloomsbury, who said that his friend was ill, seriously ill, 
 that his friend desired the wife should on no account come to make 
 inquiries. 
 
 " I needn't button up me boots, then," said Lady Isobel, thankfully. 
 
 Dr. James's friend hoped to be better soon, and would then communicate 
 as usual. In the meantime, as the patient had to be kept very quiet, his 
 wife was to be sure not to trouble him. 
 
 " It don't say I shouldn't," remarked JIaggie, acutely. 
 
 Lady Isobel, having herself no control over the helm, was willing to 
 follow any one capable of steering, and the small girl, now an incalculable 
 age by reason of the importance of her duties, gave up the task of scrub- 
 bing the floor (the day being Saturday), and having dressed, partly iu her 
 own clothes and partly iu some selected from the stock of her companion, 
 
44 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 broke open her money-lx>x to obtain the amount of the half-fare iu copper, 
 and set ofl' on her journey of investigation. Other children called after her 
 as she went out towards the Green, some openly deriding her on account of 
 her queer appearance, others (and this pained her) aflfecting to look upon 
 her as a distinguished stranger and begging her to remember a jerry-built 
 grotto of three bricks and an oyster shell. She took her half-ticket at 
 Hammersmith Station, disregarding the booking clerk's remark that it was 
 a pity to break up such an extremely valuable collection of old and curious 
 coins; and by asking passengers in the compartment for the name of every 
 station, she, to their great relief, was able presently to alight at Gower 
 Street. The address which Lady Isobel had pinned on her sleeve was 
 in a long, straight street, that looked as though it had no end ; she found, 
 after walking all the way down, that it lost itself eventually in a square. 
 Knowing better than to speak to a constable, it was to a spectacled boy 
 with six books strapped together on his back and crape around his cap that 
 she applied for information. 
 " I'm going there, " he said. 
 " Good bisness," remarked Maggie. 
 " Can I show you the way ? " 
 
 " That," said Maggie, " depends on whether you've got enough sense." 
 She turned and walked with him. " What makes you go to school on 
 Sat'days ? " 
 
 " I go," he answered proudly, " to a private tutor." 
 " Silly kid," remarked the girl. 
 " I beg your pardon." 
 
 "You change," she advised him. " You go to a Board School and get 
 your Sat'days free. They get you on quite as well ; and, after all, it conies 
 out of the rates. I lay you don't know your seven times." 
 
 " I," he said, looking around as they walked, " am in vulgar fractions." 
 " Doesn't sound very respectable," she said. " How far are you on in 
 the kings and queens ? " 
 
 " I have done history," said the boy, with the air of one who had but 
 little to learn. " I\Iay I ask you a question '? " 
 " A civil one, you can." 
 " Who is it you want to see at my house ? " 
 " Your 'ouse indeed ! " 
 
 " Well," said the boy patiently, " the house where I reside." 
 "That's better," she remarked, with approval. "This is the party's 
 name I wanted to ask about." She showed him the label sewn to her 
 sleeve. 
 
 "Somehow," he said, "I thought so. I'm sorry to say he died last 
 night." 
 
 " You don't seem very much cut up about it." 
 
 " We were not related," explained the hoy. " He adopted me." The 
 term conveyed nothing to Maggie, and she passed it. " Moreover, we 
 were not on very good terms with each other. He was engaged at the 
 Museum and treated everybody^I hope it's not unkind to say this — treated 
 everybody as though they had the feelings of a mummy." 
 
 " Question is this," said Maggie, breathless at having to run by his side 
 up tbe long stieet, " Did he leave anything to his wife ? " 
 
 " There was a wife, I believe," said the boy, with a mature air. 
 " I know her," said Maggie. " I live with her. It's her that told me 
 to come and inquire." 
 
 " Incorrect," said the boy, " to say ' it is her.' You should say ' it is 
 she ' Errors in p-amniar are apt to grow on one." 
 
 " I wish they'd ^ihinteJ soma sense iu you," .'■.he rrmarked impatiently. 
 
LOST PROPERTY 45 
 
 " Doctor James told mo this morning that only a few pounds had been 
 left. But I'm all right," he said, with importance. " I've won a scholar- 
 ship." 
 
 " In a raffle ? " 
 
 " At a public school." 
 
 " I think it's a jolly shame ! " cried Maggie, hotly. " He ought to have 
 left it to his married wife. If I had my way — " 
 
 " This is the house," interrupted the boy. " Do you wish to come in ? " 
 
 " Not me ! " snapped Maggie. 
 
 " My name is Lucas," he said, with a careful air of breeding. " I hope 
 we shall meet again." 
 
 " My name's Maggie Cannon," she retorted ; " and I hope we shan't." 
 
 He bowed as she went off, and this sign of respect touched the girl as 
 nothing else could have done. Looking back, she saw that he was standing 
 with the door open, watching, and she waved her handkerchief to him. 
 She wished the handkerchief had been cleaner. 
 
 It occurred to her that the visit had not been altogether without some 
 satisfactor}- result, and it was certainly pleasant to be in a neighbourhood 
 which, in comparison with No- Way-Through, seemed princely. She was 
 reminded of her baby days and of the house, now, as a result of inventive 
 reminiscence, a gorgeous building not unlike Buckingham Palace set in 
 fairyland. Determining to take this opportunity of increasing her acquaint- 
 ance with the higher world, she walked north through Camden Town on a 
 trip of discovery, finding little to repay her for the trouble until she arrived 
 at Regent's Park. Here, although the highest aristocracy was not appa- 
 rently lending its patronage, there were children and niu'ses and mothers 
 of good estate. She began to feel wishful that she could change places 
 with one of the youngsters. At Brook Green she was accustomed to hear 
 herself referred to as a child with good manners, audit seemed hard to find 
 that new and high surroundings sent her down to a position that could only 
 be sneered at. To stiffen her self-respect she adventured along by the 
 banks of the canal until she found a smaller and worse-dressed girl than 
 herself ; this young woman she called Cetewayo, and ordered her to leave 
 the Park at once, which the smaller girl, appalled by the severity of 
 Maggie's tones, straightway proceeded to do. Maggie felt better after 
 this incident, and running down the centre of the Park, crossed into the 
 decorated half, where she was quite happy until she saw a notice, in large 
 capitals, forbidding her to pick the flowers ; the idea being suggested to 
 her, she felt it wiser to go ere she should give in to the temptation. In 
 Portland Place and in the squares near she found herself abashed by large, 
 pompous houses, some bearing mystical diamond-.shaped signs, which she 
 took to be a pictorial warning not to take the mansions away ; one house 
 especially, guarded by two stone animals laughing offensively, made her 
 anxious to get home to No-Way-Tbrough. Nevertheless, as she went 
 down the stairs of Edgware Road Station into the smoke of the Under- 
 ground Railway, she felt that the afternoon had l)een fruitful and that 
 Society had now fewer secrets from her than before. In particular, she 
 had brought away a new style of holding one's skirt. 
 
 " Well, well," said Lady Isobel, stifling a yawn, " so he's gone, has ho ? 
 Think he might have sent for me." 
 
 " Should you have dressed and started ofi' to see him ? " asked Maggie. 
 
 " I won't go 80 far as to say that. There's a medium iu all things. 
 Question is — take off my slippers, will you? — question is, what's to become 
 of me? " 
 
 " Tell you what," said the little maid suddenly, " rou'll have to set to 
 and TTork for your living." 
 
46 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 " No, no," pleaded the woman. " Don't go Baying things like that. 1 
 haven't worked for a good many years — not since I left that bar at a rail- 
 way station — and I hope to goodness I never shall again. You shouldn't 
 go putting ideas like that into my head." 
 
 " Something must be done." 
 
 " Let's take a day or two to think it over," urged Lady Isobel. " I was 
 never a believer in being in a hurry." 
 
 " I've noticed that ! " 
 
 Lady Isobel, sighing at the impatience of her handmaid, shuffled over to 
 the toilet table, and opening the top drawer took out a bundle of photo- 
 graphs, with some middle-aged letters tied with a piece of shoe-laco. 
 
 " That was he, Martin," she said, without emotion, " before I married 
 him. This was another taken after." 
 
 " You can see the difference. Was you fond of him ? " 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," said Lady Isobel, tearing up the photographs. 
 " Fond of him as I wae of anybody, I suppose. Besides, I was very tired 
 of the bar ; on my feet till twelve every night except Sundays." 
 
 "But you're not going to burn 'em? " cried Maggie. 
 
 " He's gone," said the other casually ; " what's the use of keeping 
 them ? " 
 
 " 'Pon me word," cried the little maid excitedly, " if you don't want a 
 jolly good shaking. I've got no patience with you. Why, if I was you 
 and I'd just lost me husband," the ribbon of Maggie's hair whisked about 
 with indignation, " I should be having a jolly good cry, and then when I'd 
 got that over I should begin to think of the future." 
 
 " Everything," said the woman feebly, " everything comes all right in 
 the long-run." 
 
 " All right ! " echoed Maggie, with bitterness. " Do you call this all 
 inght ? Livin' in one room when you might have had three or four in 
 Bloomsbury? Muckin' about at seven o'clock in the evening in your 
 dressin'-gown, when you might have been in evening-dress jest going in to 
 dinner ? " 
 
 " You don't understand," said Lady Isobel wearily; " we're all consti- 
 tuted different. Answer the door, dear." 
 
 \ The landlord's agent looked in. Landlord's agent, hopeful for his 
 slightly deferred rent, began to tell an amusing story of a girl whom he 
 had once known who had a communication similarly delayed, ovring to the 
 neglect of the post-ofi&ce, and in consequence became religious, when she 
 might have married a journeyman carpenter. On being made acquainted 
 with the facts, landlord's agent, dropping his breezy manner, said rather 
 i)iusquely, as he filled in a form of blue paper, " Out you get next Friday 
 as ever is," and departed. 
 
 "It's bound to come inght," repeated Lady Isobel, as though endeavour- 
 ing to persuade herself. " There's always the workhouse." 
 
 " Not for me," said the little girl sharply. 
 
 " ]5ut you wouldn't starve, would you? " 
 
 " 01 the two," said Maggie, " I'd rather," 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE only money available for immediate requirements being a few 
 coppers in Maggie's money-box, that sum had to be taken. A 
 matter for regret this, but the only alternatives were appealing to neighs 
 hours or going without food, and both of these she instantly rejected. 
 
LOST PROPERTY 47 
 
 In Bridge Road on Sunday morning Maggie, after inspecting closely 
 every bargain in the hoarBe-voiced butcher's shop, purchased, on the 
 tradesman earnestly requesting her either to buy or bunk, a piece of meat 
 whieh he declared to be beef. This, with some bread, made the day pass 
 with moderate comfort, and Lady Isobel half promised to accept Maggie's 
 urgent advice and pay a visit early the next day to Gower Street. When 
 the morning arrived she reiterated this promise, and Maggie went off to 
 schod breakfastless but hopeful. On her return at noon Lady Isobel, still 
 a-bed, begged to be allowed to postpone the troublesome undertaking until 
 the morrow. That evening Maggie, with hunger for only companion, 
 went to Hammersmith Broadway and tortured herself by gazing long at 
 the \andow of a restaurant which exhibited a few of the choice articles of 
 food to be had, for money, within. When she could no longer trust her- 
 self to look at them she sat in a doorway near the fire station, trying not 
 to think of meals, and directing her mind instead to startling events with 
 tire escapes and engines ; but finding herself in pain, for want of food, 
 cried s»ftlv to herself. A tall man in a quiet braided uniform and cap 
 came to her, asking what was the matter, and inquired her name, to which 
 questions Maggie promptly replied, " Annie Stone, 29, Rufus Street." The 
 uniformed man bought her a deUghtful little loaf and a fairy-like pat of 
 butter, aid advised her to cut away home. 
 
 By Tuesday morning Lady Isobel had repented her rash and impetuous 
 agreemem, and it required all of Maggie's energy, all of her satire, all of 
 her assisttbce to induce the woman to rise and be dressed and booted for 
 public proiienade before the maid's departure to school. A triumph to 
 the small gVl to see her slothful mistress out in the roadway ; to lock the 
 door and tike the key, that any scheme of retreat might be frustrated. 
 When Magge returned from morning school, she found a party of three 
 awaiting herein the low-ceUinged passage, with the women neighbours out 
 at every frontdoor watching impatiently the slow progress of events. 
 
 " Martin," iaid the tired Lady Isobel, " this is Dr. James who attended 
 him, and this *ip the boy — " 
 
 " How do y(ii do? " said the spectacled boy gravely. " We have met 
 before." \ 
 
 " I haven't f<itgotten your funny face," she said. 
 
 " Do you knot," said the clean-shaven doctor, with severity, " that you 
 have been keepiiig us here for some time?" 
 
 " I didn't gendyou an invitation," she retorted, unlocking the door. 
 " I have come lere to see whether there is any truth in the statements 
 which have been r^ade. I have a strong objection to being taken in or 
 imposed upon." pr. James shook two large fingers at Maggie and 
 frowned at her. "I'm no fool." 
 
 " We've only gotwour word for that," said Maggie, pulling the blind at 
 the window higher. \" Have a good look round now you are here." 
 
 The doctor turnel from her with the air of a man whose life was too 
 serious to be wastea in discussion with children, and spoke to Lady 
 Isobel. The lad cam^ to the window, taking off his spectacles. 
 
 "Do you care for the lookout?" he asked politely, waving his hand 
 towards the hoarding n sight. 
 
 " Yes," said Maggiel" I'm fond of scenery." 
 
 "You go to the tbeaies often?" He wiped his spectacles in a middle- 
 aged way, and puttingihem on again gazed out at a threatening poster 
 illustrating the fall backVards of two blue struggling men over a red cliff 
 into a yellow sea below. 
 " We get tired of "em." 
 "The stage," said theVioy wisely, "is a great factor for good or evil. 
 
48 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 One is anxious to see what Edwin Booth will do with ' Richelieu ' at the 
 Adelphi. The character is somewhat diflficult and complex. Here he 
 seemed to fear recognition of the fact that this was a quotation, and be 
 broke oflf hurriedly. " Did you get home safely on Saturday ? " 
 
 " I always get 'ome safe." 
 
 " The funeral takes place to-morrow." 
 
 " You'll be all there, I lay," remarked Maggie. " I can fancy you 
 strutting about in the cemct'ry. I never get a bean-feast," she added, 
 glancing at him enviously. 
 
 As they looked out of the window they heard the strenuous undertones 
 of the doctor. Lady Isobel seemed already fatigued with the argument, 
 and contented herself, resting one foot on the top bar of the fire-grate, 
 with an occasional sigh of self -condolence. 
 
 "Mind this," said Dr. James, "I'm not defending him. He was 
 always a strange character; the oddest and maddest thing he ever did 
 was to marry you." 
 
 Lady Isobel moaned a protest. 
 
 " But the will is definite and all in order, and the very little tbat my 
 friend left goes to this lad." 
 
 Lady Isobel glanced unconcernedly at Lucas, and, yawning, murmured 
 that it was a nuisance. 
 
 " I'm not so sure," said the doctor contentiously, " I'm not so sure. 
 He always said you were an impossible woman, and I believe you are. 
 You're not energetic." Lady Isobel gave a doleful intination of 
 disagi-eement. " You don't want to come to-morrow, I suppose? " 
 
 Lady Isobel, shaking her head, said she had nothing to go in 
 
 "Very well, then," said Dr. James sharply, "that's all sitisfactorily 
 settled. Lucas, let us be off. Bright-eyes," he said to Maggie, " see us 
 to the door. Good-bye, ma'am." 
 
 Lady Isobel moaned a response. 
 
 " Pull yourself together," he ordered, " and take a pattern from this 
 little woman here. She has a good face," he added. " Possibly she may 
 grow up a smart, busy girl, in spite " — here he glanced aroind the room — 
 " in spite of her surroundings." 
 
 Maggie had a retort ready, but she stopped it ; she jould not help 
 flushing with pleasure at being thus commended in the presence of the 
 boy. She led the way out into the passage, and hoping t\at Lucas would 
 not see the hole in the heel of her stocking, which she had forgotten to 
 darn, cautioned them not to step on the mat, which covered vacancy 
 below. The doctor found in his waistcoat pocket a coin which he pressed 
 into Maggie's palm ; she could not tell whether it was a halfpenny or a 
 shilling. On Lucas unexpectedly offering his hand she changed the 
 position of the coin and found herself responding rather awkwardly, 
 being herself somewhat of a novice in the art, ant Lucas an expert. 
 When she had hastened back to Lady Isobel, the twJ inspected the coin 
 and found it to be a sovereign, whereupon Lady Isoel declared Maggie 
 to be a good, dear child, and prophesied that thej would live happily 
 together for ever and ever ; the prospect appeared Ifss rosy when Maggie 
 announced her intention of keeping the sum and disbursing it as she 
 herself thought fit. For a first step the girl marcled off and found the 
 collector of rents, obtaining respite by paying th) amount due. After- 
 wards she made extraordinarily wise investments ft the grocer's in Blythe 
 Road (secretly enjoying this realistic game of playing at shops), and 
 ■(vished that the spectacled boy Lucas bad been vith her, that, witnessing 
 her masterful way with yoiing shopmen, he rright perhaps modify his 
 good opinion of himself and increase his regard fir her. 
 
LOST PROPEKTY in 
 
 She wrapped up the halance of the sovereign bo that the coins should 
 not chink, and hid them in a corner of the room which she felt sure would 
 never engage the attention of Lady Isobel. It was here that the child's 
 strategy showed a flaw. Her mistress went out in slippers to expend the 
 twopence allowed by Maggie for luxuries, and having purchased a high- 
 class penny society paper and a novelette called Maid, Wife, or Widow, 
 the title of which appeared to her stimulating, she was shullling home to 
 enjoy a literary treat when her attention was hooked by a most alluring 
 notice in red letters projecting from u shop — "BONNETS GIVEN 
 AWAY." Drawn to the window, she found this to be but a figure of 
 speech and not intended to be taken literally. What the bonnet shop 
 really intended to say was, that it desired to sell its stock at much less 
 than the royal figures which it had hitherto been unable to obtain. There, 
 in the centre of a most engaging collection, was one triumph in rich 
 brown with a proud aigrette and a scarlet feather ; the card beside it bad 
 the original amount of three guineas deleted, and, pencilled at the side, 
 the new sum — imagine the fall ! — fifteen shilUugs. Lady Isobel gazed at 
 this astonishing bargain so long and so earnestly that other lady shoppers 
 came to the window to inspect, and she found herself becoming frantic 
 with apprehension lest one of them, detecting her find, should go in 
 straight%vay and obtain it. Hurrying home with a speed that amazed her 
 neighbours, and indeed gave some wonder to herself, she set to work to 
 discover Maggie's bank. This necessitated turning over nearly everj'- 
 thing in the room, and the unusual experience of labour was beginning 
 to make her anxious for sleep, when in a discarded vest she found the 
 money ; it proved to be exactly fifteen shillings, and Lady Isobel said 
 reverently that Heaven knew better than most what it was about. 
 Heaven further befriending her by keeping off, until she had slipped back 
 to the milliner's, other possible collectors of rare and curious bonnets, she 
 was able that evening, when Maggie returned from school — her little 
 head full of a new recitation which she had learnt, and preparing to eject 
 this in order to give room for domestic management — to exhibit the new 
 bargain. 
 
 " If I was a grown woman like you," declared Maggie violently, " and 
 you was a little girl like me, I'd shake you till you hadn't got moi'e 
 than 'alf a breath left in your body. What use is it, you silly creature, 
 you ? " 
 
 •• Why, to wear," said the other, feebly. 
 
 '■ But you never go out." 
 
 " I went out the other day." 
 
 '■ Didn't you throw away your one pair of boots last night ? " 
 
 " Perhaps I did," admiUed Lady Isobel. 
 
 '• I was going to try and buy you a cheap pair," cried Maggie, " and 
 now — " 
 
 " Don't let's bother about trifles," urged the woman anxiously. " What 
 are you going to give me for tea ? " 
 
 " Tea"? " echoed the girl, with bitterness. " Why, there's nothing in the 
 place to eat, not a single thing. And I'm " — her voice broke — " I'm 'ungry." 
 
 Lady Isobel looked penitently first at the empty fire-grate and then with 
 pained regret at the new bonnet. She appealed to Maggie for one of the 
 alert suggestions that usually came in moments of difliculty, but the girl 
 gave no response. Then Lady Isobel rose slowly, and, taking the bonnet, 
 went out. In ten minutes she returned in excellent spirits. 
 
 "They wanted to give me tvyo shilUngs on it," she said cheerfully, as 
 she destroyed a ticket, " but I stuck out for two and three, and I got it. 
 The youii^; wan said he could tell it wasn't the first time id been there." 
 
50 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 " So you've been and made a clean loss," said Maggie, after calculating 
 with the aid of her fingers, " of about thirteen bob." 
 
 "That's all," remarked the other placidly. 
 
 The two shillings and threepence, expended with great economy, kept 
 them both for a few days ; at the end of which time the young collector 
 came again, with a manner carefully intermediate, so that he might change 
 into either extreme without a great efifoj;t. He served the new notice with 
 expressions of contempt for those who, being in possession of a desirable 
 place of residence, had not the good sense to retain it ; as he finished the 
 lepriniand a piece of the ceiling, unable apparently to resist the temptation, 
 fell and struck his bowler hat. At the end of the week, when Maggie had 
 been without food for another whole day. Lady Isobel announced her 
 determination to take the bull by the horns, a statement which in anybody 
 else might have been accepted as a promise of determined activity ; in her 
 case it only meant that she was about to appeal to neighbours who had on 
 past occasions so far relaxed hostility on certain Pi-idays as to borrow small 
 sums from her. Eebutfed in the first experiment (the woman demanding 
 hobly whether Lady Isobel imagined she were made of money), she 
 returned exhausted, and urged Maggie to again take over the management 
 of affairs. Lady Isobel seemed to Maggie more than usually helpless; 
 the reaction after the task of making up her mind had affected her, and she 
 sighed and sliook her head very dolefully at a photograph on the mantel- 
 piece — a faded, spotted photograph of herself — where she, in bridal 
 costume, had, by the passing of time and want of excellence in the artist's 
 chemicals, nearly merged into the cork and linen scenery of the back- 
 ground. Lady Isobel sniffed as she contemplated the picture, and con- 
 veyed to Maggie the assurance that had anybody told her on her wedding 
 morn that she would come to this, she would have knocked her informant 
 down with a feather. " But there," she added, stretching her arms, " I 
 suppose it's no use worrying." Maggie went out and walked to the 
 Broadway, where she entered into diplomatic conversation with an Irish- 
 woman to whom she had once made a present of beads. The Irishwoman 
 checked her own effusiveness on finding that a similar gift was not on 
 this occasion forthcoming ; became excited with anger on hearing that 
 Maggie desired to enter into partnership with her without bringing capital 
 to the firm. 
 
 " Will I do ut indeed I No, I will not do ut, ye young sauce-box. I'd 
 not trust ye further than me eyesight would carry. D'ye hear this now, 
 Mr. Hearne ! " 
 
 A white-faced young man with newspapers, who had apparently shouted 
 his voice away in anxiety to bring public events before the notice of his 
 fellow-men, stopped to listen. 
 
 "What's the toomult about? "he asked hoarsely. He coughed, and 
 swore heartily at himself for doing so. 
 
 " Here's a mere child," cried the Irishwoman, " that has the audacity 
 — (wax a light, sir, two for three ha'pence. Help me, for the love of 
 Heaven, to get a night's lodgin's. All right, then, keep your dirty money 
 in yer pockut) — has the audacity, if I may use a coarse expression, the 
 audacity to suggest that she should share me work and I sh'd pay her for 
 it. Did ever ye hear — " 
 
 The white-faced young man looked at the girl, who, abashed now by the 
 reception of her timid offer, was preparing to go. 
 
 " Can yon 'oiler?" he asked. 
 
 " Make as much row as most people," she replied slivLy. 
 
 " Care to take on my job of a evenin' ? " iie said. 
 
 " If it paid me to. Caught a cold, 'aven't you ? " 
 
LOST PEOPERTY 61 
 
 "Ought to be in the 'ospical," admitted the hoarse-voiced young man. 
 " This uight air plays old Tommy with me. 'Dngiy ? " 
 
 "I'm a bit — a bit peckish," she confessed, biting her under lip to keep 
 herself from crying. 
 
 " 'Ere y'are," said Mr. Hearne, handing over his parcel of folded papers 
 and his poster. " I'll chance it. Take a hower at it, and mind I find you 
 'ere when I come back. Don't go beyond Rr.-.vlins's that way or Lamsou's 
 tile other. Unnerstand ? " 
 
 " Can I go the other side of the road as well ? " 
 
 " You can," said Mr. Hearne, in his loud whisper, " but if you do they'll 
 murder ye." 
 
 Maggie laughed from pure delight as she went up and down the 
 prescribed beat on the crowded pavement, shouting in a shrill, piercing 
 voice, that went high above the clatter of traffic, " All the Win-ners paper. 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley paper. Big fire in Emmersmith paper ! " When 
 people turned, startled by the unusual quality of the voice, she darted after 
 them, ofifering one of the halfpenny journals with such an air of anticipat- 
 ing their desire, that many bouf<ht before it occurred to them that they 
 haul earlier decided not to indulge that evening in the luxui-y of the printed 
 word. Two boys came and tried to snatch the papers from her, on the 
 plea that she could not have come by them honestly ; but the girl signalled 
 at once to a policeman, and the two boys vanished as though the pavement 
 had swallowed them. When Mr. Hearne came back from his visit to the 
 sixpenny doctor in King Street, he declai-ed himself satisfied with the 
 result of her agency, and giving her twopeiice-halfpennj' for herself, 
 ordered her to return at seven the next evening to relieve him again of his 
 duties and permit him to escape from the raw atmosphere which con- 
 stituted his chiefest enemy. Going home with a loaf of bread, and break- 
 ing ofif the crusty promontories to eat as she went, she passed the local 
 theatre where the two interfering boys were on duty. She heard one make 
 to the other proposal to do a bit of glimming, and it occurred to the alert 
 little woman that there was no good reason why this profession of opening 
 and closing cab doors outside a theatre should be restricted to members of 
 the male sex. She bought a hot potato, and ran home anticipating the 
 congratulations of her companion. The door was unlocked, there was no 
 light in the room. 
 
 " Isobel ! " she cried " Where are you? Where've you got to? " 
 There came no answer. Maggie felt her way to the fireplace, where a 
 few red sparks still remained ; coaxed a strip of paper to light itself. 
 "Wake up, when I keep telling you," she said impatiently. "You're 
 always asleep night and day. I've got no patience with you. Why don't 
 you — " 
 
 She went over to the bed, prepared to shake the large woman. No one 
 was there. On the pillow a note, pinned. 
 
 " Dear Martin, — I have resolved to end a life which is not of much use. 
 You can have everything. — With much love, your affectionate mistress, 
 
 " IsOBEL." 
 
 Maggie, snatching up the food, ran, whimpering and trembling, from 
 the room. She went about Hammersmith all that night, scuttling away 
 swiftly from the few wastrels who commanded at those hours the public 
 highways, resting now and again to consider her position of loneliness. 
 Nothing frightened her so much as this new feeling that she was now 
 quite alone, a mere sparrow fluttering about the world with no one to 
 think of as a friend. Now and again in a low voice, for fear that anybody 
 should hear, she called for Nurse Watson and then for Mrs. Dadswell. 
 
52 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 She determined not to go back to the empty room. She dared not do BO. 
 Remembering, near a mews, an old four-wheeler with no wheels, its shafts 
 upright with a gesture of astonishment at its helpless position, she went 
 to that instead, and rested for a few hours until the mews awoke noisily 
 in the worst of tempers and disturbed her. 
 
 She slipped from the decrepit cab, promising that she would return the 
 next night to take advantage of its hospitality. She refreshed herself by 
 washing her face in a pail of water that belonged to a cab-horse who, 
 roped to a ring in the wall and absorbed ia gloomy thoughts, fortunately 
 did not see this unwarrantable interference. Then Maggie Cannon went 
 out, a solitary little girl, into the world. 
 
 " I do wish," she said rather wistfully, " I do wish I'd got a mother I " 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 JDST as she had felt too much frightened to go home to Lady Isobel's 
 room, so now the days had not advanced very far ere Maggie felt 
 increasing terror at her loneliness. The severity of London, the town's 
 neglect of her, the sight of friendship between other people — these counted 
 for tears ; she found herself stroking the horses on cab ranks and talking to 
 them in order to keep up pretence of having some friends left in the world. 
 Mr. Hearne being still incapacitated for public shouting, she could earn 
 just enough to keep her in food, and this she bought wisely, with an 
 occasionally mad diversion into cheese tarts of a peculiarly light and flaky 
 nature to be procured at a baker's in Shepherd's Bush Eoad. At this and 
 other establishments, when the Fates and plump attendants were generous, 
 she was presented with a gift of "pieces," and in the odd, jumbled lot 
 of broken food there was sometimes encountered the rarest find. In 
 such manner the days passed : it was at night, in the few still dark hours 
 when London slept, that discomfort wrapped itself around her. Other 
 little specimens of flotsam and jetsam floating about Hammersmith 
 appeared to relish the fine adventure of sleeping out, and, secure in some 
 railway arch or behind a stack of timber, they were Itahan bandits, 
 swarthy gipsies, Fenians, or anything else that sounded romantic and 
 satisfying. Mainly these were boys — old, old boys of six or seven years— 
 and a girl had to be gifted with exceptional ability in the way of bad 
 language, and endowed with the cunning of age, to qualify her for 
 admission to the manly circle. They were difficult to conciliate, too, 
 these infant revolutionists ; for a girl might show too much of sentiment, 
 as, for instance, by crying in the eai'ly morning when aroused from her 
 own quarters by humorous cry of " Caw-pur ! " or she might exhibit some 
 intention of entering into their schemes as though she were a boy ; in 
 either case, swift expulsion followed. Every member carried a stone in 
 every pocket, and the band called itself the Hammersmith Uniteds ; but 
 this was not entirely an appropriate title, for it was always quarrelling, and 
 sometimes losing a member, when a parent, suddenly recollecting the 
 calls of duty, came in search of ofl'spring with a stick. Maggie made no 
 attempt to join the Hammersmith Uniteds, and this annoyed them almost 
 as much as though she had nominated herself for membership ; they 
 showed resentment by chasing her with wild screams whenever they 
 found her oflf duty and away from the police-protected Broadway. She 
 was afraid, too, of Mr. Hearne's mother, who wore a slight beard and 
 backf'd horses, and who shook Mac't(ie violently and boxed her ears when 
 lihe brought, with the evening's C'j[)pers, unsold papers whioh informed 
 
LOST PROPERTY 53 
 
 Mrs. Hearne that sixpence had been, by error of judgment, placed on a 
 horse which had not succeeded in coming in first. Nevertlieless, it was 
 to Mrs. Hearne that the hunted and wearied little girl presently applied 
 for shelter and companionship. 
 
 " Female person I've been living with," said Maggie, " has gone off 
 somewhere. If you like to take me in — " 
 
 " Wha' ? " screamed Mrs. Hearne. 
 
 " To take me in," said the girl nervously, " I'll sleep anywhere you jolly 
 well like. Give me the use of the sink in the morning for a sluice down, 
 and I'll work like a nigger." 
 
 "Yes," cried Mrs. Hearne knowingly, "and rob me up 'ill and down 
 dale. You're one of the artful ones, you are." 
 
 "I'm artful," admitted Maggie, "but I shan't steal nothin'. Give me 
 a trial." 
 
 " You'll get a trial and you'll get a sentence," snapped Mrs. Hearne, " if 
 you don't get out of 'ere. Come back," she ordered, as Maggie, sighing, 
 prepared to leave. " How dare you go like that without askin' me first? 
 For two pins I'd — " 
 
 Maggie listened politely to the lurid description of Mrs. Hearne's 
 promised acts for which this extremely moderate payment was required. 
 When the old lady had exhausted herself, she took Maggie by the hair and 
 swung her round against the wall. 
 
 '• Now mind you stay 'ere, you little minx," she said threateningly, as 
 though Maggie had made application not to do so, "and sleep in the 
 scullery, and run errands for me ; and mind you wash yourself well every 
 morning, or I'll know the reason why. And as soon as my son comes 
 'ome from the 'ospital, out you go like a shot. Is Royal Ring a-runnin' 
 at .\lexandra Park to-morrer? " 
 
 Maggi*, bewildered at the unexpected agreement, stammered that she 
 did not know. 
 
 "Then perhaps," said Mrs. Hearne, locking up the coppers in the 
 chest of drawers and speaking with ironical politeness, " perhaps you'll 
 'ave the great kindness to look and see. That is," she added, " unless you 
 want a boot at your 'ead." 
 
 Maggie soon found that Mrs. Hearne possessed fertility of invention in 
 the way of punishments. Smarting from some new form of correction, 
 she wondered sometimes whether it was that Mrs. Hearne, having been 
 endowed with administrative powers for the government of manj', and having 
 had but one child, had now the unused stock to expend upon her small 
 body. After a, long spell of ill-luck in laying out of sixpences at the 
 tobacco shop close by, where pencilled tips, called Old Sam's Dead Certs, 
 could be purchased, Mrs. Hearne determined to fix responsibility more 
 closely, and, for the perfection of this arrangement, Maggie, who by this 
 time knew a good deal, but to whom secrets of the turf were denied, was 
 called upon each evening before going to rest on the rather damp mat in 
 the scullery to pick out a winner for the following day. Maggie com- 
 menced by adopting the selection of —if one might judge from his signature 
 — a military expert, who made his anticipations in an evening paper with 
 an air of confidence that no amount of failures could weaken. 
 
 Finding from repeated thrashings that the military gentleman could not 
 always be relied upon, she made ner own choice, guided by a variety of 
 reasons, such as admiration for an attractive name, like Queen of the Air, 
 or compassion for a distressful one, like Puir Body. Strangely enough, 
 this plan answered for a time quite well, with here and there disaster, for 
 vhich Mrs. Hearne sometimes forgot to punif^h. To add to the com- 
 parative exhilaration of this period, she saw one evsning the boy Lucas 
 
54 LOST PEOPEETY 
 
 coming out of the District Station. He stood and gazed around through 
 his spectacles as though in search of some one, and Maggie, arresting her- 
 self in her shrill cry of "Four o'clock Win-ners paper! " ran away into 
 ambush behind a dependent sheep at a butcher's shop and remained there 
 until he went ofif Hammersmith Road way. She complimented herself by the 
 assurance that he had come here purposely to see her ; that depression, when 
 he failed to find her, would take his arm and accompany him home. For 
 the rest of that evening she called the papers in an assumed voice (with the 
 result that many of her regular customers missed her), keeping her bright 
 eyes alert in order that he might not find her in her present occupation. 
 Maggie felt half relieved, half regretful at not seeing him again, but she 
 dreamed that night in the scullery that she and Lucas were one of the shy 
 couples being married en bloc with several others in a church close by, on 
 a Bank Holiday, at specially reduced terms ; that they went for their 
 honeymoon to Kew Gardens, where Lucas ate so much watercress at tea 
 (disregarding her advice) that he changed into an absurd-looking tree with 
 spectacles growing on the branches and a Latin title on a piece of board 
 tied around his waist. 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Hearne, on returning from the hospital one Sunday 
 afternoon, " he's gone, and now, I s'pose, you're satisfied. Fetch that 
 copper-stick." 
 
 *' I'm sorry," replied Maggie, " but it ien't my fault." 
 
 " Not your fault ?" echoed Mrs. Hearne, with great wrath. "Whose 
 fault is it, then?" 
 
 Maggie accepted the fierce punishment tiiis time with less than her 
 usual stolidity. Her heart rebelled against the obvious injustice of the 
 treatment, and she wailed so loudly that neighbours, not displeased at 
 finding something to break the monotony of the day, left their tea and 
 came around the window saying loudly that Mrs. Hearne ought to be 
 ashamed of herself. This increased that lady's anger, and she argued the 
 question thoroughly with them. The debate over, and the hour being half- 
 past six, she took a shilling from the tea-caddy and went out with the 
 announced intention of Seeking restoratives at the pubhc-house. Maggie 
 waited until she had gone ; then, disregarding the temptation to also help 
 herself from the caddy, and ignoring the advice of the neighbours, ran off 
 with determination never to return. She could not go far, for her bruised 
 little body ached. Seeing demure, sleek, comfortable people go into a 
 church where an organ growled welcome, she rested in the doorway, and, 
 telling herself to be sure to keep awake, went to sleep. 
 
 " Oh, don't ! " she cried, rubbing her eyes ; " that shou'der hurts." 
 
 " What are we doing here, eh ? " said the tall man. She blinked up at 
 him, half recognizing the voice. " This isno place for us. Up-si-daisy ! " 
 He assisted her to her feet. She was trembling, and the effort pained 
 every bone. " We've met before, I rather fancy. You gave me a nice 
 old waltz last time I saw you." 
 
 " Aren't you fond of dancing ? " Her teeth chattered. 
 
 " I went to that address you gave me," he said, " and when I'd warned 
 the mother that she'd be liable to six months if she neglected her child, I 
 found out " — here he laughed cheerfully — " found out her only daughter 
 was grown up, married, and doing well, with a husband in the coal and 
 potato trade." 
 
 " Didn't expect me to tell the truth, did you ? " 
 
 "Your manner was so straightforward," he confessed, "that — here, 
 hold up — that I was took in. Come along and see my sister and have a 
 talk. I live close here." 
 
 " I — I," stammered Maggie, slipping down on one knee, " I can't walk" 
 
LOST PROPERTY 55 
 
 He took her up in his arms in the way of a bachelor who in his time 
 had had amateur expevience in the carrying of nieces. Perhaps Maggie 
 proved a heavier burden than he had anticipated, for he gave a sigh of 
 relief when, on arriving at a house in a long street, the door opened in 
 answer to his elbow knock. 
 
 " But you're off duty, Jim," said the young woman. " The Society 
 don't expect you to work when you're off duty." 
 
 " I'm never off duty," he replied. " Catch hold of this." 
 
 The young woman took Maggie and led her into the kitchen at the 
 back. 
 
 " Well, old party," called out the big voice in the passage after a while. 
 " What d'you make of it? " 
 
 " One mass of bruises," cried the young woman, with compassion in 
 her voice, " from top to toe. And she's fainted." 
 
 " Right you are," he said promptly. " I'll go and fetch the doc." 
 
 The neighbours of Mrs. Heame, applied to for information, vied with 
 each other in making statements. Inspector, said the neighbours, we was 
 a-goin' to send for you. Inspector, the poor little dear's been used some- 
 thing cruel. Inspector, many and many's the time I've generously give 
 her bits of bread that I didn't want, rather than let me own children over- 
 eat themselves. Inspector, I've said more than once that I'd write to the 
 Society, asking of them to interfere ; but not being very good in me gram- 
 mar, and not having a stamp handy, I put it off and off. Inspector, if you 
 want any evidence, come to me. Inspector, she's a horrid cruel womau 
 with — weU, I like a drop of drink as well as any one when I get the chance 
 — but she — Good-night, sir. 
 
 " 'Ullo, 'ullo ! " said Mrs. Heame, interrupting herself in the singing of 
 a sentimental chant, " wha's all this fuss 'bout? " 
 
 " You I " said one of the neighbours. 
 
 "Do you want to pick quarrel?" hiccoughed Mrs. Hearne. "As 
 though I hadn't got 'nough on me 'ands already." 
 
 " You'll have quite enough on your 'ands soon, ma'am," retorted the 
 neighbour. " Besides dirt." 
 
 " 'Old my bonnet, some one," cried Mrs. Heame explosively. " 'Old my 
 bonnet," struggling vdth the rusty ribbons, " 'old my bonnet, and I'll jolly 
 soon see what you're all made of." 
 
 " The Inspector's been 'ere." 
 
 " Inspector ? " repeated Mrs. Hearne feebly, retying her bonnet. 
 
 " From the Society for Prevention of — " 
 
 " About that kid? " asked the woman, sobered. 
 
 " Yes," said the neighbours strenuously, "and about you." 
 
 Mrs. Heame became affected to the point of tears. 
 
 " It's a queer thing," she sobbed self -compassionately, "but I never 
 seem to go out of me way to do kind-'earted action but J t;et into trouble 
 over it. It's 'appened before hke that." 
 
 " You've brought it all on yourself, ma'am." 
 
 " Yes, I know," cried Mrs. Hearne, trying to find the keyhole, " I know. 
 But it's bitter 'ard luck all the same. I'm always puttiu' me money on 
 wrong uns." 
 
 When the Inspector again called the next morning, Mrs. Heame was 
 prepared with a penitent aspect and a hrief for the defence. For the sum 
 of sixpence and a blue vase with glass lustres that, cleaned up and in 
 favourable Ught, took on their facets something of the appearance of 
 diamonds, she had been able to buy a witness in the person of a saving 
 neighbour who, thus bribed, amiably consented to swear to anything that 
 was retjuired of her. Mrs. Hearue having guessed rightly that Maggie 
 
56 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 would say little against her, poiuted out to the Inspector that she Lad kept 
 the girl out of sheer charity ; that she neither expected nor wished to he 
 repaid one penny; that we were all liable to take a di'op too much, on 
 which occasions what more easy than to be provoked into a temper, 
 temper kept on other occasions carefully braked and under control ? 
 Moreover, when one had just lost an only son, was it not natural to 
 become more or less upset, and in that state of mind to upset, more or 
 less, other people ? Mrs. Hearne, with strong motives encouraging her — 
 desire to escape punishment and anxiety not to lose Maggie's services — 
 pressed these arguments with such volubility that the Inspector coniplaiueil 
 of being unable to get a word in edgeways. When she had exhausted 
 herself, she burst into tears of self-compassion and called upon her junior 
 counsel, standing by the mantelpiece with one hand on the blue vase, to 
 follow on the sam« side, which that lady, prefacing her address with im- 
 passioned declarations of her own honesty and truthfulness, straightway did. 
 
 " If it's the last word I utter," said the neighbour solemnly; "if I'm 
 never permitted to stir foot from where I am now ; if I'm lookin' you in 
 the face, sir, for the last time ; if my words was being took down and put 
 into print ; if the Prime Minister hisself was standin' where you are now 
 and listenin' to me, all I can say is that — " 
 
 The Inspector, confronted by this evidence and anxious not to go into 
 court with an imperfect case (thereby risking reproof from his Society 
 and sarcasm from a magistrate), wrestled with perplexity. His sister 
 that morning had remarked to Maggie that the case would probably finish 
 in a police court, and Maggie, not quite sure of the position in which she 
 herself would appear there, and fearful of the law in any shape, resolved 
 to give no information, and answered questions evasively, excusing herself 
 l)y holding up, as shield, an erratic memory. Consequently the Inspector 
 felt it his duty to go with wariness. 
 
 " I've got my own opinion about it all," he said, when the two women 
 bad finished. " I may be right or I may be wrong." 
 
 " Believe me, sir, you're wrong," said the neighbour. 
 
 " For once," added Mrs. Hearne politely. 
 
 " And I don't want to do anything to make myself look more foolish 
 than I am." 
 
 " You couldn't, sir," remarked Mrs. Hearne ingratiatingly. 
 
 " By neglecting and cruelly treating this little girl," went on the 
 Inspector, " you're rendering yourself liable to — " 
 
 " No, no," moaned Mrs. Hearne, " not six, sxirely." 
 
 " I give you warning, now — mind, fair warning — that I'm going to keep 
 an eye on you. I shall visit you once a week or so, and if I find you're 
 treating her badly again, I shall simply take out a removal warrant and 
 get the Magistrate to order her off to the infirmary, and you," said the 
 Inspector, pointing his peaked cap, " you will be in the dock." 
 
 " Won't you let me send for a drop of something, sir, before you go? " 
 
 " No," he said shortly, " and you'd better not have any either." 
 
 " We must keep body and soul together, sir." 
 
 "I'm not sure," remarked the Inspector, "that it's so necessary in 
 your case as you seem to think." 
 
 Maggie, not yet free from the terror which mention of a police court 
 had occasioned, and, with the amazingly recuperative powers of youth, 
 already better, agreed, after a day or two's rest under the care of the 
 Inspector's sister, to return to her last guardian. Of the two evils, the 
 police court prospect seemed the greater ; and hugging the neck of the 
 Inspector's sister on leaviiiKi and bidding good-bye to a humorous kitten 
 with regret, she resumed her position at Airs, llearne's with a sigh of 
 
LOST PROPERTY 57 
 
 helplessness. A visit to Kensai Green in a black coach, and the sight 
 iil'terwards of cake and shilling boitles of sherry — 
 
 " No one can say," remarked the amiable neighbour as she lifted hor 
 third glass of this generous wine, " no one can say, Mrs. 'Earne, that you 
 ain't put your boy away in the 'igliest possible style." 
 
 — All this encouraged the little girl, and persuaded her that everything 
 had happened for the best. A shock came when she found herself again 
 compelled to attend school, her friend the Inspector having given a hint 
 to a school board ofiScial of his acquaintance. For this Mrs. Hcarne 
 produced the inflexible copper-stick, and Maggie, thinking the matter 
 over afterwards, confessed to herself that no other course of conduct 
 was open. Unfortunately, this occurrence revived Mrs. Hearne's facility 
 for ready and indiscriminate punishment, and Maggie's dark bruises 
 increased in number. 
 
 The Inspector's visits became rare, because there are many youngsters 
 . in London with cruelty hovering about and ready to swoop down on them 
 at a favourable moment ; to give over-much attention to an individual 
 case would be to neglect the general. Observe here how pure kindness of 
 heart quickened the situation. Two admirable old ladies of Shepherd's 
 Bush, whose own lives, free from discomfort, had persuaded them that a 
 moderate competency was within the reach of all — these two excellent 
 ladies found themselves one night at Hammersmith Broadway, wishful 
 for an evening paper. They had attended a charity meeting that after- 
 noon, and being, with all their virtues — and none had escaped them— 
 not altogether free from coy anxiety to see their name in print, they pur- 
 chased a journal from Maggie, just then especially shrill and exultant 
 over an item of important news. One of the two old ladies looked at the 
 newspaper by the light from a tobacconist's shop. 
 
 " Actually," she exclaimed, "actually they have printed her name and 
 not ours. What a way to edit a paper ! " 
 
 Maggie, seeing a look of disappointment on their features, ran across 
 and pointed out in the fudge column the hastily-printed account of a 
 tragedj" at Kew. 
 
 " That was not what we required, little girl." 
 
 " But there's a man and his wife and three children in it," protested 
 Maggie indignantly. " How much more d'you want for a ha'penny ? " 
 
 " Sister," said one of the old ladies, "this is no work for a mere child. 
 Here is an opportunity for doing good." 
 
 " Girl," asked the other, " do you go to Sunday-school? " 
 
 " Not unless it rains." 
 
 " Do you want to earn two new pennies for your money-box ? " 
 
 " Hand them over and I'll see." 
 
 " I want you," said the old lady, complying with this request, " to tell 
 me your name." 
 
 Maggie had some thought of returning the coppers and requesting the 
 ladies to mind their own business, but here was twopence, which would 
 buy a small pork pie, and Mrs. Heame had given her nothing but stale 
 bread that day as punishment for having tempted Mrs. Heame into the 
 use of a vulgar ejaculation. She answered truthfully, and ran off to 
 escape further questions. 
 
 '• Sister," said the first old lady, " this must be seen to." 
 
 Wherefore that night a letter was despatched to the manager of the 
 halfpenny paper, saying, — 
 
 " Are yo<i aware, sir, that your estimable journal (the reports in which 
 leare something to bo desired) is being sold at Hammersmith Broadway 
 
oii LOST PROPERTY 
 
 by a poorly-clad girl of some seven or eight summers, who is in this way 
 brought near to the unseemly sights and dangers of our London streets ? 
 And assuming that you, sir, are a humane person, wil! you, for the credit 
 of our modern civilization, see that this deplorable scandal is at once 
 remedied and the vending of your journal placed in the hands of adults? " 
 
 This letter the mauager received the following morning, at a time when 
 his office was clouded with complaints that were hard to answer ; the next 
 post brought a similar note written (with great acuteness) by the other 
 sister, over a different signature. The manager took action, and early that 
 evening when Maggie — breathless from school — waited for the swift, light- 
 ning cairt to pull up and hand down to her a sheaf of papers, she found 
 that it darted past, the driver calling out that her name had been struck 
 from his list. 
 
 Mrs. Hearne increased her old methods of correctioa, and to atone for 
 the diminished income economized in the girl's food until Maggie was ' 
 obliged to eat crusts at school which other students threw away, compelled 
 to accept weird eatables from neighbours. Until one evening, at a time 
 when Mrs. Hearne, feeling sure all officials were at home and in bed, and 
 having tired herself wth the duties of correction, had gone out for an hour 
 or two, the Inspector called unexpectedly and found 'Maggie in a dead 
 faint on the uneven brick flooring of the scullery. 
 
 " This," said the Inspector, when he had sent one neighbour for food 
 and had requested another to take Maggie into her house, " this is where 
 I go on for my little scene." 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 MAGGIE GANNON found herself conducted the following morning 
 at the hour of ten to the place which she had learned to dread. All 
 the domestic melodramas in No- Way-Through had their principal act laid 
 at the police-court ; the stem powers wielded there and the terrible 
 definiteness of the law's decisions had awed her so much that always in 
 the past, when in the neighbourhood, she had run by the building swiftly. 
 A notorious boy in No-Way-Through, celebrated for having once been in 
 prison, had assm-ed her that it was all like a theatre, only more interesting ; 
 but him she had not believed. Now the importance of events and doubt 
 concerning the future dazed her. It was well to be saved from Mrs. 
 Hearne and the vicious copper-stick, but what was going to happen when 
 that work of rescue had been effected ? Accustomed during her short life 
 to go in and out of trouble, the child nevertheless felt that here was a serious 
 period ; that the next step to be taken on her behalf might influence the 
 whole of her future career. 
 
 " Mrs. Watson," called the constable, " Mrs. Wa — Where on earth's 
 the searcher got to ? " he asked of a colleague in the passage. 
 
 " I'm where I ought to be," said a stout old lady, looking out of a room. 
 " That's more than can be said of some of you." 
 
 "We want you," said the constable disregarding the implied censure, 
 " to take care of this little slip till her case comes on." 
 
 " And what have you been up to, you naughty thiug, you? " asked the 
 old lady, severely. 
 
 " She's been treated cruel," explained the constable. "The doc. says 
 her back's a perfect sight." 
 
 " The poor dear," said the woman, with a change of manner. " Come 
 
LOST PKOPERTY 69 
 
 in with me and have a sip of ray tea. I'd make the other party look a 
 perfect sight if I was young and strong again. Wife keeping pretty well, 
 Job II Peters ? " 
 
 "Thanks." said the constable; "yes; she's getting on a treat now. 
 She's still got her asthma, of course, and the bronchitis ain't quite gone, 
 and her varicose veins stop her from getting about, but Otherwise she's 
 going on like one o'clock." 
 And went off. 
 
 " There's a lot of trouble in this world," remarked the old woman, as 
 she poured out two cups of tea. " I've seen more of it than most — (you 
 don't take sugsir, I 'ope ? That's right, my dear. Wish I could have 
 done without it, I shouldn't have got so stout then) — first in the city and 
 then 'ere. And the characters I come across ! " 
 
 " I seepose so," remarked Maggie politely. Her hand trembled as she 
 lifted the cup, and the other, perceiving this, held it to her lips. " I'm all 
 of a shake," she said apologetically. 
 
 " Small wonder at it. Is it your father or your mother that's been using 
 you badly?" Maggie explained. " Why on earth didn't you come 'ere 
 and complain? " 
 
 " Afraid of being took to the work'ouse," said Maggie. 
 " Oh," lightly, " the workhouse is all right. 'Omes from 'ome, some of 
 them are." 
 
 " Bit too 'omely for me." 
 
 "You talk to my daughter about that," said the old lady. " She was — 
 
 well, not exactly matron, you know, but almost next to it for a long time, 
 
 and she knows it all from A to Applezand. She's coming 'eie presently." 
 
 " Shan't let her take tm," declared Maggie, with determination. 
 
 "Go" bless my soul ! she isn't anything to do with it now. She left it 
 
 years and years ago." 
 
 " To better herself ? " inquired Maggie, relieved to find her anticipations 
 ungrounded. 
 
 " Why, she's got a nice little business in a most s'perior neighbourhood 
 near Camden Town, and her 'usband's dead, and as I of'en tell her, she's 
 got much to be thankful for. She's asked me over and over again to go 
 and live with her for company, but — I don't know. I'm getting stout, and 
 relations are better apart." 
 " Any children? " 
 " That's her one drawback." 
 " How many ? " asked Maggie. 
 
 " Hasn't got none," said the stout lady. " It was a disappointment to 
 me too ; I'd always rather 'arped on having some one to call me grannie." 
 A bass voice called her in the passage. She went to the door and opened 
 it. " Am I wanted ? " 
 
 "Yes," said the bass voice. " Hurry up I " 
 
 " Little girl," she said, "can I trust you to stay 'ere till I come back ? 
 You won't run away ? " 
 
 " I won't run away," said Maggie. 
 
 Maggie tired presently of sitting on the hard chair, and went around the 
 room to inspect pictures on the distempered walls. She was standing on a 
 hassock looking at a Christmas supplement, which took her mind back 
 vaguely to a period she was unable to fix, when the door opened. She did 
 not look round, because both the cat and the baby in the picture interested 
 her. 
 
 " Isn't mother uere ? " asked the new arrival. 
 
 " Thought you were the old party," said Maggie, stepping down back- 
 wards. " She'll be here directly. Take a seat and make yourself comfortable." 
 
60 LOf^T PROPERTY 
 
 '• Atul," said ilic other, unpinning her veil at the hack in order to com- 
 menoo the work of disclosing her face, " and whose little one are you, I 
 wonder?" 
 
 " Just what's beginning to trouble me," she said drily. 
 
 " If you were a handy little girl," remarked the woman in comfortable 
 grey tweed, " you'd undo this without tearing anything." 
 
 Maggie hurried across the room and gave the necessary help. The 
 shrieks from some obstreperous and not entirely sobered charge who was 
 l>cing returned to the cells to undergo a further period of seclusion made 
 the two start and come nearer to each other. The veil off and rolled uj) 
 with great care, the pin was entrusted with the duty of preserving it in 
 that form until it should he again required for active service. 
 
 " And now let's have a look at you. I don't like finding little bits of 
 girls al)out a — Why," holding her shoulders and shaking her excitedly, 
 '• what — what's your name'.' " 
 
 " Please — please don't do that ! " begged Maggie. " It 'urts." 
 
 "Hurts?" 
 
 "I'm all black and blue there," she said rather proudly. "Have I seen 
 you before somewhere ?" 
 
 'Whatever you do," begged the other, "you mustn't tell me you're 
 called Maggie." 
 
 " If I told you anything else it'd be a lie ? " 
 
 " And Cannon ?" 
 
 " And Cannon." 
 
 " Why, .but — but I'm Mrs. Lammer ! " 
 
 " Can't 'elp your troubles." 
 
 " You remember," said the other, a))pealingly, stroking Maggie's face. 
 "You must — you must remember. Throw your mind back five years. 
 Try ! Think of Primrose Hill and — and poor old cook and that beautiful 
 furred white jacket you used to wear, and — andni*. Dearie," hysterically, 
 " I am Nurse Watson ! " 
 
 The door opened and the old lady appeared. 
 
 " I may be old, and I may be stout," she said contentedly, " and I may 
 begetting silly; but they don't get over me. They may hide — Well, 
 Alice, made friends with that little scamp already? Jest like you ; if you'd 
 ever had children of your own — " 
 
 "Mother," interrupted Nurse Watson urgently, "tell me what they're 
 likely to do with this dear child here? " 
 
 Nurse Watson's mother surveyed Maggie with one eye closed. 
 
 " Depends on the Society," she announced. "Might perhaps go into 
 a Waifs and Strays for a time and then get boarded out in the country. 
 The Society knows what's best." 
 
 " No Society in this world," declared Nurse Watson strenuously, 
 " touches this sweet mite." 
 
 " You're wanderin'," said her mother severely. " You 'aven't got over 
 the loss of your 'usband." 
 
 Nurse Watson laughed. 
 
 "Didn't take me long to do that," she said. "Lammer meant well, 
 but his habit of crying about the house, and wishing he was back in 
 service again, got on 7iiy nerves. I looked on it all as a happy release. 
 And you," she said, turning to Maggie with an air of reproach, " haven't 
 you got a kiss for me ? ' ' 
 
 "Long time," whispered Maggie, obeying, "since anybody asked mo 
 for one." 
 
 "The nights I've dreamt about you!" cried Nurse Watson. "The 
 times I've woko up thinking I 'eard you cry out ! The trouble I took to 
 
LOST PROPERTY 61 
 
 trace you after you was took away from Albert Terrace ! Why, often and 
 often I'd a given the lease and goodwill of my business to have seen you 
 again." 
 
 The Inspector's voice said that be would trouble them now for that 
 little girl, and Watson took her out into the passage. A lean, parchment- 
 faced woman coming through the doorway from the witness box was being 
 called by the usher to come back and go out the right way. Moroseness 
 shpped from the yellow face on seeing Maggie, and Maggie, taking the 
 Paisley shawl, raised herself on tiptoe. Mrs. Dadswell stroked Maggie's 
 hair. 
 
 " You're out again ! " cried Maggie. " I am so glad." 
 
 " I've been saying a word for him," remarked Mrs. Dadswell huskily. 
 " He's a good sou. Can you — can you go back and live with me jest the 
 same as — " 
 
 " Lovey I " interrupted Norse Watson, " come here this minute and hold 
 my hand." 
 
 The usher, taking Mrs. Dadswell not unkindly by the shoulder, obliged 
 her to go back into court. Nurse Watson, still holding Maggie's hand, 
 conferred with the Inspector. 
 
 "What's going to happen?" asked the girl with anxiety as the 
 Inspector went. 
 
 " That's more than I can tell, my pet," said Watson, touching Maggie's 
 head lightly. " We must wait and hope for the best." 
 
 They went hesitatingly nearer the door of the court, and listened to the 
 muffled voices within. For the most part the various speakers seemed to 
 be standing with their backs to the door, and the words of these came 
 indistinctly ; but sometimes a voice from another part of the court could be 
 heard quite plainly. One which had the rare freedom of being able to 
 speak whenever it cared to do so, said presently, with great emphasis, 
 that the poor little girl would not be allowed to come into court ; so long 
 as he could order it, children should be prevented from entering the place. 
 
 The Inspector came hurriedly with his peaked cap ofif, and said that 
 Nurse Watson's presence was requu-ed in court. Maggie, declining at first 
 to let go of her hand, the Inspector promised that she should stand by the 
 door of the court, which, left slightly open, would enable her to hear all 
 that went on. Pacified by this offer, Maggie agreed to let Watson go, and 
 that excellent woman, putting her hat straight and clearing her voice, 
 went in. 
 
 " Your name is Mrs. Lammer ? " 
 
 " If you please, sir." 
 
 " I understand from the Society's Inspector that the little girl who has 
 been so badly treated by the prisoner — " 
 
 A moan of protest from Mrs. Hearne. She had treated the dear, 
 declared Mrs. Hearne, for all of the world as though she had been a child 
 of her own. 
 
 " No doubt, no doubt ! The point is this, Mrs. Lammer. It is usual 
 in cases of this kind to hand the little victim over to the Society, which 
 acts the part of a good parent and takes the responsibility of bringing her 
 up until the age of sixteen." 
 
 " Sir," began Nurse Watson. 
 
 " 1 understand — you will correct me if I am wrong — that the girl has 
 shown some disinclination to follow the ordinary course, and that you are 
 willing to take charge of her and treat her kindly." 
 
 " That's just what I want to do, sir." 
 
 " There is only this to be said, and I urn afraid it may influence your 
 decision.'' 
 
02 LOST PEOPERTY 
 
 " Excuse me, sir," said Nurse Watsou, with respect, " but influence 
 me in what way ? " 
 
 " Well, you see, the entire cost will come upon you. It is no small 
 matter, and I should like to know that you can afford to take this 
 responsibility." 
 
 "Fortunately," said Nurse Watson, with pride, "fortunately, I say, 
 sir, I had occasion to call at the bank this morning. If you will 
 kindly cast your eye over this book, sir — " 
 
 A few moments' pause. 
 
 "Then I make an order that Margaret Cannon be handed over to the 
 charge of Mrs. Alice Lammer of King Street, Camden Town, and I hope 
 that she will lead a happier life uuder the new regime than she has enjoyed 
 hitJuTto." 
 
 Nurse Watson's mother, full of anxiety to reprove, nevertheless makes 
 a fresh pot of tea in honour of the important event, and Maggie assists her 
 so deftly that much of the disaffection vanishes. Maggie also makes 
 toast, watching the slices carefully and withdrawing them at the true and 
 only moment from the attentions of the red little ffre. Maggie brings the 
 hassock over and sits near to Nurse Watson whilst her new guardian 
 discusses with vivacity the changes in furniture and the disposition of 
 rooms that will be necessary consequent on the arrival of Maggie at 
 Camden Town ; the mother suggests selling a chair bedstead which she 
 herself has at home for an amount that appears remunerative ; but Nurse 
 Watson objects, declaring in favour of a plan that converts the shop 
 parlour into a best room, the best room into her own bedroom, and her 
 bedroom made over to Maggie with a new iron bedstead from Rallish's 
 costing fourteen and six. The two debate this question for some time, 
 and eventually the old lady, pained with defeat, turns suddenly to the girl. 
 
 " WeU," she says vrith asperity, "and what are yoM thinking about, I 
 should like to know ? " 
 
 "I was thinking," replies Maggie, with her chin resting on the grey 
 tweed lap, " that it's a bit of a job in this world sometimes to find rel'tives, 
 but you can always find friends." 
 
PAKT TWO 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE shop had ooanters on three of its sides ; the desk at the back was 
 guarded by a criss-cross brass wire guard that went high, Irova which 
 ambush Miss Cheyney and Miss Brand, when occasion demanded it, 
 rfeproved applicants for postal information with point and vigour. Through 
 a shallow space between the brass guard and the counter, stamps and postal 
 orders could be served and money taken. Miss Cheyney had 9 miniature 
 desk at the window with a toy telegraph instrument near, and a square of 
 looking-glass masked by a notice from the Postmaster-General about 
 telegrams to Labrador. Miss Brand, the senior lady of the place, gave 
 ambidextrous assistance; ready to help Miss Cheyney in moments of 
 pressure in the telegraph department, to sell stamps singly or by the square 
 yard ; equally prepared to reinforce when an attack was durected on the left- 
 hand counter. A perfect bower of literature the left-hand counter, with the 
 newest magazines arranged in upright sheaves, and above and around a 
 vinery of pictures, startling contents lists, and suggestions of mystic 
 patterns in tissue paper. In charge of the bower, Margaret Cannon, 
 dignified quite recently with a title. For the first few months she had been 
 called Maggie, and Miss Cheyney and Miss Brand in discussing affairs of 
 the heart spoke to each other in whispers ; but one morning when Maggie 
 arrived in a new skirt reaching to her heels, and announced her seventeenth 
 birthday, the manageress, who sometimes tore herself from the study of 
 German philosophic works (in translations), and concentrated her mind on 
 business of the shop, presented her with a card bearing the figures of the 
 previous year " With Best Wishes for Many Happy Returns," and addressed 
 her, loudly and pointedly, as " Miss Cannon," a step in the service that 
 brought tears of delight to Maggie's eyes and made her feel nearly the equal 
 of all women. 
 
 Watson, on being informed of this epoch-making occurrence the same 
 evening, at first shook her head doubtfully, warning Maggie to be careful 
 not to think too much of herself, instancing several cases within the limits 
 of memory, both in domestic service and in business life, where excessive 
 conceit had but preluded disaster. Nevertheless when, an hour later, she had 
 become on more intimate terms with the idea, and Captain Bells, on being 
 appealed to, had declared that what was to be would be, Watson shared 
 gratification with Magt^ie, and in honour of the day brought out some home- 
 made wine which might, from its taste, have been a drastic corrective for 
 the most serious ills to which mortals are subject, but was tasted bjr all 
 three with a relish appropriate to Imperial Tokay. Thereafter Maggie 
 found herself treated in the shop not as a junior but as one qualified by age to 
 listen to the confidences of her two colleagues. At times business became too 
 insistent for the discussion of private matters ; a sudden craving for letter 
 paper, magazines, library books, and picture frames seemed to possess the 
 neighbourhood, and all of Maggie's natural dexterity was needed to see that 
 none went away unsatisfied. On other occasions she herself had opportunities 
 for borrowing from the middle-aged library, securing regard from her 
 colleagues by huntiug for big game in the shape of powerful love scenes and 
 
64 LOST PBOPERTY 
 
 bringing ibe result to their notice. Miss Brand, engaged, and her future 
 assured (although her fiance had a disturbing habit of changing the form of 
 his religion once every three months), showed perhaps less interest in these 
 captures than did Miss Cheyney, who, being engaged, yet not engaged (•' If 
 you can understand that," said Miss Cheyney), showed herself grateful for 
 liints, and willing to make endeavour to form her personal appearance and 
 behaviour on any attractive model that Maggie might discover. 
 
 " He's asked me to a dance," vyhispered Miss Cheyney one afteruoou, 
 darning something in a lull of traffic. " Come round here, Miss Cannon, 
 and I'll tell you." 
 
 Maggie replaced boxes of stationery on the shelves and obeyed 
 with undisguised interest. 
 
 " You are a lucky girl," she said enviously. 
 
 " Well," hedged Miss Cheyney, "perhaps he hasn't exactly asked uie, 
 but I've suggested it to him, and he's promised to think it over." 
 
 " I'd give anything " — began Maggie Cannon. And stopped. 
 
 " Oh, you can afford to wait," said the other lightly. "It's different with 
 me. Of course, if I got married I should give the post office the — {Two 
 penny stamps did you say ? Well, I can't help it if you did have to ask twice. 
 How much? Why, twopence) — the chuck; but, after all, that's better tbau 
 staying on and being an old maid." 
 
 " Auything's better than that," remarked Maggie. " But, supposing," 
 with a sudden idea, " supposing nobody ever asks you ? " 
 
 " They must be made to," said the other darkly. " You have to give 
 a lot of hints sometimes. Never been fond of anyone? " 
 
 Maggie, accustomed to the fencing of questions, when the subject 
 of relatives came into the conversation, had no difficulty in showing 
 reticence now. 
 
 " It's rather a lark, but it has its drawbacks," said Miss Cheyney. 
 ("Have you got your book? Well, you can't put the ninepence away 
 without it. Run home and fetch it, / should.) If he's nice-looking, you'i'e 
 afraid other girls'll be after him ; if he isn't, why you soon get tired 
 of looking at his face. But," went on Miss Cheyney, relinquishing this 
 great problem and encouraging her fringe by adroit pecks of the finger, 
 "what I reelly wanted to say was about my pale blue. I propose 
 to simply — " 
 
 Maggie's temperament had become mellowed by the homely comfort 
 afforded her during crucial years by Watson ; this had also tilled out her 
 cheeks and made her grow tall and made her grow healthy. At times in 
 her schooldays the satire of other girls (who wriggled under the stern 
 control of a mother, but appeared to consider the absence of such a parent 
 in Maggie's case as approaching a crime) had given her tears, but Watson 
 had comforted her on these occasions with something as relish for tea, and 
 excellent counsel. There was no use, declared Watson, in looking back. 
 Lot's wife had done it, and had tm-ned to salt; most women who did it now 
 were turned to vinegar. Desire for the possession of something like 
 a relative had also been faced by Watson, who suggested that Maggie 
 should call her aunt, an ingenious arrangement that almost met the 
 difficulty ; the drawback entirely disappeared when Maggie left school, for 
 to her great delight she found that amongst most adults exhibition 
 of a parent was not insisted upon. Increasing years (and at seventeen she 
 felt much older than she did at any subsequent age) had brought ambition 
 to M.aggie, and just now she had two desires. One — but this was distant 
 — to become by success at the necessary examinations a female sorter, and 
 the equal, nay, the superior, of Miss Cheyney ; the second, to be worshipped 
 by the other sex as her coUoagues appeared to be worshipped. Mr. Hrice, 
 in HU auclioaeer'a office close by, seemed the only possibility at present, and 
 
LOST PROPERTY (53 
 
 Mr. Brice Was a lanky youth -who wore a cigarette over his ear as some carry 
 a pen, giving to him the rakish look of a I'ivcur, who could endm:^ no interval 
 between the closing moment at office and the gay assumption of recklessness 
 that smoking suggests. It was here that Maggie, experienced the first 
 adorable episode of mature life. Mr. Brice had but just commenced to show 
 anxiety to run into the shop more often than necessity demanded ; this 
 was clear from the fact that when his master sent him for a shilling's worth 
 of halfpenny stamps, six hare-headed and hurried visits were necessary to 
 conclude the transaction, the blame being placed by Mr. Brice on the 
 shoulders of the innocent auctioneer. At each call he would ofifer some 
 remark at the post-ofiBce counter intended to show that the world had for 
 him no secrets ; that for reckless devilry in the evenings few could equal 
 him. He was to play in an amateur show at a temperance hall in George 
 Street ; they were a set of scorahers, upon his word ; it had been a qustfter 
 to eleven one night before he reached home ; people told him they 
 wondered he didn't go on the stage ; from all he heard they were a warm 
 lot there, and but for the fact that his present governor could not, in justice 
 to the business, spare him, he would feel inclined to have a dash at it ; his 
 word ! but if he did, he would make some of them open their eyes. Thua 
 Mr. Brice at each visit, with a glance at the stationery counter as he left, 
 in order to ascertain whether Maggie had been impressed and made 
 reverent by these gay snips of autobiography. Perhaps, in his endeavour 
 to create an effect, he rather overdid the character of a desperate blade, for 
 Maggie presently began to look upon him with coldness, whilst the two other 
 ladies of the shop said contemptuous things when he had left. 
 
 " Funny things blow in when the door's left open," remarked Miss 
 Brand 
 
 " I'll get a broom ready the next time," said Miss Cheyney. 
 
 Nevertheless, it was to Mr. Brice that Maggie owed the earliest sensation 
 of real pride. Leaving the shop one night at five minutes past eight, she 
 hurried to catch her tram, with a roll of illustrated papers under her arm 
 to be inspected by Watson and returned the following morning. She felt 
 thoughtful, because the Inspector from St. Martin's-le-Grand had called 
 that afternoon, and having rated the young women in the brass cage for 
 some error in regard to the charges of a foreign telegram, had caused 
 gloom to envelop the establishment to such an extent that Miss Chejiiey 
 had gone off with a straight fringe and the announced determination of 
 having a row with her young gentleman, and (because she had not been 
 sufficiently emphatic in condolence) Miss Brand had censured Maggie as 
 one having no heart. On the edge of the crowded pavement at the other 
 side of the road came Arthur Brice — Mr. Brice in a silk hat, insuflBciently 
 large for a ball-Uke head, smoking his cigarette with an air and carrying 
 on his arm a hooked walking-stick. Maggie laughed to herself, and was 
 hurrjring on, when she was brought almost to a standstill by extraordinary 
 action on the part of Mr. Brice. 
 
 He lifted his insufficient silk hat with his left hand, bowed profoundly to 
 Maggie, replaced his hat, and went on. 
 
 Maggie recovered her self-possession, and, hot-faced with delight, 
 ran to the starting-point of the tram. She fought her way up the steps 
 with more than her usual spirit, beating several able-bodied men who 
 prided themselves on success in carrying the front seats. There, with the 
 evening air cooling her face, she looked straight in front of her and con- 
 sidered the triumph. A young man, or (say) an elderly boy, had lifted his 
 hat. A distinct and public sign of reverence for her had been paid. 
 Proclamation had been made in the public highway of esteem and maybe 
 regard. This was what it was to be a woman, 
 
 " You've been running, " said Aunt Watson, receiving her with reproof 
 
66 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 in a back parlour scented gloriously with fried liver and bacon. " How 
 off on have I told you — " 
 
 Maggie explained breathlessly. 
 
 " My chick," said Watson sharply, " don't you go and get your 'ead 
 turned by a little accident like that. Depend upon it, he only did it for 
 fun." 
 
 " Aunt, dear," cried Maggie, with much alarm, "you don't really think 
 that?" 
 
 " You never know," said Watson, " in this world. Young men are very 
 young." 
 
 " If I thought that," said Maggie, throwing down her boa violently, " I'd 
 never so much as look at him again. How dare anybody — " 
 
 Watson, seeing the girl perturbed, went to her and touched her chin. 
 " Sit down," she addded, " and make a good supper and forget all about it." 
 
 This soothed Maggie for the time ; later she reverted to moderate 
 exaltation, and decided that warmer feelings must have prompted the 
 young man. For the better encouragement of this idea, Maggie the 
 following day wrote a long letter in the intervals of serving, and sighed as 
 slic wrote, so that her colleagues should think she was engaged on a work 
 of sentiment. Miss Brand consulted with MissCheyney in a whisper over 
 the toy telegraph instrument ; one could tell by their glances that Ma'.jgie 
 formed the subject of the conference, and her end was thus attained. Miss 
 Brand, recalled to her duties, hummed slightly as she gave a casual look 
 at the letter on which Maggie was engaged, and, perceiving the word 
 " love," became so flustered that she served a straw-hatted servant with 
 postcards in lieu of stamps, and had to submit meekly to thatyoung woman's 
 satire. The first feeling of resentment against Maggie's precocity gave 
 place, during the day, to one of comradeship, and as Maggie privately 
 lighted the gas-stove in the comer with the sentimental manuscript, to 
 make tea for the establishment, she felt that she had at last, by sheer 
 artfulness, attained the position of perfect equality in the shop which she 
 had long desired. As though to add the last proof, Mr. Brice, who had 
 not made his calls for stamps that day, ran in just before closing time and 
 placed clumsily on the counter which she was disrobing a square envelope. 
 
 " Can't stop I That's for you," he panted hurriedly. 
 
 The envelope opened, to her colleagues' regret, after leaving the shop, 
 proved to be two complimentary tickets, " With Gomps.," for an amateur 
 performance of " Still Waters Run Deep," supported (said the cards) by 
 Messrs. So-and-So and So-and-So and Arthur Brice, assisted by the Misses 
 So-and-So. As though abashed by the assurance of his proceeding. Mr. 
 Brice kept away from the shop for the intervening days, and Maggie was 
 able to construe this into a formal declaration. Watson consented to 
 accompany Maggie to the performance ; they were in the habit of going, 
 about once a month, to the gallery of theatres, where, by arriving early, 
 they always gained seats in the front row, and could rest their foreheads 
 comfortably against the iron railing. They patronized only those playing 
 toai-ful pieces, because, agreeing on most subjects, they were perfectly in 
 accord on this ; one of Maggie's duties was to nudge Watson with her 
 elbow when the interest quickened and special attention was necessary. 
 "When I go to a play," said Aunt Watson emphatically, "I do like to 
 have a good cry and enjoy myself." 
 
 The close attention of her colleagues became relaxed for a time by the 
 fact that Miss Brand, the securely engaged, found herself shaken by con- 
 flicting advice from her lady friends. Her young gentleman, who, wander- 
 ing from the established Church, rested for a time at many intermediate 
 stages, and reached at last what appeared to bo a terminus in the shape 
 of Unitarianism, had suddenly started afresh, and, detaching himself from 
 
LOST PROPERTY • (7 
 
 all of these, had betaken himself to Anti- vivisection. MissBrand, advisud 
 by some to stick to him as long as she could, by others to talk to him 
 straight, by others, again, to put her foot down (" Ton me word," said 
 Miss Brand, distractedly, " I begin to wonder why I was ever born "), had 
 no time to devote to Maggie's atTairs, and that very young woman, full of 
 importance and pride, found to her regret that the simulation of reading 
 with happy sighs a letter which she had posted to herself no longer 
 extorted from either of her fellows any adequate show of interest. She 
 thorefore gave up ingenious schemes, and nursed the great passion without 
 assistance. It occurred to her that immediate advancement would increase 
 the esteem of Arthur Brice, and she consulted Miss Cheyney shyly in 
 regard to Civil Service examinations. 
 
 "Is it hard? " asked Maggie. 
 
 "Unless you've gone through it," declared Miss Cheyney, "you can 
 form no idea what it is like. The sums, the history, the geography, the what 
 not — Really, it all seems to me, looking back upon it, like some horrible 
 dream. Fortunately, I managed not to qualify, so there was no harm done." 
 
 " Does the work of preparing make your head ache ? " inquired Maggie. 
 
 " Ache ? " echoed the other. " Why, how can it do anything else '! It 
 must either ache or burst with all the information you have to pack into it. 
 It means attending classes, it means working at home, it means writing till 
 your second right-hand finger is simply smothered with ink ; it means — 
 well," she said finally, "I wouldn't go through it again for a million pounds." 
 
 " I believe I could do it if I tried." 
 
 " It all depends," said Miss Cheyney, tapping her forehead darkly, " on 
 what you've got here." 
 
 " Mustn't it curl natural ? " asked Maggie, with pertness. 
 
 " Go back to your desk, miss, at once, and learn to be civil," ordered 
 the other heatedly. "I don't want nonsense from yow. A mere child," 
 cried Miss Cheyney, " to dare to talk about succeeding where I failed. 
 Why, you could no more do it than you could fly." Miss Cheyney laughed 
 ironically. " Civil Service indeed ! " 
 
 This decided it. The proprietress gave reasons for and against dreamily, 
 with one hand marking the place in Schopenhauer ; Aunt Watson begged 
 Maggie not to be too ambitious ; but Miss Cheyney's taunt made the effort 
 necessar}-. Wherefore on the great evening when, as it seemed to Maggie, 
 a definite declaration from Mr. Brice might well be expected, and Watson, 
 being introduced by Maggie in an adult way, " My aunt, Mrs. Lammer," 
 scowled at the nervous lad so fiercely l^at he said, " Beg pardon, I'm 
 sure ! " then it was that Maggie, to pave the way smoothly for Mr. Brice's 
 advance, made the announcement. That youth had played only in the 
 first piece, an elderly farce, wherein he had impersonated a lawyer with a 
 violently patterned carpet bag, like to those notoriously used in legal 
 circles, a white hat, black gloves of excessive length ; and his duty had 
 been to come on at any noisy moment and to be kicked off instantly by 
 everyone. Mr. Brice was very proud and verj' red of face ; he confessed, 
 in the generous heat of success, that Wilson Barrett was all very well in 
 certain parts, but where (asked Mr. Brice), where was he in low comedy? 
 Watson clicked her tongue contemptuously and concentrated her interest 
 on a temperance motto tacked against the wall. At the pianoforte, n- ar 
 the platform, a determined-looking.young woman sat down and ptmched a 
 chord or two. 
 
 " I'm sure it was very kind of you to give us the tickets," said Maggie, 
 with a refined air. " We so seldom go out anywhere." 
 
 "To tell the truth," said Mr. Brice, fanning himself with his bowler 
 bat, " it's rather a job to get people to come here at all." 
 
 "There seem a fair number here to-night," said Maggie, looking at thQ 
 
ns LOST PROPERTY 
 
 hall over her shoulder, "in the front rows, at least. By-the-bye," impor- 
 tantly, " talking of front rows, you may be interested to hear that I've 
 decided to go in for the Civil Service, as a lady sorter." 
 
 " How much," asked Mr. Brice, with interest, " might that mean per 
 annum ? " Maggie gave an optimistic guess. " But isn't there some 
 arrangement whereby you have to leave in the case of getting married ? " 
 
 "I believe that is so." Maggie looked at her boots shyly ; the fierce 
 young lady at the pianoforte struck aggressively into a set of quadrilles. 
 
 " Harsh," he remarked thoughtfully, " very harsh." 
 
 "Well, I don't know," contested Maggie. "Seems to me that when a 
 lady marries and settles down, home's the best place for her." 
 
 " There's the loss of income," said the youth gloomily. 
 
 " Money isn't everything." 
 
 " No," agreed Master Brice, " not unless you've got plenty of it. In 
 my profession — I mean my other profession — I see so much of this sort of 
 thing. I've noticed cases where a little bit of house property has made all 
 the difference to a couple of loving hearts." 
 
 " If people are fond of each other — " 
 
 "I know what you're going to say," declared Master Brice, "and I 
 admit there's something in it. But a bit of house property — it's such a 
 safe thing ! You've only got to insure it, and there you are." 
 
 " I expect it's sometimes a source of worry," suggested Maggie. 
 
 " In which case all you have to do is to hand over the management to a 
 firm like us. Now, if it isn't a rude question, have your mother and father 
 got a bit put by ? " 
 
 The hall showed impatience for " Still Waters," and Aunt Watson remarked 
 bitterly that apparently they had mistaken the night. Master Brice 
 repeated his whispered inquiry with greater directness. 
 
 " Unfortunately," said Maggie, " the ship went down with all hands." 
 
 " Ho ! " he said, and looked at the inside of his bowler hat. " I ought 
 to be turning over, I suppose, he rights." 
 
 " Somersaults in the street ? " inquired Maggie. 
 
 " Turning over the music for my friend who's at the piano." 
 
 " Surely she isn't playing from music? " 
 
 " She may not be over and above good at that," said Brice resentfully, 
 and preparing to go, " but I can tell you just where she gets the pull over 
 other girls." 
 
 " Seems to have nice large hands." 
 
 " Not that neither." He bent down to whisper meaningly. " She'll come 
 in for no less than two houses in Somers Town when her father pops off." 
 
 " Then don't let me detain you," she said sharply. 
 
 " I won't," retorted Mr. Brice. " Good-night." 
 
 He went, arriving at the pianoforte in time to catch flying sheets of 
 music, which, affrighted at the tremendous violence of the fourth figure, 
 were trying to make their escape. 
 
 " Aunt," cried Maggie. 
 
 " My dear I " 
 
 " Let's go home, please. I — I don't want to stay here." 
 
 " You're upset about something," said Watson, with concern. 
 
 " I've had a — had a disappointment." 
 
 As they went silently out of the hall the set of quadrilles finished with 
 two emphatic but incorrect chords, and a hand pulled back the scarlet 
 curtain to show two Windsor chairs and a garden seat. 
 
 " Disappointment about what, my chick ? " asked Watson, renewing the 
 conversation as she took off the girl's brown cape when they arrived in- 
 doors at King Street. 
 
 •' Oh, nothing," said the girl mournfully. " Only I0V9," 
 
LOST PROPERTY 69 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 AUNT Watson, burdened with many duties and with a trouble of her 
 own in the shape of a new two-sided emporium at the corner of her 
 street, which threatened by posters to be Better than the Best — " Every- 
 thing's cut pretty fine as it is," said Watson to her customers, from whom 
 she somewhat unreasonably expected sympathy. " What it'll be like 
 presently don't bear thinking of," — Watson gave words the next morning 
 intended at once to comfort ilaggie and to upbraid her. Much too early, 
 said Aunt Watson, for Maggie to bother herself about such matters ; a 
 girl should be ashamed of herself for falling in love under the age of twenty- 
 five (that being the period at which Watson had herself felt attracted by 
 the late Mr. Lammer). Too ridiculous, upon her word. Besides, men 
 were all alike, and the less you knew of them the better ofif you were. 
 Moreover, any nonsense of that kind, and — good-bye to Aunt Watson. 
 She spoke with the more acerbity because Mr. Bells, who dressed of an 
 evening as a sea-captain, strolled down High Street, Camden Town, with 
 a seaman.like roll in his walk, and sometimes called to play county 
 cards, had recently shown definite signs that he intended to go no further. 
 Captain Bells, as he was dehghted to be called, owned a bootmaker's shop 
 in King Street, and appeared to be above all a man of caution. Besides — 
 returning to the matter under discussion — had it been seriously intended 
 by Maggie to throw her over and leave tha ship (this was a naval simile 
 which VVatson handled with care) before it sank in the whirlpool caused by 
 the emporium "? 
 
 " Because if so,'' said Watson severely, as she and Maggie brought in 
 the shutters and stood them up against the wall in order uf their chalked 
 numbers, " if so, it looks very much like base ingratitude." 
 
 " Oh, aunt ! " cried Maggie, hugging a shutter, " ple.ase don't make it 
 too hard for me." 
 
 " You needn't be so silly as to meet troubles half-way," counselled Wat- 
 son. " Stay quiet where you are, and they'll get tii-ed and turn back." 
 
 Rejecting this good advice, Maggie bore herself that day with a manner 
 of intense self-commiseration, serving birthday cards with a lugubrious 
 air and varying her usual procedure by offering to her customers doleful 
 prophecies in regard to the weather. She would have confided in Miss 
 Gheyney, but that young lady made the initial error of attributing Maggie's 
 air of desolation to neuralgia ; a want of perception so ludicrous that 
 Maggie felt bound to treat her with something of haughtiness. The post 
 office and shop, which Maggie had looked upon as the best worldly 
 exemplifications of joy, became under this aggressively mournful view a 
 prison, with everyone acting either as warder or visiting commissioner. She 
 found some melancholy pleasure in a work, penned by a lady novelist, which 
 gave extremely bitter opinions of mankind in general and a Lord Feather- 
 stonhaugh in particular : gratifying to see her own sentiments so admirably 
 and 80 pungently expressed. Certainly the handiest and the easiest way of 
 taking revenge would be to give up all thought of preparing for a Civil 
 Service examination. Of what use was it to become, by the taking of great 
 pains, wise and successful if one were to be treated in this way ? 
 
 " I want you," said a precise voice, " I want you to be so good as to let 
 me have some scribbling paper." 
 
 As she stood up in the stationery bower and looked across the smooth 
 glacier of cases, Maggie's mind danced back to Lady Isobel's room, a 
 Doctor Somebody, a golden sovereign, and a boy with spectacles. Thei-e 
 on the other side of the glacier stood the boy, grown tall and very wise 
 
70 T.OST PROPERTY 
 
 of appeaxance ; his head liad an unexpected finish in a dark blue cricket- 
 ing cap with a school device worked upon it. In all Maggie's confusion, 
 one thought came clear and distinct. He would look much better in a 
 silk hat, or even a bowler. 
 
 " No," he said gravely, " not a box of J pens. Some scribbling paper is 
 what I require, of about these dimensions." 
 
 He suggested two measurements with his hands. Maggie, recovering 
 herself, noticed that they were white. Whiter than her own. 
 
 " Any particular quality? " she stammered. He blinked at her through 
 his pince-nez and prepared with great care to dislodge them. 
 
 " So long as it permits itself to be written upon — " 
 
 Maggie ducked her head and disappeared. She was conscious that 
 her face had coloured violently red, and knew that this did not suit her ; a 
 few moments gained in affecting to search for the article required might 
 restore her usual complexion. She would have given something for an 
 opportunity for a glance into Miss Cheyney's hanging mirror. A girl, she 
 felt, should never get cut ofiF from easy communication with a looking-glass. 
 
 " Don't trouble," said the deliberate voice of Lucas, " if you haven't 
 any." 
 
 "Oh, but," replied Maggie, reappearing, "we have oceans." She 
 gasped and searched her mind wildly for conversation. '• We sell quite a 
 lot of this to one or two literary gentlemen of the neighbourhood." 
 
 " I fear,'' said Lucas, looking at her, " thati cannot claim to be literary. 
 I am busy just now with some examinations — " 
 
 " You'll find this," said Maggie, interrupting him, from sheer nervous- 
 ness, " the very thing." 
 
 He agreed to take a quire, and she made the sheets into a tissue-paper 
 protected roll, tying it with fingers that trembled, wondering the while if 
 she should recall herself to his memory. This might be her only chance, 
 for London was a terrible place in which to miss people. Only last week 
 Watson had encountered in a Great Northern train the old Albert Terrace 
 cook, who, it seemed, had been living for years in a parallel street in 
 Camden Town. 
 
 " Can I tie it for you ? " 
 
 If she reminded him of their former meetings, likely enough he would 
 blurt out something which might betray her doubtful origin to Miss 
 Cheyney, tapping away on the toy instrument in the corner, and to Miss 
 Brand, eyeing her with some curiosity. For their satisfaction, she had 
 invented a delightful mother with an exceptional talent for music, and of 
 much gentleness of manner, who had gone to a better world when Maggie 
 had been quite young, a romance that could not be improved by any chance 
 remark made by Lucas. An idea occurred to her. 
 
 " Can we send this for you, sir ? " she asked. 
 
 "Don't be so silly," whispered Miss Brand. "If you do it for them 
 once, you may be always at it." 
 
 " Now, that would be very kind of you," he said. " It will save me the 
 trouble of carrying it to Westminster and back." 
 
 " Please write the address here." 
 
 He complied, and looked at Maggie's elated eyes as he handed hack 
 the slip of paper. Maggie thanked him, and he bowed politely and 
 went out. 
 
 " Yea, Miss Brand?" 
 
 " Did you take the cash for that? " 
 
 "I — I forgot," stammered Maggie. 
 
 " Run after him like mad," ordered Miss Brand. " Good thing I'm here 
 to keep an eye on things." 
 
 Maggie flew out, and hurried up the street to the main road where 
 
LOST PROPEETY 71 
 
 yellow 'buses travelled. Lucas, caught just before he stepped off the 
 pavement, looked round, astonished. She held one hand on the top of her 
 head to discourage the wind from ruffling her hair. 
 
 "Do you know," he said, greatly perturbed, "I forgot it too. And 
 you've had to run all this way after me." 
 
 " That's nothing," she panted. " I was afraid you might not be calling 
 again." 
 
 " You must let me show my contrition," said the lad, with immense 
 gravity, " by becoming a frequent patron." 
 
 " I shall be on the watch for you," she said. 
 
 It occurred to her immediately afterwards that this was an intrusive 
 retort to make ; as she ran back to the shop she felt that it would have been 
 better to have put on a look of maidenly confusion. Miss Brand's caustic 
 remarks, intended to hurt, fell upon her lightly ; she sang at her work, and 
 herself took the roll, in lunch time, to the address that Lucas had given. 
 A brass plate on the door, so small that it seemed anxious to be over- 
 looked, whispered that Dr. James lived there ; a grave man in a dress suit 
 took the roll, saying that another time, the area bell if you please. At the 
 abridged lunch, she intended to tell Aunt Watson all about this, but 
 remembering that but recently they had agreed on the general unworthi- 
 ness of man, she decided to keep the happy meeting a secret, a plan which 
 would have the advantage of accentuating any romance that she might be 
 able to extract from the affair. Master Brice was one of the many 
 customers that afternoon. Maggie saw him enter the shop without a 
 flutter, and his feint of being extremely interested in Miss Cheyney gave 
 her no anxiety. Indeed she could not help observing that Master Brice's 
 accent was painfully vulgar, and that he aspirated but one " h " out of 
 three. Lucas never failed to aspirate them. 
 
 " Hullo, hullo I " said Master Brice sportively, as one at the end of a 
 telephone. " Are you there, are you there ? " 
 
 " I beg your pardon ? " 
 
 " How did we enjoy ourselves last night ? " 
 
 " Last night," repeated Maggie, with doubt. "Oh, of course. It was 
 your performance last night? " 
 
 " You have got a good memory," said Master Brice, hurt. " I wonder 
 you don't write a book of reminiscences. And I say ! " 
 
 " What can I serve you with ? " 
 
 " Don't be so mea-c'nary," he begged. " 1 wanted to tell you something. 
 You saw that girl at the piano, and you heard what I told you about her 
 'ouse property? " 
 
 " I have some faint recQllection," said Maggie. She gave to a customer 
 who was demanding a novel with plenty of conversation in it, and, if possible, 
 a little poison, a book of Mrs. Henry Wood's. 
 
 "Well," said Arthur Brice, when his opportunity came, "funny thing, 
 but it turns out that she's already engaged." 
 
 " I should never have guessed that." 
 
 " Ho ! " said Arthur Brice, disconcerted. " I've been promised tickets 
 for the Zoo for next Sunday." 
 
 " Nice for you to see some of your friends again." 
 
 " I suppose you wouldn't care to " — Master Brice felt that Maggie might 
 well have met nim half-way. He disliked having to make appeal — " to go 
 with me ? " he blurted out. 
 
 " I have so many engagements next Sunday," she said precisely. 
 
 " You're hurt about something," whispered foolish Master Brice. " I've 
 said or done something to annoy you. Tell me what it is, and I'll 
 apologize like a gentleman, and do anything else you ask me to." 
 
 A servant came to change a library book, and " please, mistress says, 
 
72 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 for goodness sake vot another by the same man ; mistress says she coulc! 
 write a better book herself standing on one foot." 
 
 "Give it a name," urged Brice, with great eagerness. " Let me know 
 the task I have to perform, and no sooner are the words out of your mouth 
 than I'll—" 
 
 " Then will you please," said Maggie verj' distinctly, " go right out of 
 the shop at once." 
 
 Elated by her open declaration of independence, and delighted to forget 
 the humiUty that had been her companion the previous evening, Maggie 
 insisted on going out of her turn to make tea ; helped Miss Cheyney to 
 make up daily returns required by the insatiable St. Martin's-le-Grand ; 
 warmed Miss Brand's veil for her, and went about the shop like an eager 
 young philanthropist impatient for opportunities of doing kindly actions. 
 She took home, when the hour for closing came, the illustrated papers to 
 Watson, and in the shop parlour wade deftly a new cap which that good 
 woman, on trying the effect, was forced to admit succeeded in taking sis 
 years from her age. A cosy room this shop parlour, its mantelpiece 
 crowded with round-eyed specimens of natural history in china which 
 seemed to have the defects of all animals and the attractiveness of none ; 
 bloated glass lamp on the round table gorged with oil and a broad, sinuous 
 wick ; photographic group of servants on the walls and a horse-hair sofa of 
 such shiny exterior and mountainous character that it repelled all attempts 
 at being sat upon. The room's happiness of an evening depended on the 
 disposition of Maggie. At her best, as on this occasion, the girl could 
 make it for Aunt Watson and herself a haven of content, where customers 
 could no longer bring back articles which they had purchased ; where 
 thoughts of the new diapery emporium, day by day increasing in emphasis 
 its threats of opening shortly, could be forgotten, and Watson, moved after 
 supper to reminiscence, would sometimes go back to the morning at Cloak 
 Lane Police Station in the City when Maggie had first met her. This 
 recital was listened to by Maggie in silence ; there had been a time when 
 it had interested her, but now she felt that there was something in her 
 mode of introduction to the world on that far-off day which broke some 
 rule of etiquette, and it suddenly occurred to her that Lucas, in whose 
 estimation she desired to stand high, might say something contemptuous 
 if he heai'd the story of her early days. She would have interrupted and 
 abridged the details now, but Watson's enjoyment was so obvious that she 
 allowed it to go on until it reached the christening day at Homerton. 
 
 "And there was you," said Aunt Watson, rubbing the spectacles which 
 she had recently had to wear, " there was you, Maggie, the dearest little 
 mite that ever was ; and the clergyman he kissed you, and he says— I 
 remember it all so well — he says—" 
 
 "Aunt dear," said Maggie. 
 
 " Now begin again," remarked Watson good-humouredly. "What are 
 you going to wheedle out of me now? " 
 
 " You know what we decided upon ? " 
 
 " I think you showed very good sense," said the elder woman. " No use 
 wearing yourself to a shadow unless you're going in for the ghost business." 
 
 "Well," said Maggie, turning over the stocking basket, "I've been 
 thinking about it, and I've come to the conclusion that we were hasty." 
 
 "Think so?" Doubtfully. " We talked it over for a long time." 
 
 " True," she confessed, " but we started wrong. Now it occurs to me 
 that supposing I never got married I " 
 
 " There's always the chance that you may escape it," remark?d the other 
 cheerfully. 
 
 "And fcupposiuK you don't mind? — supposing anything happcDcd tc 
 you." , . ■ 
 
LOST PROPERTY 73 
 
 " We're 'ere to-day and gone to-morrow," laughed Watson. 
 
 " Why, then," argued the young logician, " the better position I get now 
 the better able I shall be to live independent all my life." 
 
 " Granted ! " said Watson. 
 
 " So it seems to me that, if you don't mind letting me take the money 
 out of the savings bank, I'd better, after all, go in for these classes and do 
 the best I can ; and if I fail, I shan't be worse oflf than I am now, and if I 
 succeed, why, then, you see, I can snap my fingers at everybody." 
 
 Aunt Watson made a tine pretence of giving the subject fresh considera- 
 tion, unknowingly imitating a classic precedent in putting on her new 
 spectacles to assist her in the task. She also rolled up the fringe of the 
 tablecloth very precisely. 
 
 " Well, / think " — began Watson. 
 
 " Exactly ! " interrupted Maggie, kissing her. " I knesv you'd agree. 
 You're always sensible." 
 
 Thus the matter was decided. On a form, Margaret Cannon, pro- 
 prietress of book No. 12315G, desired the Postmaster-General, in dictatorial 
 terms, to be kind enough to arrange for the payment to her at the earliest 
 possible date of five pounds, and in company with Aunt Watson paid a 
 visit to an institution which provided evening classes for young men and 
 women, where a rather gruff official at first seemed inclined to do all he 
 could to dissuade Maggie, and having thus stiffened the determination of 
 the new applicant, presently gave in and mapped out for lier a set of 
 studies which, with determination and intelligence on her part, should, he 
 declared, give her as good a chance as could be possessed by any one, 
 including as they did a knowledge of curious arithmetic and a round plain 
 handwriting. Commenced then a time of desperate guerilla warfare with 
 here a fact brought down, and here a difficulty knocked over, and here 
 again a height that had appeared insurmountable captured. The trouble 
 was in holding all these possessions. Maggie's young brain buzzed with 
 the eflbrt to retain them, and night after night Watson had to prepare an 
 old-fashioned remedy for headache. This, and the visits by Lucas, helped. 
 He called at the shop rarely, however, and, when he had gone, Maggie 
 always recalled some sentence which she should not have made or some 
 epigram which she had omitted to ofifer. They had become good friends, 
 and she had recalled to his memory their former meeting ; but she did not 
 trouble him with any reference to her own educational troubles, for he 
 himself, it appeared, had grave matters of the kind in hand, and her 
 difficulties, in comparison, appeared trifling. 
 
 There came a dark evening. Lucas had not called for about three 
 weeks ; on the last occasion he had promised to write (which he had not 
 done), and her memory was afflicted by the thought that on this last visit 
 she had said " If I was" instead of "If I were." .\ fog had sauntered 
 down when nobody was looking, placing a crape veil around the gas lamps 
 and entering houses where the doors happened to l>e opened. The post- 
 office shop, with the best intentions, could only throw light half-way across 
 the pavement, enough to permit bewildered wayfarers to recognize the 
 people with whom they came into collision and to upbraid them strenuously, 
 — Where the something are you, coming to ? Why don't you look where 
 you're going ? Want a dog and tin-can to lead you, some of you do— and 
 ever declining to admit any blame on their own side. Hansoms came, as 
 it were, out of a black wall, with terrified drivers begging their fares to 
 get out and walk, but fares declining to do this, arguing through the trap 
 door and directing the drivers to go on until they found themselves. 
 Voices had a muttled sound ; a distracted lady on a bicycle rang her liell 
 repeatedly, demanding of shadows the nearest way to Potter's Par. In 
 the shop, business wa^ slack ; Mias Chcyney had obtained the evuniti^ ulf 
 
74 LOS'I PKOPERTY 
 
 iu Older to be taken to see fireworks at the Crystal Palace, and had gone 
 out into the blackness witli the prospect of spending hours in a crowded 
 compartment on the Chatham Railway, and remarking dismally that it 
 ■was just her luck. The proprietress had been down from her room with a 
 book under her arm to make some futile pretence of helping, but, on being 
 requested by both girls not to interfere, had sighed amiably and returned 
 to her studies. The work of putting picture frames and journals to bed 
 undertaken and completed, there was nothing to do but to wait for the 
 hour of closing with all the patience they could command. \n Italian lady, 
 with a colom-ed handkerchief for cap, halted in the fog at the doorway with 
 her cage containing a wise fortune-telling canary which read the future as 
 an open book, and Maggie paid a penny in order to gain from this sage 
 bird a description of her husband that was to be. The canary thought 
 for a while, and then picked out a small ill-printed card which said, " He 
 is a handsome blond with plenty of money but of violent temper. He 
 loves you, and will make you happy if you can make him reform," a most 
 unsatisfactory affidavit, which Maggie offered to sell to Miss Brand for the 
 sum of one halfpenny. Miss Brand, reverting to a subject which had that 
 day possessed her thoughts, remarked that, according to the papers, there 
 •were so many millions of women living in the world at the present moment 
 and so many millions less of men. Determined to realize fearlessly these 
 di'eadful statistics. Miss Brand worked out on the back of a savings bank 
 form the exact proportion of a man that each woman, under the circum- 
 stances, had a right to expect ; sitting down afterwards near the gas stove 
 she set about to make a special brew of tea in order to dispel the gloomy 
 thoughts conjured up by the fractional result arrived at. Maggie, not 
 altogether uninfluenced by the general atmosphere, sat in Miss Cheyney's 
 corner with one hand thrust in her hair, wrestling with an educational 
 work. Not succeeding, she allowed her thoughts, after the first round or 
 two, to wander. 
 
 Why had not Lucas written ? 
 
 He had promised to communicate with her, and be ought to have done 
 so. She was anxious to see how he would commence a letter ; would it be 
 "Dear Maggie" or "Dear Miss Cannon"? She feared it would be 
 " Dear Miss Cannon." And would he be " Yours faithfully " or " Yours 
 sincerely" or "Yours" — It wa« of little use anticipating. There was 
 this excuse for him, that he had been very busy with examinations ; and 
 here she was not quite certain whether she wished to see him successful 
 or not. If he climbed too high in the world he would have no alternative 
 l)ut to look down on her. 
 
 " Will you have a cup. Miss Cannon ? " 
 
 " No thank you. Miss Brand. I'm thinking." 
 
 " You shouldn't," advised Miss Brand wisely. " Makes you look old." 
 
 It would be something if she herself succeeded. An ideal condition 
 would be if she were to enter the Civil Service brilliantly and Lucas were 
 to fail slightly ; this would biing them to a level. Glancing into Miss 
 Cheyney's piece of looking-glass, it occurred to Maggie that the number 
 of young girls more attractive in appearance than herself was disastrously 
 large, that figures on this point would be more cogent than those which 
 Miss Brand was trying to dispel from her thoughts by the aid of tea. The 
 toy instrument clicked, and Maggie answered it. The district office asked 
 if she would take a message, and Maggie replied that she represented a 
 forwarding office only, adding an expression of regret that this notorious 
 fact had escaped attention ; but the clerk at the other end insisted, and 
 she agreed to accept the telegram. As the little instrument tapped out 
 briskly the name and addi-ess, Maggie became scarlet, for they were her 
 ov.-u. 
 
LOST PROPERTY 75 
 
 " Distribution at schools to-morrow, three o'clock. Come. 
 
 IjCCAS." 
 
 " I must say," remarked Miss Brand pointedly, " that I do not care for 
 being kissed by girls. It's early Victorian." 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 CHEERS and a terrific clapping of hands as Lucas, in obedience to the 
 call of the headmaster, went up the steps of the platform. The hall 
 had tired of the distribution of prizes. Parents having seen their own 
 sons accept a handsomely Iwund book of the most uninteresting and 
 harmless interior, from the hands of a lady whose face was screwed 
 carefully into a smile, found their interest cooled ; the prizeless up in the 
 gallery had wearied of giving applause to batches of successful boys, from 
 those in the Preparatory Form to the mannish youths in the Upper Sixth. 
 But now that Lucas had been summoned to appear specially and alone, 
 and stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do with his hands, until 
 the ingenious device occm-red to him of placing them in the pockets of his 
 jacket ; now that the lady of title gave an extra twist to her smile ; now 
 that the headmaster swelled so much with pride that he seemed to have 
 at least three chins, the boys stood up and applauded, the pai-ents patted 
 their gloved hands, Maggie in the gallery waved her handkerchief excitedly, 
 and an assistant master near the swing doors placed his programmes 
 between his knees and clapped his large palms together, producing some 
 of the efifect of musketry practice. 
 
 "Lucas Sharwell," said the headmaster, placing one hand on the 
 shoulder of the spectacled lad as though he were a conjurer about to 
 perform an interesting trick, " Lucas Sharwell is not only at the head of 
 the seniors in the school, and one of whom the school is for this reason 
 proud, but he has also achieved a success to which I wish to draw your 
 ladyship's special attention." 
 
 Her ladyship exhibited an anxiety of attention quite painful to behold. 
 
 " It shows," proceeded the headmaster, enjoying his speech, " it shows 
 to what lengths this great power of education can go, to what an extent 
 the appreciation of knowledge can be carried, how much can be done when 
 you have on the one hand — if I may say so — the refinements of teaching 
 and on the other a receptive student. It is my great pleasure and my 
 great priNalege to inform your ladyship, without further preamble and 
 without wearj-ing you with any additional particulars — " 
 
 Her ladyship, giving her face yet another twist, intimated, with great 
 anxiety, that nothing could possibly exceed the keenness of her present 
 enjoyment. 
 
 " — That Lucas Sharwell, whom I have now the honour to present, has 
 obtained his B.A. degree at London University." 
 
 Tremendous cheering frorft the hall. Her ladyship gave to her left 
 eyebrow a delicate suggestion of glad amazement. 
 
 " His B.A. degree at London University," the headmaster repeated, 
 with a fine roll, " whilst he has remained in the schools." 
 
 Lucas's desire to get away from the platform and return to his seat in 
 the body of the hall was obvious, but did not accord with the views of the 
 headmaster, to whom the opportunity was too precious to be wasted. 
 Her ladyship offered her congratulations to the blushing youth. 
 
 "Lucas Sharwell," said the headmaster oratorically, "to 
 schools entrust their fame and their honour. You are about to 
 
76 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 the second stage of your life, the stage following that now bo brilliantly 
 ended. Remember, whatever you do hereafter that is estimable and right 
 will reflect credit on yourself and on the schools ; remember," — here the 
 headmaster, touched by his own speech, searched in the tail pocket of 
 his frock coat for his handkerchief and brought out a tobacco pouch, 
 which he swiftly replaced, — " remember that any error will reflect 
 discredit on the schools as. well as ou yourself. Go, Lucas," said the 
 headmaster tearfully, " and may Heaven prosper you. The boys will now 
 aing a glee." 
 
 Followed, after the shrill singing, a speech from the chairman and a 
 few timid remarks from her ladyship's husband, rendered more timid by 
 a searchlight from the now contemptuous eyes of his wife ; followed also 
 a vote of thanks to the headmaster, to which that portentous person 
 replied with fine affectation of modesty, going so far, indeed, as to declare 
 himself but a humble instrument sent into this world to do great and 
 good work, insisting also that some credit was due to his gifted assistants ; 
 but, on this expression of opinion being cheered, hedging by pointing out 
 carefully that these efforts would be useless without a controlling hand, 
 and a sane, wise, directing head. Another allusion to Lucas, " Our 
 fortunate alumnus," and the distribution was over. 
 
 In the coiTidor foregathered grown pupils, some with a suspicion of 
 moustache, others with wisps of hair trained down by their ears that 
 gave, at a distance, all the effect of whiskers. Parents going out with 
 iheir boys, whose small successes had been made in lower forms, looked 
 admiringly at Lucas, and told their offspring to grow up hke him or to be 
 prepared for punishment at home. Small boys stood open-eyed with 
 astonishment and reverence ; those whose mouths were ready to whistle 
 their way out through the corridor remained in that position. The barrier 
 that existed between Foundation boys and others was broken to allow 
 Lucas to come through. It was felt by the paying youths that his 
 success almost entitled him to be considered as one of themselves, and 
 when one of the most refined youths, whose father was a dentist, openly 
 shook hands with him and offered to him both sets of the contents of his 
 cigarette case, those with the gilded ends and those with none, it was 
 generally felt that Lucas's ambition might well feel satiated and content 
 
 " What are you going to be, old chap ? " asked the dentist's sou a second 
 time. " Got a billet, eh? " 
 
 " I think," replied Lucas diffidently, " I think I shall probably go in for 
 school work." 
 
 " You prob'ly know yovur own business best," conceded the other hand- 
 somely, " but personally I should consider teaching most footling business. 
 /," he added proudly, " / am going in for medicine." 
 
 " You look as though you want it," remarked one of the young men. 
 
 The dentist's son chased the other through the corridor, and the crowd 
 went to pieces. Lucas, released from his admirers, strapped his prizes 
 together, and, looking around carefully, walked out. On the steps of the 
 town hall Maggie waited. 
 
 " Let's go round this way ; we shall escape the rest then." 
 
 " Don't you want to be seen with me? " she asked bluntly. 
 
 " It isn't that exactly." 
 
 " What is it, then ? " 
 
 " I say," he said, nettled, " don't ask so many questions. Pray do as I 
 tell you." 
 
 " Shall I carry your parcel for you? " she asked submissively. 
 
 " As soon as we get round the corner." 
 
 They walked hurriedly into one of the quiet streets of Westminster and 
 'iioii wb'>l more leisurely towards St. James's Park. The bundl(> of books 
 
LOST PROPERTY 77 
 
 was heavy. Hut Maggie afifected to be able to carry it with ease. It was 
 not until shr gave it over to her left hand that he realized it was his duty 
 to take charge. 
 
 " You look rather well," he swd, anxious to atone for this blunder. " I 
 Boarcely recognized you at first." 
 
 " Don't you know what it is ? " 
 
 He looked at her attentively, but gave up the couundrum. 
 
 " Why," said Maggie, with great enjoyment, " it's my hat." 
 
 " Is it new ? " 
 
 "New?" she echoed, "of course it isn't new. I can't afford new 
 things. It's an old straw I had dyed. Someone gave me some ribbons 
 hiid I titivated it up, and there you are. And you like it, do you ? " 
 
 "I have often thought," he said with gravity, "how much head-gear 
 bas to do with the formation of character." 
 
 " Let's wait here and look at the soldiers," she interrupted. 
 
 They stood back, as others did, against the railings, the better to review 
 the exultant fifing and drumming lads who marched by Muggie, in the 
 excitement of the moment, took Lucas's arm, and the new Bachelor of 
 Arts so far forgot his usual caution as to press her plump hand gently. 
 On the water stately swans bowed as though rehearsing for one of Her 
 Majesty's Drawing Rooms, giving up this refined and delectable behaviour 
 whenever a piece of bun was thrown. Lads with a taste for adventure 
 took boats and practised the art of sculling, growing hot-faced at the 
 comments and satirical advice of voluntary coaches standing on the 
 banks. Maggie enjoyed it all very much, and even Luc&s found his 
 sternness wilting. 
 
 " I propose," he said, "to give myself the pleasure of asking you to 
 take tea with me this afternoon at some convenient establishment." 
 
 " You dear ! " cried Maggie. 
 
 " It is a special occasion," he said decidedly, " and it should be marked 
 in a special way." 
 
 " So long as I'm with you — " 
 
 " What is the hour ? " 
 
 She ran to sight Big Ben, and returned with the information. 
 
 " Then my suggestion," he said, " is that we go now." 
 
 It was clear that he felt himself to be doing a very fine and noble 
 action, and Maggie's undisguised gratitude emphasized this. They went 
 across the park to the steps of the Duke of York's column, and Maggie 
 pretended not to know the history of this, in order that she might have 
 the pleasure of listening to his description. She was really abashed on 
 finding herself in the neighbourhood of Pall Mall, and sheltered herself 
 a little behind Lucas, as he pointed out all the importsmt clubs, and 
 named them wrongly. Maggie recovered when, at the top of St. James's 
 Street, 'buses came into sight and the population appeared to be less 
 exclusively of the silk-hatted sex ; she walked now with more assurance, 
 correcting Lucas on one or two points, and curbing thus his masterful and 
 almost proprietorial attitude in regard to London. She glanced at herself 
 in the shop windows ; the hat which had seemed advanced and gorgeous 
 at Camden Town here looked rococo and hopeless. 
 
 " Follow me ! " ordered Lucas. 
 
 He pushed open one of the swing doors of an establishment which 
 looked like the best residence of a prince. A page boy who had 
 won largely in a game of buttons saluted them, and Lucas with an easy 
 confidence, which Maggie admired but could not imitate, strolled down 
 the centre gangway between rows of marble tables where other guests 
 sat sipping tea, eating strawberries, blowing at ices. The guests reviewed 
 the new-comers as they went by, to the increase of Maggie's confusion, 
 
78 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 for the faces of eome indicated a slight sneer, as who should say, " How 
 very mixed society has become nowadays," whilst others gave a kind of 
 grudging hospitality, " Well, now you are here, we suppose you had 
 better stop and have something." The hour being five, all the tables 
 were full, and Lucas and Maggie had to sit down on a kind of rout seat 
 and wait for vacancies to occur. Maggie's lips were dry with nervous- 
 ness, she could not speak ; but Lucas, raising his voice slightly, gave a 
 brief lecture on Home Rule for Ireland, pronouncing his opinions with 
 great emphasis and obtaining from Maggie a few nods of assent. She 
 remembered suddenly, on noticing under one of the tables a pair of small 
 patent leather shoes, that she wore laoed-up boots, and these she en- 
 deavoured to hide from the manageress, who walked up and down the 
 gangway keeping white-capped, white-aproned young women busy and 
 attentive. ' 
 
 " What the Government should have done," said Lucas dogmatically, 
 " was to have recognized the importance of the matter at first and taken 
 adequate measures. It is useless for people to tell me — " 
 
 " Two places ready, sir," said one of the attendants. 
 
 Tea ! Tea in a small silver teapot to be poured out by Maggie, for »U 
 the world as though she were the head of an establishment, with polite 
 inquiry of Lucas concerning the number of lumps of sugar which he 
 desired and the proportion of milk. The position gave her a feeling of 
 importance and a sense of intimacy that deUghted her, and with this 
 Lucas's dogmatic manner seemed to diminish. She could see herself 
 reflected again and again in the mirrors on the wall opposite : the sight of 
 so many Maggies and so many Lucases gave a sense of friendliness to the 
 party. 
 
 " Congratulations, Lucas," she said, as she raised her cup. By the 
 intervention of a miracle she had stopped herself from pouring the hot tea 
 into a saucer. 
 
 " Thank you, Maggie," he replied. '' It is a great pleasure to be with 
 you." 
 
 Her hand trembled so much on this that she had to replace the cup 
 after sipping. She looked abound at calm, placid girls at other tables, 
 and wondered whether the manner could be acquired by purchase. 
 Lucas handed her the brown bread and butter and heaped strawberries 
 on her plate ; in doing so he touched her arm and at once begged her 
 pardon, to which Maggie answered reassuringly, " Don't name it." In 
 the corner, a couple had finished their tea and were whispering to each 
 other with desperate earnestness; the young man was smooth-haired, his 
 companion wore a large hat which looked like a flower garden. Maggie 
 wondered what they were talking about, and said so to Lucas ; but 
 Lucas, after glancing at them, remarked loftily that from their absurd 
 appearance one might guess that they imagined themselves to be in love 
 with each other, hinting that the two had by this fact resigned all claim to 
 be recognized as sensible beings and worthy of his consideration. 
 
 " But," suggested Maggie, with deference, "if they think they're in love, 
 they are as good as in love." 
 
 " That," said Lucas authoritatively, " is an error. There is no time to 
 enter into the subject so fully as I should like to do — I have to dine with 
 the headmaster at seven — but I think I could prove to you that love, 
 real love, demands intelligence on both sides, and an ability to take clear- 
 headed views." 
 
 " Oh ! " remarked Maggie. " Can I fill up your cup for you? " 
 
 " An acquaintance with the rules of logic helps one in all these circum- 
 stances," he said, passing his cup to her. " I can imderstand how the 
 absence of this would handicap." 
 
LOST TEOrERTY 79 
 
 " But do you mean to tell me that nobody has any business to fall in 
 love who hasn't had a first-class education ? " she demanded heatedly. 
 
 "That was the impression," he said, " which I have been endeavouring 
 to convey. May I trouble you for a Little more of milk ? " 
 
 " I like your idea of lajdng down the law," said Maggie, with satire 
 " You seem to think that you're right and everyone else is wrong." 
 
 " Not everyone," he said. 
 
 Difficult for Maggie to express her indignation, but she managed to do 
 so ; and Lucas listened with the tolerant smile of one who has noi 
 intention of changing his opinion. She lowered her voice on finding that 
 the flower garden revised itself to permit its owner to inspect her curiously. 
 The smooth-haired young man said something in an undertone, where- 
 upon the garden-hatted girl gave his arm quite a desperate blow with h^r 
 pocket handkerchief, telling him not to be cynical. 
 
 " But there," said Maggie, stopping. " It's no use me setting out to 
 argue with you ; I'm sure to get the worst of it. I think I like you best as 
 you was." 
 
 " Were," suggested Lucas, "were." 
 
 " As you were, then." 
 
 " To what period are you referring? " he asked. 
 
 She placed her hands in front of her eyes to shut out view of her 
 magnificent surroundings ; in this way she could put her mind back and 
 re-constitute the circumstances of, as it seemed to her, a mediaeval period. 
 When she removed her hands, she took his handkerchief from the 
 pocket of Lucas's jacket, dabbed at her eyes, and replaced it. The 
 smooth-haired youth opposite was astonished out of power to make 
 comment. 
 
 *' Don't take any notice of me," sighed Maggie. 
 
 " I prefer to." 
 
 " I'm only silly." 
 
 " You show, I confess," remarked Lucas judicially, "some hesitation 
 in growing up." 
 
 " You're old enough," she retorted. " Anyone would think you were 
 about a hundred and nineteen to hear you talk." 
 
 " Life is a serious matter." 
 
 " It's to be hoped it'll never be half as serious as you're trying to make 
 it." 
 
 " Ideas in regard to happiness differ." 
 
 " Give us yours," requested Maggie. 
 
 He adjusted one or two things on the table precisely before replying. 
 
 "I should like," he said, "to be headmaster of a big public school. I 
 really shouldn't mind whether Eton or Harrow. I should like to be in 
 charge, ana to feel that I had entire direction of the place. I should like 
 to know that [ was responsible for moulding, as it were, the lives of two 
 or three hundred boys or more, who would owe something of their future 
 to my efforts. I should like — " 
 
 " Would you," interrupted Maggie anxiously, " would you be married ? " 
 
 "A minor detail of the scheme," he said, " which could be considered 
 and decided upon later." Maggie set down her cup with a bang that 
 startled the manageress, who had just closed her eyes for a few seconds' 
 rest ; the manageress jumped up and upbraided the nearest attendant. 
 "And you?." said Lucas, suddenly remembering that the conversation 
 had perhaps the colour of selfishness. " You, Maggie ? " 
 
 "Me?" 
 
 " Yes," he said. " What would you like to be ? " 
 
 " Doesn't matter what becomes of me," she said recklessly. " I'm not 
 a B.A. or anything. I don't count." 
 
80 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 " Most girls," he said, with a determined effort to exhibit sparkling 
 humour, " most girls get married and become" — here he coughed, as a 
 sign that the point or crux of the remark was approaching — " and become 
 an M.A." 
 
 " Yon clever boy ! " cried Maggie, with great enjoyment. " I've never 
 heard you say anything funny before." 
 
 " I don't often," he acknowledged, " venture into the domains of — " 
 " But do go on," begged Maggie, edging nearer. " I like you so much 
 better when you're taken that way. Sometimes you're so solemn that 
 you make me think I'm in church. I believe you were born on Sunday 
 morning." 
 
 " By-the-bye," he said, after a pause — it appeared that he did not see 
 his way to following up the vein of humour which he had struck — ■" where 
 are your parents, Maggie ? " 
 
 " Don't let's begin asking riddles," she said. She dropped a spoon, and 
 had some trouble in finding it underneath the red plush seat. " Shall we 
 be moving?" she suggested, when, hot-faced, she resumed her former 
 position. 
 
 " Is your father alive? " he asked, looking at her earnestly. " I have 
 often meant to ask you." 
 
 " My father," said Maggie, now self-possessed, "was an Italian bandit." 
 " Yes? " exclaimed Lucas. 
 
 " An Italian bandit. Not a real bandit, but a kind of a Robin Hood 
 sort of a man ; very generous, very open-hearted, very religious, and very 
 precise in the matter of ransoms." 
 
 " An odd combination," remarked Lucas, interested. 
 " My mother was an English lady, who, with her family, fell into his 
 hands, and the question put to them was this — would the family consent 
 to his marriage with her or would they prefer to pay fifty thousand 
 francs ? " 
 
 " In Italy," he said, " the coin of a franc is represented by a lira." 
 "This is my story," said Maggie, "not yours. Mother's family were 
 very well-bred'but hard up ; plenty of good blood but no money. Con- 
 sequently they agreed to the marriage, and it was conducted with great 
 pomp and magnificence at St. Mark's in Rome. The service was fully 
 choral," added Maggie. 
 
 " J had no idea that you were of Italian parentage," remarked Lucas. 
 " It gives you an atmosphere of romance." 
 
 " Couldn't you judge hy my accent ? " asked Maggie. 
 " Your accent," he said, " is, if anything, the accent of a Londoner. 
 Docs anyone know of this ? " 
 
 "I haven't told anybody but you," she said, looking for her parasol. 
 " I cannot express," he said, " my astonishment. Why have you never 
 told me before? " 
 
 She flicked his serious face with the glove which she was about to put 
 on. 
 
 " Why," she said cheerfully, " because I've only just made up the 
 story." 
 
 " It was not true, then ? " 
 
 " No," said Maggie, glancing at herself in the mirrors, "it wasn't true. 
 But interesting, wasn't it ? " 
 
 He paid a dignified lady, who had the air of a member of the highest 
 ranks of nobility, imprisoned, owing to the jealousy of other ladies at 
 court, in a wooden gaol, and the two went out, the swing doors being 
 flung open for them by the chubby-faced page boy, whom Maggie for this 
 attention would willingly have kissed. They walked silently towards 
 Charing Crosn, where Maggie would find her omnibus. 
 
LOST PROPERTY 81 
 
 "And now," she complained prettily, " now you're cross with me." 
 
 "Not exactly cross." 
 
 " Then give me your arm." 
 
 " Bat I admit, Maggie," he said, complying, " I admit that I don't quite 
 understand you." 
 
 '• That's nothing," she replied cheerf'jUy. " Sometimes 1 don't under- 
 stand myself.'' 
 
 CHAPTER Xm 
 
 " TF," said Aunt Watson, when Maggie came home one evening, white- 
 
 J_ faced, as the result of two long hours in a hot class-room, " if you 
 cut away at both ends of the loaf you find you use it up before you know 
 where you are. You'll have to take a holiday, my dear." 
 
 Wherefore, sui afternoon out of town was considered with all the care and 
 serious forethought that some give to a prolonged tour round the world. 
 The project took weeks to grow from blossom to fruit. Arthur Brice, still 
 a mere slave and going about in a haavy-footed way that suggested chains, 
 was despatched every other day to Liverpool Street Station, whence he 
 brought slips that urged the attractions of Cromer, of Yarmouth, of South- 
 end, in terms that should have been reserved for the Elysian Fields, and 
 over these Maggie puckered her forehead and craved advice from every- 
 body. Miss Cheyney was emphatic in recommending Southend; she had 
 once met a most gentlemanly lad about five feet io height on the pier at 
 Southend, who had told her in confidence that he was an ofl&cer in the Life 
 Guards, and whom she had afterwards seen riding a fishmonger's cycle 
 cart down Tottenham Gom't Road. Miss Brand was in favour of a course 
 of 'treatment at Buxton ; the proprietress suggested Port Victoria as a 
 place suitable for profound thought. Captain Bells being appealed to at a 
 game of county cards, said, in his fog-horn voice, " Lemme take you both 
 to Margate and back by boat, and enjoy the briny," but Aunt Watson 
 aeolared that the sea was the one thing in the world she could not stand 
 at any price, and Captain Bells, perturbed at this announcement, played 
 so clumsily that he found himself troubled for Maidstone, Canterbury, 
 Rochester, and Tonbridge before he could recover, upbraiding himself 
 thereupon as one possessing a brain made of cottonwool. Watson, not to 
 shirk her portion of the task, asked all of her customers for counsel, and 
 as each made a different suggestion, and each hinted that she would take 
 it as a personal afi&ront unless her advice were adopted, there seemed likely 
 to result a good deal of trouble. Maggie had received from Lucas a local 
 journal which appeared to have been printed in the dark, wherein his name 
 was given as Ladas, and made the announcement that he had gained the 
 degree of R.A. ; Maggie knew from this that he desired he should be kept 
 in her memory, and, anxious to omit no precautions, she introduced into 
 her prayers at night a distinctly worded request that she, and nobody else, 
 might some day marry Lucas. Also, she worked so hard at the evening 
 classes that the much discussed holiday became more urgently needed 
 every day, and at last Watson took the whole business in hand. 
 
 " Next Thursday afternoon," said Watson, in the impressive tones of 
 one announcing an execution, " next Thursday afternoon, the first early 
 closing day that ever is, me and you will go down to Epping Forest and 
 see if we can't get some colour back to them cheeks of yours." 
 
 This decided, it soon appeared that many had a similar inclination. 
 Captain Bells declared noisily that next to a Ufe on the ocean wave he 
 would havo sclcelfid that of a iiighwuyuian ; a day in the forest would be 
 
82 LOST PHOPKRTY 
 
 just his mark. Arthur Brice said gloomily that he supposed Maggie did ' 
 not propose to hire the forest on the date iu question for her exclusive 
 use ; and on Maggie acknowledging with regret that she had no power to 
 do this, mentioned that if he were allowed to join the party he would bring 
 his piccolo. 
 
 " In this way," urged Master Brice, " you make sure of your harmony." 
 
 Maggie had some idea of writing to Lucas and asking him to join, but 
 consideration assured her that the environments would not be in accord, 
 and that his dignified presence would scarce increase the general content. 
 If he had been a youth who could be counted upon to relax on occasion his 
 sedateness of manner, she would have dared to introduce him to Watson, 
 and, with his help, to bring tears of jealousy to the eyes of Arthur Brice. 
 The risk was too great. 
 
 A four-wheeler with baskets atop, fair ladies within, among them 
 Captain Bells' sister and two harmless ladies who had promised to look 
 after the commissariat department ; Captain Bells himself in command, 
 uniformed something like a P. & O. officer, seated next to the driver, and 
 shouting orders to him as one responsible for piloting the vessel through a 
 perilous voyage to the City ; a self-appointed officer too, whose interference 
 might have caused trouble only that he happened to be on the deaf side of 
 the man with the whip, and his shouted commands to " Port " and" Back 
 her " and " Ease her " in the crowded straits of Cheapside gave rise to no 
 contentious argument. At the station, a calm train glided in to their plat- 
 form as they arrived ; the engine had a drink, the baskets were hauled in, 
 the party filled an open compartment, and, with as little fuss as though it 
 were carrying quite ordinary people, the train went out leisurely through 
 the north-east of London, stopping on the way at all the stations it could 
 think of. At Buckhurst Hill Station, from the rear of the train came 
 Master Arthur Brice, apparelled as though for Sundays or Bank Hohdftys, 
 smoking a cigar and offering one from a paper bag to Captain Bells with a 
 fine air of adolescence. 
 
 " Throw it away," said Master Brice generously, " if it's too strong for 
 you. I've bought eight of 'em. Reg'lar price is seven to the shilling, hut 
 they give you eight on condition you don't light up in the shop." 
 
 The party made its way out of the station, but the youth had not ex- 
 hausted his bribes. Watson, who had been to the forest on a previous 
 occasion, marched ahead, ignoring Mr. Brice and prepared to lead the 
 explorers by the most cunning route. To her Arthur Brice hastened. 
 
 " Pardon me, ma'am, but if it isn't taking too great a liberty — " 
 
 " It is ! " snapped Watson. 
 
 " Could I be allowed to give a hand with that hamper ? " 
 
 Captain Bells was holding it high at one end and Maggie low at the 
 other ; it did seem possible that ere the half-hour's walk had been completed 
 either or both might become tired. Aheady the Captain's sister — a precise, 
 hot-faced lady who carried a shining black bag, the lock of which strained 
 near to the point of bursting — had commenced to detect flaws in the after- 
 noon's arrangements. She was dressed youthfully, and Watson had 
 declared that she looked like a figure of Pun. " If we'd only drove all the 
 way," sighed the Captain's sister. 
 
 "Well," said Aunt Watson reluctantly, " providing you don't eat too 
 much, I s'pose you may as well come with us. Take Miss Cannon's 
 place, and mind you carry the basket steady." 
 
 Thus relieved, Maggie walked on with the Captain's sister, and heard the 
 life's history of that lady as they went by the grassy side of the dusty road. 
 The Captain's sister had had, so she said, thousands of offers in her time ; 
 on going into details it appeared that the exact number was three only, 
 and two of these might be marked doubtful. Looking back on her life, 
 
LOST PROPERTY 83 
 
 the Captain's sister did not hesitate to call herself by opprobrious names 
 (this seemed to be a family trait), of which " silly idiot " was the kindest 
 aud most generous. Her advice to all young girls was to snap at the first 
 chance they got, and these words reacMog the pioneer of the party, caused 
 Aunt Watson to order Maggie to march at her side. Watson's powers as 
 a guide were well-intentioned, but, as it appeared, imperfect, for she led 
 the party away from the forest, and on being put right by an ostler waiting 
 at an inn with hay and water, she at first protested against accepting the 
 suggestions of outsiders, but eventually gave way, excusing herself by 
 pointing out that everything had been altered since her young day. But 
 at last they did find a piece of the forest where a green table of lawn pre- 
 sented itself, the sun being kept out by walls and ceilings of green-leaved 
 oak trees ; and Captain Bells, dropping the hamper, said that rather than 
 carry such a weight for such a distance again he would sail twice round 
 the world ia a penny steamer ; Mr. Brice, equally wearied, declared that 
 he wished he had known what the job was to be like when he had offered 
 to take It on ; the ladies of the commissariat department said if this was 
 what you called pleasure they had had enough of it ; the Captain's sister 
 consoled herself with the assertion that she for her part had been dead 
 against the outing from the vei-y start. Here Maggie showed resource and 
 good-humour. She it was who ran to a cottage and bought two penny- 
 worth of boiling water and made tea, found the sugar when everybody else 
 had given np the task, cut the bread and butter, and cut it thin, encouraged 
 Captain Bells by compliment to carve the cold fowl when that gentleman, 
 encountering diflSculty, suggested that it were easier for the fowl to carve 
 him. The meal over and general tempers gi-eatlj- improved, it was Maggie 
 who started a game. It had to be a quiet game, because the party was 
 now well fed and desired rest ; Maggie therefore suggested " Celebrities! " 
 She thought of one first; a man alive. Was he married? asked Watson. 
 No. Was he a statesman ? asked Captain Bells, relighting the obstinate 
 cigar. No. Was he mentioned in the Bible ? asked the Captain's sister 
 foolishly. No. Was he young? asked iSIaster Brice, with jealousy. Yes. 
 And clever ? Yes. And good-looking ? Fairly good-looking. 
 
 " Me ! " suggested Mr. Brice. And for his premature and incorrect guesa 
 was placed out of the game. 
 
 Was he connected with royalty ? No. Was he a relative ? No. Did 
 he live in London ? Y'es. Was he a student? Yes. Had he recently 
 gained some silly degree or something ? (This with acidity from Watson.) 
 
 " Oh," cried Maggie delightedly, " you've guessed him ! " 
 
 " Who is it ? " demanded Master Brice, tearing at the forest. 
 
 " Young gentleman named Lucas. A friend of mine." 
 
 " Ho! " commented Master Brice darkly. 
 
 The Captain's sister pointed out that it was not fair to expect them to 
 guess anybody of whom they had never heard, and Watson said reprovingly 
 that it was not the way to play the game. Only Maggie herself appeared 
 pleased. 
 
 " I'll tell you what," cried Arthur Brice. " Let's have some recitations, 
 and afterwards a sing-song." 
 
 The sun became interested, and by the expedient of going down was able 
 to peep in upon them and stare them out of countenance. The Captain's 
 sister, fearful of hurt to her complexion, rose, and interrupting her brother 
 declared that she for one was not going to get freckled, and suggested, 
 now that they were in the forest, they might as well stroll about and see 
 something of it. Maggie had been washing the plates and cups in an 
 amiable little stream, and the hamper being repacked was hidden artfully, 
 the commissariat ladies promising to look after it and going immediately to 
 sleep. Captain Bells marched oflf with Watson, and Arthur Price with 
 
84 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 Maggie ; the scarlet-faced sister, with double responsibility as chaperon, 
 running from one couple to the other in the manner of a conscientious 
 sheep-dog. They encountered other small picnic sets, and on Captain Bells 
 hailing them cheerfully, they, deluded by liis appearance, responded with 
 a demand for a hornpipe, to his undisguised content. 
 
 " I believe," he said to Watson, panting with the effort of keeping up 
 with her, " I reelly believe I could pass anywhere for a seafaring 
 character." 
 
 " Except on board ship," retorted Watson. " You'd be all the better olT 
 if j'ou looked after your boot and shoe business " 
 
 " Uon't go flinging that in me face," begged Captain Bells. " What can 
 a single man do ? " 
 
 " Apparently," said Watson, " he can make a silly of himself." 
 
 " You do easily get sarcastic," he remarked plaintively, " One moment 
 you're as pleasant as pleasant, and the next — " 
 
 " It's Maggie's fault," she said excusingly. " She knows how to worry 
 me." 
 
 " Why not," suggested Captain Bells in a whisper, " why not get rid of 
 her ? " And saw at once that he had made a terrible blunder. 
 
 " Oh, you — you," cried Watson, shivering with contempt, " you 
 MAN 1 " 
 
 The success of the outing was at this moment again in peril. Arthur 
 Brice having, with the clumsiness of his sex, demanded further information 
 concerning Lucas, Maggie had given a loose rein to her imagination, and 
 Brice had gained from direct statements and vague hints that Lucas was a 
 considerable young man in the scientific world, one who absorbed know- 
 ledge with the ease that auctioneers' clerks smoked cigarettes, one whose 
 future would place him in a safe chair, high and high above all of his 
 contempoi'aries. Master Brice remarked sulkily that knowledge was not 
 everything, and its acquisition but a trick ; they vs-alked along silently after 
 this, and when brambles caught Maggie's skirt she herself had to effect a 
 release whilst Mr. Brice, with his walking-stick, took shots at imaginary 
 rabbits in the way of one who is a slave to sport. Here the captain's sister 
 created a diversion. In the course of her flutterings from one couple to 
 another she came across an elderly tree that had been in the forest so long, 
 and had sent out investigating roots in so many directions, that these roots, 
 grown beyond control, had in places looked inquisitively out of the ground. 
 Over one of these the Captain's sister tripped and fell. 
 
 " I knew what would happen," she moaned, as the others ran up to give 
 assistance. " I was as sure as sure." 
 
 " Are you hurt? " asked Maggie anxiously. 
 
 "Need you ask?" wailed the Captain's sister. "The lim's broke in 
 three places." 
 
 " Where's the nearest doctor ? " demanded Maggie. 
 
 Arthur Brice knew one in Tavistock Place ; Captain Bells knew a vete- 
 rinary surgeon in Pentonville Hill ; and whilst Aunt Watson searched her 
 pocket for some cough lozenges, the commissariat ladies suggested the 
 University Hospital in Gower Street. Maggie, the only resourceful member 
 of the party, sent the two men in opposite directions to hunt for medical 
 aid, and, with Watson, set about to find the extent of the injuries. It 
 seemed that these had been over-estimated by the Captain's sister ; the 
 damage was nothing worse than a strained ankle, and when the two 
 sportsmen returned, having drawn blank, Maggie decided that the patient 
 should be helped to a piece of white tape lying loosely on the green, which 
 was really a dusty roadway, and the Captain's sister was therefore assisted 
 in this direction, groaning the while in a manner excusable only with one 
 who had received a fatal wound, the while Arthur Brice and Cap'.ain Bella 
 
LOST PROPERTY 85 
 
 went (or the hamper. They met again at the dust-powdored roadside, and 
 there Captain BeUs admitted that it made one begin to think there -was a 
 Providence after all, when, amongst the carriages and waggonettes that 
 whirled along, came a dogcart with a rather sleepy man, in a light coat 
 with giant buttons, holding the reins of an intelligent horse, which seemed 
 to be driving itself ; and this sleepy man, stopped and awakened, proved 
 to be the very veterinary surgeon of whom, but ten minutes before, Captain 
 Bells had spoken — Mr. Horace Barling, of Pentonville Hill, and (as soon 
 as he saw Maggie) very much at everybody's service. 
 
 Mr. Barling might have been a young man made old by generous living 
 or a middle-aged man kept young by temperance. He was white of face 
 and clean shaven, so that, without kjiowing his history, it was not easy to 
 guesrs his age. But, young or middle-aged, he was clearly a blade of the 
 finest temper, and before you could count ten he had, to her great astonish- 
 ment, taken Maggie by the waist and had swung her up on the front seat. 
 The other ladies were helped by the Captain and Arthur Brice to the back 
 of the dogcart, and Mr. Horace Barling, now quite wide awake, placed the 
 scarlet rug over Maggie's lap, and telling the knowing horse to show what 
 it was made of, fixed rendezvous with the men at the nearest hotel, and 
 the horse flew off at such a rate that Maggie was forced to hold Barling's 
 arm, whilst the Captain's sister at the back clung to the others and pre- 
 pared herself for another accident. But no further accident occurred, and 
 the alert horse pulled up, without being told to do so, at the first hotel, 
 where Mr. Horace Barling, declaring that it seemed quite half an boar 
 since he had had a real drink, jumped down, ordering, in very dogmfctic 
 tones, refreshment for the ladies. Maggie touched the glass of wine with 
 her lips and then passed it over to the Captain's sister, who, on the grounds 
 that it might do her ankle good, consented to drink it as well as her own. 
 Captain Bell and Arthur Brice arriving, they went into the hotel to find 
 Mr. Barling, a task apparently of an arduous nature, for half an hour had 
 gone ere they reappeared, which they did with great good-humour, showing 
 not only an increased tendency to sing and recite, but also an inclination to 
 dance. Maggie, frightened, held Watson's hand over the back of the seat. 
 
 " Aunt," she whispered. 
 
 " My dear ! " 
 
 " Let us get down and walk to the station." 
 
 Master Brice was engaged in a waltz with a tall basket of hay, and 
 Maggie, taking advantage of the interest caused by this, was about to step 
 down when Mr. Horace Barling thwarted her intent by himself stepping 
 up into the dogcart and starting. 
 
 " Fond of horse-flesh, missie? " he asked. The scent of spirits caused 
 Maggie to cough, and taking the reins in one hand he patted her back. 
 
 "To eat?" 
 
 " No, no. To ride behind." 
 
 " Not very much," she said distantly. " Is it far to the station ? " 
 
 " I must give you a drive out one of these fine afternoons," said Mr. 
 Horace Barling. " We'll have a little picnic to ourselves." 
 
 " You wouldn't care for it, would you? " said Maggie to Watson at the 
 back. 
 
 " We shan't want company," he said. " Two's ample." 
 
 " I couldn't think of it, thank you," said Maggie, with sedateness. 
 
 " You needn't," he said, flicking the horse. " All you've got to do when 
 I drive round to your place — I've got the address — is to get leave, and 
 come out and jump up," said Mr. Horace Barling, nudging her with his 
 elbow, " And oflF wo go like — " 
 
 " Stop the horse I " eried Maggie, red with determination. " I'm going 
 to i^nik." 
 
86 LOST PROri]RTY 
 
 Mr. Barling found himself driving only the elderly ladies to the station, 
 a joy which he confessed later on to be no great catch. Mr. Barling had 
 rigid and definite views in regard to lovely woman, and always declared 
 that if she were over twenty-three he would as lief be talking to his grand- 
 mother. He had generous confidence in himself, and amongst the fre- 
 quenters of the saloon bar in Park Street, where you could count on finding 
 him at ten o'clock p.m. and after, he was usually referred to in complimen- 
 tary tones as A Perfect Caution. The best of us have our weaknesses, and 
 of Mr. Horace Barling it was sometimes whispered in his absence that 
 he had behaved with some want of humanity towards his late wife. A 
 small matter. 
 
 In the train the party sang songs, and Arthur Brice and Captain Bells 
 had an imitation quarrel which, commencing at Leyton in play, by the 
 time they reached Stratford became serious, both gentlemen being slightly 
 flushed and easily carried away by their own acting. The ladies interfered 
 at this point ; the Captain's sister, who still complained of one of her ankles, 
 but was not quite sure which, denouncing her relative as one unfit for good 
 society ; the others upbiaiding Arthur Brice and declaring that they were 
 ashamed of him. Cowed by this treatment, the two men shook hands, and 
 Captain Bells said that if he had to choose a messmate from all his dear 
 and valued chums, Brice would be his choice ; and Mr. Brice, with tears, 
 announced that he would willingly sacrifice his head rather than lose the 
 precious friendship of one whom he had learnt during that afternoon to 
 admire, to esteem, and to revere. And this would have concluded the day 
 in a pleasant manner, but that, on the train arriving at Liverpool Street 
 and the passengers going off the platform to the square of the station, a 
 tempting concertina began, somewhere near the bookstall, to scream in 
 falsetto key a waltz. Arthur Brice thereupon set the hamper down and 
 solicited the favour of Captain Bells' hand, and the two danced, passengers 
 coming from the other platforms to make audience. Maggie arrested her 
 amusement on seeing near to her Lucas with a portmanteau. Eeoognizing 
 her, he came and shook hands gravely. 
 
 " A painful exhibition," he said. " How do you do?" Aunt Watson 
 nodded distantly, and said they must be getting on to the Underground. 
 
 "We've been enjoying ourselves," explained Maggie, "in Epping 
 Forest. Have you been there too ? Wonder we didn't run across you." 
 
 " I have not," said Lucas, " been to Epping Forest, and it is therefore 
 not strange that you failed to see me there." 
 
 " Wish you'd been with us," said Maggie softly. 
 
 An inspector came and suggested the Holbom Town Hall as more 
 suitable for the light fantastic than Liverpool Street Station. Brice and 
 Captain Bells accepted the hint and rejoined the ladies of their party, 
 scarlet from exercise. 
 
 " Surely, Maggie, these — these amazing people are not friends of yours," 
 protested Lucas. He took off his pince-nez and looked to see whether 
 there was something amiss with the glasses. 
 
 " What's wrong vrith them ? " demanded Maggie sharply. " Aren't they 
 pretty enough ? " 
 
 " 'The absence of good looks," he said, in his deliberate way, " I could 
 overlook ; the want of good manners is not so easily pardoned." 
 
 "Look here, Lucas," she cried resentfully. "I don't allow you to 
 choose my friends for me." 
 
 "That," said Lucas, "is obvious." 
 
 " They're just as good as you are any day of the week, so there ! " 
 
 " Would your friend," interrupted Arthur Brice, " care to join in a little 
 Tommy Dodd with me and the Captain in the refreshment room over 
 the way ? " 
 
LOST PROPERTY 87 
 
 " You must excuse me," said Lucas. " I have to catch a train. I'm 
 going up to Cambridge," he added to Maggie. 
 
 " Down," corrected Mr. Brice. 
 
 "You will allow me to write as soon as I have settled to work. I 
 am taking history under a Trinity man." 
 
 " ' In Trinity Church I met my doom,' " sang Brice. 
 
 "You can please yourself," retorted Maggie. 
 
 Lucas shook hands with her, bowed to the others, and went. 
 
 " Slightly stand-ofiBsh," commented Arthur Brice. " Not exactly 
 the Ifind of chap I should care to spend a holiday at 'Erne Bay with." 
 
 Maggie was quiet on the way home by Underground, and influenced 
 by this they all said good-night with restraint; the Captain's sister 
 bewailing the depression that she foresaw would be hers as punishment 
 for having been the life and soul of the party. At supper in King Street 
 Maggie suddenly placed her hands before her eyes and rested her elbows on 
 the table. Watson, concerned, replaced the pickle jar and came over to her. 
 
 " What's the matter, dearie ? " 
 
 " I'm afraid," sighed Maggie, " that — that I shall never be a lady.'' 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 WHEN the examination had become an item of history, Maggie found 
 herself sometimes confident that she had passed, and as a female 
 sorter able to regard Lucas and the cultivated world from a position of 
 equality ; on other occasions she felt certain she bad failed, and that for 
 the rest of her life she would have to look up to everybody with respect. 
 The papers had not been difficult, but the afternoon had found her in such 
 a state of perturbation that she had not been quite her usual self ; this 
 mainly because it had been immediately preceded by a letter from 
 Mr. Horace Barling, the gallant veterinary surgeon, in which he promised 
 to call for her soon and take her for a drive. He added the assurance that 
 he had not forgotten her, and begged her not to be cross with him on account 
 of the delay. BarUng might have intended this to be a courteous note with 
 more of respect than he was accustomed to show towards members of the 
 opposite sex ; the fact remains that Maggie felt, after its receipt, as she did 
 when now and again a remark was whispered to her by some impertinent 
 and well-dressed stranger in the street, forcing her to run affinghtedly. 
 She had not answered the note, had not told Aunt Watson, but Miss 
 Cheyney, having shovm a letter from her young gentleman suggesting that 
 he and Miss Cheyney were not meant for each other, and confessing that 
 he had slightly exaggerated in stating that his salary was four pounds 
 a week, — the exact figures being twenty-seven shillings and sixpence, with 
 little prospect of an increase excepting in the remote possibility of a 
 serious epidemic affecting only senior clerks, — then Maggie, as acknowledg- 
 ment of this sign of confidence, exhibited the communication from Barling, 
 and Miss Cheyney, speaking as an expert, said that it was something like a 
 letter, and were she in Maggie's place she would show to Mr. Barling all 
 the encouragement that a Isidy, with due regard to disoretion, ought 
 to exhibit. 
 
 " It's like choosing a seat in the gallery," argued Miss Cheyney. " You 
 rush upstairs with the crowd, and you see a very good place over in the 
 corner, but you think you'll try one or two others first to see if they're 
 better ; and you find they've got some drawback, and by the time you've done 
 chopping and chipping and changing, the seat you fixed on first has been 
 taken, and you find you've got to stand up all the time. See? " 
 
88 LOST PEOPERTY 
 
 Maggie listened to Miss Gbeyney's warnings without being much 
 impressed by them ; they would have had no effect at all if the promised 
 letter from Cambridge had about this time arrived. Cambridge, it appeared, 
 was in Cambridgeshire, and situated on the river Cam — easily learnt this ; 
 it was also one of the two seats of learning in England. Maggie discovered 
 much data about the university town, correcting thus the impression that 
 its chief claim to notoriety was the production once a year of a boating crew 
 to make excuse for Cockney holiday. It appalled her to discover how 
 much intelligence was centred in the town ; she half wished Lucas had not 
 gone there. 
 
 When a rumour came to the shop on a close, airless day, that the 
 results were that morning to be seen at the college, Miss Cheyney sacrificed 
 luncheon hour in order to accompany Maggie, bribed thereto by Maggie's 
 promise to buy, in case of triumph, sixpennyworth of sweets, and share 
 them equally. Miss Brand consented to do the work of three young women 
 between the hours of twelve and one, and sent them off with a wish of good 
 luck, permitting Maggie to wear her horseshoe brooch, for the time, as 
 likely to encourage a smile from Pate. 
 
 " Take care ! " screamed Miss Cheyney, as they hurried down Holborn. 
 " Good gracious ! you nearly went under that ladder." 
 
 Maggie ascended the steps of the college with a pretence of self- 
 possession that failed to deceive herself. The written list had been pinned 
 on a green baize board, and she waited until some half-dozen young 
 women had scanned the names, from those who had romped in with plenty 
 of marks to those who had but just slipped in, before she nerved 
 herself to ascertain the result. She went slowly down the list, hiding 
 with both hands the coming names, and not surprised to find her own 
 absent from the earliest. Her hands went down and down ; a ludicrous 
 name failed to make her smile ; suddenly she came to the end, and a blank 
 white space. She had failed to pass, and a form from Cannon Row, probably 
 waiting at home, would acquaint her officially with the fact. 
 
 " What you want," said Miss Cheyney, herself acutely disappointed at 
 the prospect of no sweets, " and what you haven't got, is culture. See?" 
 
 " What I want," declared Maggie, with her handkerchief at her eyes, 
 " and what I haven't got, is luck." 
 
 "It's the sort of thing you can't buy; you have to be born with it. 
 See? Some people have got it to an excess, others haven't got it at all, 
 and others again, like me and Miss Brand, have got just enough to carry 
 us on and — Where you going ? " 
 
 " Into this confectioner's." 
 
 " Not to buy sweets ? " 
 
 " A shilling's worth," said Maggie, with recklessness. "I don't care 
 much if I have failed." 
 
 " Well," exclaimed her delighted companion, " you are a one, and no 
 mistake. Get plenty of chocolates amongst 'em." 
 
 This fine attitude, once decided upon, had to be retained at any cost for 
 at least the current day ; whatever its drawbacks, it had the virtue of 
 keeping back tears and of compelling admiration from her two colleagues. 
 She borrowed something of the manner of Miss Cheyney in dealing with 
 customers, misunderstanding their requests, serving them with the wrong 
 article, and, remonstrance being made, covering them with all the respon- 
 sibility. Regular patrons accepted this with meek astonishment, knowing 
 that something of an exceptional nature must have happened to effect this 
 remarkable change, and hoping for a quick return to the earlier manner ; 
 but one or two new people took the treatment less amiably and showed 
 resentment. Maggie, seated with a stony expression in ambusl: on her 
 side of the bower, exercising her powers of repartee with great complacency, 
 
LOST PROPERTY 89 
 
 felt that in this way she was, to use Miss Cheyney's expression, getting 
 bomc of hor own back. A clean-shaven, white-haired old gcntloman came 
 in hurriedly for a Spectator, and she rolled up a Lady's Own Dressmaker. 
 When he returned with it, Maggie expressed a desire that people would 
 leam how to talk distinctly before embarking on the occupation of running 
 errands for neighbours, whereupon the white-haired old gentleman became 
 suddenly choleric, speaking of impertinent young minxes, and demanding 
 to see the manageress, but the manageress, informed upstairs of the trouble, 
 declined to come down, sending word that the gentleman could write if he 
 liked, and state whatever complaint he had to make. The people at the 
 post-counter were beginning to be interested in the quarrel, and Maggie 
 was fearing that she had perhaps carried her general antipathy too far, 
 when the indignant old gentleman threw down his card, and, with a caustic 
 remark about modern young women as compared with those of thirty years 
 ago, stalked out. Maggie took up the card, and saw the inscription : — 
 
 Dr. James. 
 
 On the instant she, to the amazement of the interested audience, flew from 
 the shop. 
 
 "Now what is it? "-asked Dr. James, impatiently. " Have you thought 
 of another polite remark ? " 
 
 " I wan't to tell you," panted Maggie, " that I am so sorry. I didn't 
 know it was you." 
 
 "Oh ! " said the old gentleman, slightly mollified. " My position in the 
 world makes a difference, then, does it? You've heard of my medical 
 dictionary, I suppose ? " 
 
 " It isn't that. I know Lucas, and I saw you once when you came to 
 Brook Green, and you gave mc a sovereign, and I want to say that I'm so 
 sorry." 
 
 "Your name is — " Maggie gave the information. "Ah!" he said, 
 replacing bis bat and looking keenly at the flushed young face, " I feared 
 you would grow up an odd creature. Run back, young woman, or you'll 
 catch cold." 
 
 It needed but this! Lucas's friend and guardian, to whom she had 
 sometimes in her dreams been introduced as" My future wife, doctor," had 
 received, and would retain, the worst impression of her, and all his influence 
 over Lucas would be used to her deti-iment. She again changed her 
 attitude to the journal-desiring world, and served during the later hours of 
 that day with exactitude but with reserve ; declining to discuss weather 
 probabilities, and showing no interest in the German Exhibition. 
 
 When at about the hour for closing she had to face the return to Aunt 
 Watson and confession to that good soul of her failure, a hoarse-voiced 
 boy called her name at the doorway, and Maggie would have anticipated 
 farther trouble only that the bed-rock of disaster seemed to have been 
 reached. 
 
 " Who wants me ? " she asked. 
 
 " Gent," said the boy at the doorway. " Gent in a dogcart." 
 
 "Tell him to come in," said Maggie, brushing her skirts. 
 
 " He can't," shouted the hoarse boy. " Daresn't leave the 'orscs. 
 One's in front of the other." 
 
 Maggie, assoming it to be some tardy customer requiring to be served, 
 went to the door. The man high up in a yellow-wheeled dogcart lifted 
 his hat. 
 
 " There you are, then ! " cried Mr. Horace Barling, jovially. " Thought 
 you'd been and lost yourself all this long time. Come along and jump up." 
 
 " Thank you," she remarked sedately, " I am goini^ home." 
 
 " Now, now I " protested Barling, " don't let's have a lot of argument. 
 
90 LOST TROrERTY 
 
 That's the worst of you good-looking girls. Pop on your hat and your 
 jacket — whoa, you beauty ! whoa hoa, my son, don't bo in a hurry ! — your 
 hat and your jacket and — " 
 
 " It's really no distance to walk,'' called Maggie. She looked admiringly 
 across the pavement at the restive, shining-coated leader and the more 
 demure horse, its companion. " And I couldn't think of troubhng you to 
 wait. Good evening, and thank you for calling." 
 
 " Corns on," said the veterinary surgeon, agreeably. " Why, I've driven 
 round on pui-pose. We'll call on the old lady and get her to come as well. 
 She told me last time I saw her " — here Mr. Barling called on his inventive 
 powers — " that there was nothing she liked more than a drive. And see 
 what an evening it is." 
 
 " It certainly is a nice evening." 
 
 " It's made for us, special. I can give you live minutes," he added, 
 looking at his watch, "five minutes — steady, you lovely one! steady, my 
 boy ! — and not a second longer. And the old lady in King Street will be 
 wild if she finds herself done out of a di'ive." 
 
 Maggie hesitated. The sun had gone down behind the high boarding- 
 houses and the air was still lazy ; swift movement would be the only way 
 to encounter anything like a breeze, and a drive would do her good after 
 the disturbing events of the day. Barling was a man whom she disliked, 
 and Lucas would not have cared to see them together ; but, after all, what 
 anybody thought did not just then seem to matter. 
 
 " Give me three minutes," cried Maggie. 
 
 She took counsel as usual within as she stabbed her straw hat, and Miss 
 Brand said that, for her part, rather than go for a ride in a yellow-wheeled 
 dogcart with a gentleman whom she had met but once or twice before, 
 she would go willingly to the tower and have her head cut clean off by an 
 axe on the block ; but it was clear from this that Miss Brand did not 
 appreciate the situation correctly, and the advice of Miss Cheyney, which 
 Vt'SLS, " Take every opportunity of an outing that you can," seemed a much 
 more judicious view of the matter. 
 
 " This side up," ordered Barling. " You girls do take a time doing half 
 a minute's work." 
 
 " I'm going to sit here," said Maggie, with calm. She stepped up 
 neatly and swung herself round into the back seat. 
 
 " Well," he said, aggrievedly, " you are, upon my word, one of the most 
 absolutely — Go on, you beauty ! " 
 
 The yellow dogcart flew, and Maggie, holding on with both hands, saw 
 the asphalted street roll out from below like drab ribbon ; saw confusedly 
 a ))erspective view of one end with Miss Cheyney waving her handker- 
 chief. The speed startled and frightened her. Foolish of her to have 
 accepted the offer ; she felt quite sure now that Aunt Watson would not 
 care for the experience. The veterinary surgeon talked to her over his 
 shoulder, but she was too much occupied in assuring her safety to listen. 
 Houses and shops winged by ; faces on a boarding-house balcony she saw 
 for a moment only ; a square was traversed at a hop, skip, and jump, as 
 one crosses the pavement. Relief came when a busy main-road, with its 
 traffic rolling steadily up from Holborn to King's Cross, barred the way. 
 Maggie looked around. 
 
 " This isn't a short cut," she remarked. " Why didn't you turn up by — " 
 
 ''That leader," interrupted Mr. Barling, tickling the horse's flank with 
 his whip, "is the kind that wants wearing out and tiring out before he'll 
 settle down and do what he's asked to. He's been lent me by a gentle- 
 man for that very pinpose ; wants him for country work. If I was to 
 take him round to ynur place in his present temper he'd as lief kick the 
 shop down as look at it. Wouldn't you, you beauty, you? " 
 
LOST PEOPERTY 91 
 
 The beauty rapped twice with a hind hoof on the kerb ; the wheeler 
 shook its head reprovingly. 
 
 " I want you to go there, please, as soon as you can." 
 
 " We shan't lose any time," said Mr. Barling. " Wish you'd have sat 
 here next to me. I should have been nice company for you." He smiled 
 portentously, and Maggie trembled. " Just to pay you out, I tell you what 
 I'm going to do. I'm going to drive round to my little shantv first and — " 
 
 " I'll get down here." 
 
 She prepared to step out. The white glove of the constable disappeared, 
 and a nod of his helmet sent the transverse traflEic on, whilst the second white 
 glove arrested progress and dammed the other stream. The dogcart jerked 
 forward, and Maggie found herself thrown back into the seat. 
 
 " I've got the rarest old treat of a housekeeper," went on Mr. Barling, 
 as the dogcart sped along Eosebery Avenue. " Hasn't been with me long. 
 Works like the very — Now, then, you pretty beauty, you, what are you 
 trpng to do, eh? Think you can get the best of H. Barling, do you? 
 You'd be the very first if you did. As I was saying, Maggie — " 
 
 " Call me by my surname, please." 
 
 " As I was saying, this old pai'ty'U do anything for me. I gave her son 
 a job when nobody else would, and then when he got into mischief I didn't 
 prosecute. As a matter of fact, it wouldn't have paid me to, but she didn't 
 know that ; consequence is she's devoted to me, and ready to make her- 
 self a perfect hearthrug. I'd like you to see her just for the fun of it." 
 
 " Drive home to my place now, please." 
 
 "I say," protested Mr. Barling earnestly over his shoulder, "you 
 wouldn't have me pass the 'Angel' without a drink, would you? I've 
 got a reputation to consider, mind you. If I was seen going by the ' Angel ' 
 without having a drink, I should be chaffed out of me life ever afterwards." 
 
 " And then down PentonvUle Hill and home? " 
 
 " We'll just pull up on the way so that I can introduce you to my old 
 housekeeper." 
 
 " I don't want to see your housekeeper," cried Maggie. " I want to go 
 straight home, and if you don't — " 
 
 "I'll be frank with you," said Mr. Barling generously, having walked 
 the beauty across the criss-cross of tram-lines. " I want particularly to 
 call at my show to get an old lace shawl that used to belong to my mother, 
 and I want you to take it heme and — " 
 
 " No thank you ! ' 
 
 " And give it to your aunt.' 
 
 " That's diflferent," acknowledged Maggie. " But I don't want this 
 wine." 
 
 " It's only port," urged Mr. Barling. The white-sleeved man who had 
 brought it waited. " Mop it up." 
 
 "Would you mind drinking it for me?" whispered Maggie quietly. 
 The white-sleeved man winked and obeyed. 
 
 " That's right," said Barling, looking round approvingly. " Now you'll 
 feel livelier. Now we shall be able to get some talk out of you. Go it, 
 you beauty ! Show 'em what you can do going downhill." 
 
 The beauty, accorded this permission, started by boring to the other side 
 of the roadway, and, being urged by curb and words of command to return, 
 seemed inclined to turn round and argue the matter thoroughly, but 
 presently allowed himself to obey, compromising, however, by executing a 
 few steps of an eccentric dance in front of a tram-car, and thus changing 
 on the instant a placid, half-sleeping driver into a whistling fury. Con- 
 soled by this excellent result, the beauty cantered gently towards the start 
 of the more acute descent. 
 
 " Enjoying yourself?" asked Mr. Barling, with agreeable anxiety. 
 
92 LOST PROPUfvTY 
 
 " No ! " ropHed Maggie. 
 
 " You'll be all right presently. A good brisk drive like this will niftka 
 another girl of you.'' 
 
 " Shouldn't mind that." 
 
 "Ah 1 " ho said knowingly, " you're upset." 
 
 " I shall be," said Maggie apprehensively, " if you don't look after that 
 horse." 
 
 " Bah !" he remarked lightly, "I could drive all over Jjondon shut- 
 cyed." 
 
 The beanty galloped betv^een skidding omnibuses going down to King's 
 Cross and plodding omnibuses coming up, frightening mature people into 
 unaccustomed speed, and scaring youngsters, who ran out of the way like 
 frightened chickens. Barling, anxious to show his abilities of driving 
 tandem, pulled up sharply now and again, the beauty submitting with 
 fierce reluctance, turning its head with an air of .raying, " Wish to goodness 
 you were in my place and I in yours." Maggie, as each second went by 
 without accident, began to experience a fearful pleasure in the risk ; it was 
 a little like the old swing in the nursery at Albert Terrace, when for a 
 brief, delightful space you were nowhere. Up from St. John's Street Road 
 came a sound of confused, distant shouting ; some of the traffic pulled 
 cautiously to the side ; shopkeepers came to the doorways. Fah ! Fah ! 
 Pah ! said the approaching cries. 
 
 " If that old housekeeper," shouted Barling over his shoulder, loosen- 
 ing his control over the reins in order to devote himself to the work of 
 smiling insinuatingly, " old housekeeper of mine has had the sense to get 
 supper ready, you may just as well come in and pick a bit of food 
 before — " 
 
 Stop ! A stop Bo immediate that Maggie, who had turned in order to 
 frame a very definite negative to Mr. Barling's suggestion, went as a 
 shot from a gun outover the side of the dogcart, and, with a groan, down, 
 helplessly, on the roadway. A scarlet engine with sparks of fire and 
 furious grey horses, brass-helmeted men hanging on either side, had 
 darted madly athwart the roadway ; the wheeler had arrested itself, rear- 
 ing up and backing afifrightedly. 
 
 Maggie, a heap of clothes on the ground, heard the shout of Barling; 
 heard the men on the vanishing fire-engine cry (apparently anxious to be 
 the first to formulate a complaint), " Now you've done it ! " and lost con- 
 Bciousness. Barling, giving the beauty in charge of two men, forced his 
 way through with authority. Already men and women were becoming 
 public characters, greatly sought after, by reason of the fact that they had 
 witnessed the disaster and were able to give information to those less 
 fortunate. 
 
 " Poor thing's got a nasty cut on her forehead," said one of the women, 
 kneeling down by the side of Maggie. The woman pushed the girl's hair 
 back and took from her pocket a deplorable handkerchief. Some one offered 
 a clean substitute, and the woman accepted it. " It'll save sp'ilingmine," 
 she remarked, as she soaked up the blood. 
 
 " She won't last long after she gets to the 'ospital," remarked a cheer- 
 ful old lady expert. " Let's see, what time is it now ? Quarter to nine? 
 Well, I shouldn't be seeprised if she keeps alive till about twen'y-five 
 minutes past ten." 
 
 " Shut up your infernal cackle,' swore the perturbed Mr. Barling 
 fiercely, " and stand back three or four hundred of you and give me room 
 to think." 
 
 " It isn't," urged the expert, " as though I don't know what I'm gassing 
 about. I had a sister once in the Royal Free with peritonitis and she never 
 got over it." 
 
LOST PROPERTY 93 
 
 " Get a four-wheeler, somebody." roared Barling, perspiring. "Good 
 heavens I will you stand back or won't you stand back ? Dashed nice 
 piece of luck this for me ! " 
 
 " Ain't she broke her neck nor nothing ? " asked some one aggrieveJly. 
 
 " Constable," cried Barling, " I want you." 
 
 " Now, then," said the constable automatically, " pass along here. How 
 many more of you? Ah, Mr. Barling, that you? Whatever made the 
 young lady go and get upset just here for? " 
 
 " Man alive ! do you think she chose the place ? " 
 
 " If she did," said the constable sagely, " all I can say is that the young 
 lady might have selected a better one. Look at the way the traffic's 
 blocked already ! If my serjeant was to pop round the corner now he'd 
 have a fit." 
 
 Maggie, white of face, with an ugly red smear on her cheek, half 
 opened her eyes. 
 
 " Where'd you like to be took, dearie ? " asked one of the womeu. 
 " Would you like to be took to the one in the Gray's Inn Road or would 
 you like to be took 'ome ? " 
 
 " Home," whispered Maggie, " please, please. Home to Watson," and 
 closed her eyes wearily. 
 
 The women lifted her and carried her with great tenderness to the 
 four-wheeler. 
 
 " You know my address, constable," said Barling, in a confidential 
 whisper. " It's only just two minutes from here. Give it to the cabby. 
 And tell 'em to bring home the horses and the dogcart." 
 
 As the four-wheeler started, Mr. Barling, whistling with an effort at 
 cheerfulness, walked along beside it. At his house in Pentouville Road a 
 worn old woman stood half-way between the doorway and the front gate, 
 rubbing her lean, withered hands with her apron. She smiled defer- 
 entially as Barling opened the gate. 
 
 " Here's & job for you," he said roughly. 
 
 " Yes, sir! " 
 
 " And mind one thing," — he spoke in threatening, decisive tones, — 
 " you've got to do in this affair, Mrs. Dadswell, exactly what I tell you to." 
 
 " Of course, sir," said Mrs. Dadswell obediently. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 ANXIOUS to rid himself of a fear that Maggie's injuries were serious, 
 Mr. Barling sent, in the interests of economy, for a tavern friend 
 who conducted a sixpenny surgery ofif Caledonian Road, and had a partner 
 who saw to cases which demanded sobriety. Maggie slept or fainted 
 intermittently, with now and again an appeal for Aunt Watson, and the 
 doctor, who, the hour being young, seemed to have reached but the pessi- 
 mistic stage, said that Maggie might live through the night and might 
 not ; difficult to say. It did, as a matter of fact, seem that the sixpenny 
 doctor had some trouble in saying anything with distinctness ; but once 
 Barling had realized the import of this announcement, he became 
 agitated. In his excitement he would have sent for Watson, but that he 
 could not remember the address ; he shook his old housekeeper violently 
 because she failed in this particular matter to assist him. Shouting for 
 one of his odd men, he despatched him on the beauty up the hill to fetch 
 a medical man of a more expensive type and hotter repute. Me;!nwhile 
 he trumped up and dowu with great excitement outside the room in which 
 Maggie waslyiug. 
 
94 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 " Once out of this mess," promised the damp and excited Barling, 
 " and never again. Course it must happen to w»e above all other people 
 in the world. If I'd had the least idea that anytliing of this kind was 
 going to occur, I'd no more have called round for her and suggested her 
 coming out than I would of going for a trip on a blooming kite. But 
 once," he repeated with distinctness, as though anxious that the powers 
 having influence in the matter should take note, " once out of this mess 
 and —never again ! " . 
 
 Barling had begun to feel a perfect glow of holiness in anticipating the 
 pure, untarnished excellence of the future part of his life, when the more 
 expensive doctor arrived. The newly arrived man nodded distantly to 
 Barling, and Barling, arguing the worse from this, became more melan- 
 choly (" I should have thought," said Barling wistfully, as the doctor 
 closed the bedroom door behind him, " that two professional Johnnies 
 might at least have shook hands "). 
 
 " You have done exactly the right thing, my good woman," said the 
 Myddelton Square doctor. 
 
 " Thank you, sir." 
 
 " Nice bright-looking girl." 
 
 " She always was, sir." 
 
 " You have children of your own, I daresay ? " 
 
 "I've got one son, sir," said Mrs. Dadswell, brightening, "as good a 
 son as ever was. Pine, tall, upstanding man he is, and never so much as 
 lifts his 'and to me exceptin' on Sat'day nights and — " 
 
 ""Very well, then! Look here! This little woman will be all right 
 if she has a good sleep. Send out and have this made up, and listen to 
 me. She must not stay in this house too long, and whilst she's here you 
 must not leave her." 
 
 " I'd do anything for her, sir. She was a great comfort to me when 
 she was a little shp of a gel. I've had trouble since, and I've — I've often 
 thought of those days." 
 
 The news the doctor was able to give to Mr. BarUng had the immediate 
 effect of enabling that gentleman to relinquish gloomy thoughts of a 
 reputable future, and so soon as the doctor had gone he went out to visit 
 several saloon bars of his acquaintance, where he interested his com- 
 panions greatly by accounts of the accident. At the fifth repetition the 
 anecdote assumed quite a diverting character. 
 
 " Is that — is that you, aunt ? " said Maggie feebly at about one o'clock 
 in the morning. The sleeping draught had had some effect ; she could 
 feel, that her forehead was tightly bound, and there was a general and 
 not unpleasant sensation of aching. Maggie looked around the dimly- 
 lighted room and saw strangeness in the pictures on the walls. " What's 
 happened?" i 
 
 "You know me, dear, don't you?" Mrs. Dadswell came forward. 
 " Think of No- Way-Through, and think of the time when you used to hop 
 off to school with the door-key round your neck and — " 
 
 " I remember you," whispered Maggie. 
 
 "I never saw such an improvement in anybody," declared the other, 
 with enthusiasm. " You've grown up tall and you've grown up ladylike." 
 
 "What made me oome back?" Maggie sat up on the bed with a 
 nervous air. 
 
 " You're not back, dear. There's been a bit of an accident, and you 
 come out of the trap wrong end first." 
 
 " Can't I be taken back to Watson ? I want to see Watson." 
 
 " Who's he ? " demanded the old lady. 
 
 " She used to be my nurse before I knew you, and I live with her now. 
 Why did I have an accident? Why — " 
 
LOST PEOPEETY 95 
 
 " You can't account for everything in this world," interrupted the old 
 woman. " Best to take everything as it comes. But awk'ard as you 
 may be in getting out of a trap, you seem to be able to fall on your feet 
 in other matters. Why, bless my soul," she went on, anxious to give 
 the conversation a new turn, " you'll be thinking about getting mai°ried 
 Boon." 
 
 " It'll stop at thinking," said Maggie. The disappointment of the 
 previous day recurred to her. 
 
 " How come you to know master? — Mr. Barling, I mean." 
 
 "I'd forgotten him. Am I in his house ? " At Mrs. Dadswell's nod 
 Maggie trembled. " I shall be glad when I get back to Aunt Watson." 
 
 "I'll send word to her if you insist upon it," said Mrs. Dadswell 
 gi-udgingly. " Is it far '? " 
 
 The messenger had been found and despatched to Camden Town, and 
 Maggie was do/ing again, when a clumsy efi'ort with a latch-key was 
 heard at the front door. Mrs. Dadswell, alert and sleepless, listened. 
 The latch-key, being left presently to itself, did its duty, and there followed 
 a sound of lurching into the narrow hall and a resentful banging to of the 
 door. A hat seemed to be thrown at the stand, and was blamed severely 
 for its clumsiness in not catching a peg and for breakmg the glass of 
 " The Soul's Awakening." Then boots were condemned for not coming 
 off with ease, and finally the voice of Mr. Barling spoke bitter words 
 against the entire house. Mrs. Dadswell, listening, quietly closed the 
 door of the bedroom, and turned the key as her master with diflSculty 
 made the ascent of the staircase. 
 
 " M's. Da'swell, M's. Da'swell ! " She did not answer. " Where on 
 the earth has the old — " 
 
 " Do you want anything, sir?" Mrs. Dadswell spoke in an undertone. 
 
 "'Else fi'om thy selmnbers, oh beauteous maiden,'" sang Barling; 
 " ' see how thy troubadour carols his lay. Gaze from thy casement — ' 
 Open the door, Mrs. Wha's-your-uame." 
 
 " Go to your room quiet, sir. I'll see to your breakfast in good time in 
 the morning." 
 
 " Is this my house or isn't it my house? " 
 
 " It's your house, sir." 
 
 "Very well, then! I've got best of arg'ment, as usual. Open th' 
 door ins'an'ly ; I want to see beauteous maiden. Tell her 1 love her so." 
 
 " I'll mention it, sir, when she wakes. But you get oB' and have a good 
 night's rest." 
 
 " Is this your birthday or is't mine ? " demanded Barling, with sudden 
 acerbity. " Are you boss of this show or am I ? Did I keep that bound 
 of a son of yours out of prison or didn't I ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir ; I know, sir," answered Mrs. Dadswell, shivering. " You're 
 speaking the voice of truth, and now all you've got to do is to go off like a 
 gentleman to bed." 
 
 " Not till I've had goo'ni' kiss," said Barling, stumbling against the 
 door. " 1 don't take girls out for drive aud get nothiu' for me pains. 
 Open the " 
 
 " This door," said Mrs. Dadswell quietly, " ain't goiu' to be opened." 
 
 " I'll break it in." 
 
 " And I'll scream for the police." 
 
 " If the police come here I'll give 'em a job. They shall lock up that 
 cursed sou of yours." 
 
 Mrs. Dadswell put her hand to her throat. 
 
 " You wouldn't do that, sir. After you'd promised not." 
 
 "Oh, wouldn't I?" said Barling hghtly. "What I promise is one 
 thing, what I do ia 'uother." 
 
96 LOST PEOPERTY 
 
 • 
 
 Msiggie, awake, had listened to the later senteDces of (he conversation. 
 She spoke now iu a frightened whisper. 
 
 " You won't, vnW you ? " she said urgently. 
 
 " My little girl," answered Mrs. Dadswell in an undertone, " trust me." 
 
 " Is the fair creature," shouted Barling, " asking for her Horace ? Does 
 she pine for int'lectual comp'ny ? Open the door, you hideous old image," 
 with sudden fury, " or I'll — " 
 
 A knock below clouded the finish of Barling's uncomplimentary threat. 
 Mrs. Dadswell went to the front window of the bedroom, and, raising it, 
 dropped a key at the feet of her messenger. He let himself in, and 
 Watson flew up the stairs, crying for Maggie as she came. Barhng 
 swirled round at this rear attack, and, attempting to intercept her at the 
 landing by an imitation of a semaphore with extended arms, found him- 
 self pushed aside and elbowed in such a manner that the moment after 
 Watson had arrived at the top he was a confused heap halfway down the 
 stau's. 
 
 " Ladylike," he growled bitterly, " ladylike, I must say." 
 
 Mrs. Dadswell looked on as the other woman, hurrying to the bed, 
 hugged Maggie affectionately with tears and endearing ezclamations, 
 Maggie responding in half-hysterical words of content. Mrs. Dadswell's 
 under lip twitched nervously, and she made her lean hand hide this ; she 
 seemed to know that her position had by the arrival of Watson been 
 reduced. This feeling increased as Watson commenced to take the 
 management of affairs into her own hands, regretting loudly that Maggie 
 bad not been brought straight home, wondering whether a four-wheeler 
 could at that hour be procured, and formulating a plan for assistance in 
 the shop during the coming day which would leave her free to give attention 
 to Maggie. 
 
 The girl endeavom-ed, with tact, to bring the two women into conversa- 
 tion ; but Watson declined to recognize Mrs. Dadswell, and Mrs. Dadswell 
 seemed equally determined not to speak directly to Watson ; both willing, 
 however, to communicate with Maggie. Watson prepared wth infinite 
 care for the journey home, and it was not until Maggie, having been 
 walked up and down the room to test her powers, proclaimed herself 
 ready to go, that Watson broke down reserve and spoke to Mrs. 
 Dadswell. 
 
 " How are we to get out of this horrible house ? " she asked abruptly. 
 
 " The house is all right," retorted the other woman. 
 
 " Wish the same could be said of the people in it." 
 
 " We bad no complaints till you came." 
 
 " Are we to be let out of this place," demanded Watson, " or are we to 
 stay here till Christmas'? " 
 
 " Little Maggie would be happy enough with me," said Mrs. Dadswell 
 sph-itcdly, " but I woiddn't have you living in the same place, not if it 
 was a mansion in Park Lane." 
 
 " I knew her when she was a mere babe," said Watson heatedly, " and 
 she was in good hands then. Judging from her accounts, Hammersmith 
 must have been a little 'ell upon earth." 
 
 " No, no, aunt ! I never said anything against Mrs. Dadswell. She 
 never used me cruelly." 
 
 " You was always a comfort," said Mrs. Dadswell, readjusting the bow 
 at Maggie's neek. Watson untied the bow and retied in her own way. 
 
 " Must interfere, apparently," remarked Watson, with acerbity. 
 
 They went to the door. Opening cautiously, the three could tell from 
 the scent of a cigar that Mr. Horace Barhng had pulled himself together 
 and was waiting below. They stood lor a moment looking at each other 
 for suggestions. 
 
LOST PROPERTY 97 
 
 " Say good-bye." Mrs. Dadswell took Maggie as she spoke, and kissed 
 her quietly. 
 
 " When you've quite finished," said Aunt Watson impatiently. 
 
 " I'll go down first," said Mrs. Dadswell to Maggie, " and keep him out 
 of the way. You and this — this person can step out quiet." 
 
 They waited as Mrs. Dadswell descended the stairs. They listened to 
 the wrangling, dispatant, threatening voice of her master. They heard 
 sounds of struggling. 
 
 " Now ! " said Aunt Watson. 
 
 Slipping quickly down the staircase, Watson dashed at the hall door, 
 making three furious dabs before she found the small knob that withdrew 
 the catch. Outside the sky was bght, and as Maggie stumbled over the 
 doorway she turned and saw Mrs. Dadswell ; the old woman, using all 
 her strength, had pinned the white-faced, infuriated man between two 
 pegs of the hat-stand, his head against the sUp of mirror at the centre. 
 She gave a look of intense relief over her shoulder as Maggie pulled the 
 door to. 
 
 In Pentonville Hill they found a cab, a gloomy horse, an acrimonious 
 old cabman. The old cabman gave them a brief and superfluous lecture 
 on the unwisdom of being out of doors at such an hour of the night, and , 
 this over, agreed, for an extravagant sum, to take them home, blaming 
 himself the while for his kindness of heart. 
 
 " I put a post letter for you in my pocket, dear," said Watson. 
 
 " Not for me? " 
 
 " Well." said Watson, " it's got your name on it." 
 
 A letter from Lucas, nothing less. Dated from Cambridge, the letter 
 began, " My dear Maggie," and gave a precise account of Lucas's average 
 day, written in terms that would have made it suitable for some matter- 
 of-fact magazine. Maggie read it by the aid of the arc lights in the centre 
 of the roadway as the cab lumbered along. At the end, Lucas was 
 Maggie's faithfully, and there followed a postscript that seemed to Maggie 
 to have been written in gold. 
 
 " Will you please have your photograph taken, if this can be done 
 without inconvenience? I should like to have one for my rooms." 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 MAGGIE waited for her forehead to resume its normal appearance 
 ere she complied with Lucas's welcome and flattering suggestion. 
 Miss Cheyney prophesied that Maggie's head would never be again what 
 it had been in the past ; and this indeed seemed likely to be more true 
 than most of that young lady's anticipations, for, recovered from the 
 shock and returned to work, Maggie found herself fired with ambitions 
 that she had never before entertained. Chance acquaintance with a 
 middle-aged young woman at the college confirmed the information that 
 once you entered, say, the savings bank department of the Post OflBce, 
 once you obtained the key which enabled you to turn the somewhat 
 difficult lock of that branch of the Civil Service, you might, starting at 
 £65, with an annual increase of £3 to a glorious maximum of £100, gain 
 promotion, and reach, when your years had become mature, a noblo 
 salary of £200 a year. Certainly you had to leave the department when 
 you decided to marry, but, as the comparatively middle-aged lady said, 
 " Why marry when you can afford to keep single? " Maggie determineii 
 this time to aim high. The essay had to be made between the years of 
 eighteen and twenty, and now was the time to start. If one were to fail 
 
98 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 iifiain, it might as xvell he in a Rupremo endeavour; if success came, 
 Lucas would esteem her the more. She kept her resolve secret, and 
 every moment hetween customers was utilized to struggle with compound 
 fractions and the improvement of handvpriting. Arthur Brice, who still 
 came occasionally for stamps and sometimes for a Stage, warned her 
 seriously against overdoing it, instancing his own case, where the brain 
 worry of learning a small part and making himself letter perfect, entail- 
 ing as it did eternal repetition of words in the manner of an infant going 
 to shop, sometimes left him, so he declared, in the condition of a bit of 
 wet string. Arthur Brice had met the veterinary surgeon and had been 
 the messenger bringing a full apology. Mr. Barling, the apology said, 
 was so much disturbed by the unfortunate accident that on the evening 
 in question he scarcely knew whether he was on his head or his heels ; 
 an excuse which Maggie dismissed with the remark that some people 
 could not be gentlemen no matter which end up they stood. Brice added 
 that Barling and he had become rare chums ; the veterinary was going to 
 introduce Arthur to his tailor, providing Arthur kept his mouth shut. 
 !Much as the auctioneer's lad desired this privilege, it was impossible for 
 him to avoid conveying the fact that Barling had been collecting a deal of 
 infoi-mation about Maggie from his housekeeper. Barling proposed, it 
 seemed, in this connection, to make a visit to a workhouse in the suburbs. 
 " Better by half," said Maggie, with spirit, " mind his own business." 
 Arthur Brice was of more definite use in finding a photographer, whom 
 be himself occasionally patronized on occasions when it seemed desirable 
 that his representations of undistinguished rrf'cs should have permanent 
 record for the content of posterity. To Euston Eoad, therefore, Maggie 
 wont on a bright day to have serious argument with a photographer, who 
 confessed himself an artist to the tips of his fingers (which perhaps 
 explained the untidy appearance of his hands), and Maggie had to decide 
 whether she should be taken in a snowstorm — 
 
 " Highly effective," said the artist. "With a muff in your hand, you 
 get a most remarkable toot ensemble." 
 
 Or looking roguishly through a trellised square of roses and other 
 flowers. 
 
 "Not up to much, as you see it now," admitted the photographer, 
 " but, my word ! it comes out in a picture a jolly sight better than nature." 
 Or seated in a swing with a book on her lap, to intimate that she was 
 one able to combine pleasure with instruction. 
 
 "One foot showing slightly," he advised, "under the 'em of the skirt. 
 Very fetching, believe me, if the shoe ain't too large." 
 
 Maggie rejected all these suggestions, insisting upon being taken in a 
 natural attitude ; and a few weeks later Lucas's rooms at Cambridge 
 found themselves brightened by the presence of a copy set in a frame 
 so magnificent that the rest of the furniture seemed quite cowed and 
 dispirited. In acknowledgment, Maggie received a letter of thanks, with 
 words set in a new key of admiration, that made her more determined 
 than ever to attain the position of a notability, and thus show Lucas that 
 she was well within speaking distance. Lucas also sent her (in exchange) 
 a photograph of himself, which had to be exhibited with pride to Aunt 
 Watson, that her antipathies might be overcome. Watson looked at it 
 with a shake of the head and a weary sigh of contempt. 
 " But isn't it just like him ? " argued Maggie excitedly. 
 " Yes," said the other, " it has that drawback." 
 " His features have come out so plain." 
 "True! " 
 
 "I think it's splendid," declared Maggie. "It maJies me want to see 
 him again." 
 
LOST PROPERTY . 99 
 
 " Tve pot no opinion of men," snapped Aunt Watson. " They're the 
 only mistakes God ever made." 
 
 It appeared to Maggie at this time that the eventful and disastrous 
 day of the accident registered the low-water mark of her life, and that she 
 might fairly expect in future to find roses in her pathway. Only now 
 and again an old fear returned to her. The absence of parents and her 
 inability to account for her presence in the world mattered little so far as 
 Aunt Watson and all her other women friends were concerned, but it 
 occurred to her now (as it had sometimes occurred to her in the distant 
 past) that when the time came for marriage — a contingency which she had 
 foreseen since the day when she had put up her back hair in a roll — there 
 would be strict inquiry into her ancestry, and facts would have to be 
 proclaimed. Since the only possible companion for life had become 
 Lucas, the pain of this disclosure seemed accentuated ; she could see his 
 eyebrows go up on hearing the confession. She went down one evening 
 from the college to a railway station in the City (having engaged the 
 companionship of the savings bank friend) with some vague idea that had 
 fear in it of making inquiry on her own account. Opening the door of the 
 Hiost Property Office, she found Horace Barling there in conversation with 
 an elderly official. She retired quickly, glad of an excuse for not pursuing 
 the investigations. 
 
 " Lost something? " asked her companion. 
 
 " Yes," said Maggie, with reserve. " But it doesn't really matter." 
 
 The interest shown by Mr. Barling became more obvious as lime went 
 on. His one great ambition, never masked from his friends, was to marry 
 again, and to marry someone with, for leading characteristic, the circum- 
 stance that she was "flush of dibs," which, translated, meant that he did 
 not propose to confer the inestimable benefit of his hand in marriage on one 
 inadequately furnished with riches. "A man," Mr. Barling often said, 
 as he glanced at his reflection in the glass, " a man doesn't keep single 
 fifteen months after his first wife's death to give himself away with a 
 pound of tea." Consequently, it had seemed to Barling when Mrs. 
 Dadswell, under violent cross-examination, made statement of all she 
 knew concerning Maggie's origin, that here was reward for his prolonged 
 abstinence, combined with the opportunity of using all his stock of artful- 
 ness and a good possibility of getting the best of somebody. He had 
 perhaps slightly prejudiced himself by his conduct on the night of the 
 accident, but, after all, he had done nothing of which a gentleman of 
 spirit in his cups need be ashamed ; some ladies admired a certain amount 
 of lively irresponsibility in a man. It will be seen that Barling was 
 of those who take it for granted that mystery of origin cannot fail to go 
 hand in hand with notable parentage, a missing \vill, and accumulated 
 riches , and when, on his visit to the workhouse, he showed rather too 
 clearly the kind of information he expected, two neighbours of Lady 
 Isobel in the infirmary ward, wishful for the half-crown that buys luxuries, 
 generously assisted that indolent woman by offering inaccurate but 
 gratifying information, thus enabling Mr. Barling to return with the 
 assurance that he had had quite a fruitful afternoon. 
 
 Maggie was snatching half an hour with Skerry's Arithmetic in the shop 
 parlour one evening before supper, whilst Watson listened at the counter 
 to a lady who, having bought a pennyworth of white tape, felt that this 
 gave permission to recite a detailed history of the trouble that had attended 
 the arrival of her tenth, when she heard a bass voice interject itself into 
 the sibilant tones, a sound which made her tremble. Putting down her 
 exercise books, she went to the windowed door and peeped through the 
 muslin blind. 
 
 "Well," said the white-tape customer, stopping suddenly, "staying 
 
100 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 hero and enjoyin' your conversation isn't getting my old man's supper 
 ready. He gets quite nasty if he's kept waiting half a hower or so. 
 Good-night, ma'am." 
 
 "Good-night," said Watson, "and thank you. And," with defiance, 
 " what for j'ou, sir ? " 
 
 Mr. Barling's answer took her hy surprise and disarmed her. 
 
 " I want two of your hest blankets," said Barling, with a justifiable 
 touch of patronage. " Cold weather's coming on and we can't be too 
 careful of ourselves." 
 
 " About what price ? " 
 
 "Any price you like," answered the veterinary surgeon, with generosiliy. 
 " So long as I get things good I don't mind what they cost." 
 
 " There's no doubt." remarked Watson, drawing on her stock of shop- 
 keeper's platitudes, " that a great deal of illness is caused by people not 
 taking enough care." She mounted a pair of steps and brought down 
 some rolls. " I often think that good health is, after all, a most valuable 
 possession." 
 
 " How's your niece ? " 
 
 " Is this the quality you mean, sir ? To clear out I'm selling them at 
 seven and eleven three — " 
 
 "Got over her bit of an upset all right, I hope? Accidents are the 
 kind of things that happen even to the best of us. That leader I was 
 driving I sent back to the gentleman in Bci-kshire, and first thing it did 
 was to run away with him and shoot him out," — here Mr. Barling 
 laughed — " shoot him out head first on a heap of stones by the side of 
 the road." 
 
 " Can I send this pair anywhere for you ? " 
 
 " Yes," he said, recalling himself to business. " Send them to-morrow. 
 You know the address." 
 
 " I do," said Watson meaningly, " know the address." 
 
 " She doesn't happen to be at home just now, I suppose 7 " 
 
 Watson shook her head. 
 
 "Oh!" said Barling, disappointed. "I'd got a message for her, but 
 it doesn't matter. I can see her some other time. Got change ? " 
 
 Watson pulled the drawer under the counter, and scooped out the 
 wooden bowls. 
 
 "Can't you run out and get change, ma'am? I don't mind staying 
 here." 
 
 Watson considered a moment and then went to the door of the parlour. 
 
 " Good-evening, missie," said Barling, lifting his hat as Maggie passed 
 through the shop. " How's the world using you? I met a friend of yours 
 the other afternoon, and she" — Maggie had disappeared without a word. 
 " Not what you may call slopping over with conversation," he remarked, 
 hurt. 
 
 " Shan't keep you waiting two minutes," said Watson. " Is there 
 going to be war, d'you think, or is it only the newspapers ? " 
 
 ""There'll be war," he said aggressively, "or something like it, if I'm 
 not treated in a gentlemanly manner. I know how to behave »^^yself— " 
 
 ' ■ Sure ? ' ' 
 
 " And I expect other people to behave themselves to me. Here am I 
 doing what I can the last three or four weeks on her behalf, and all I get 
 for my pains is a snub. I tell you," added Mr. Barling pathetically, " I 
 ain't used to it." 
 
 " It ought to seem natural," remarked Watson. " Here she comes ! " 
 
 Maggie, bringing the change in the hollow made by her two hands, 
 took no notice of Mr. Barling, but went breathlessly to the door of the 
 parlour. 
 
LOST PROPERTY 101 
 
 " I've got an important message for you,' lie ciied. Maggjia stopped. 
 " It may affect," he added earnestly, " the whole of your future life." 
 
 Maggie came back aud went behind the counter new to Watson, who 
 laid down the change. The veterinary surgeon took up the coins with a 
 line air of suggesting that money was of little importance to him. 
 
 " I've been down to a workhouse asylum lately spending one or two 
 ((uiet afternoons." 
 
 " Why? " asked Watson. 
 
 " Oh ! " said Barling lightly, " jest for a lark." 
 
 " I'ond of birds? " asked Watson. 
 
 " I mean the other kind," he said. " Great thing in this world is to get 
 all the fun you can I remember once — " 
 
 " Is this going to be a long story ? " interrupted Watson. 
 
 " Coming back to the point," he said, laying his hat on the counter now 
 and resting his elbows, " I happened by the merest chance to come across 
 someone there who knew more about you, my girl, than all the rest of 
 us put together." 
 
 " I beg your pardon I " Watson interiupted again, this time with indig- 
 nation, "/happen to know all about her, and we don't want anybody 
 else interfering in our affairs." 
 
 " As it happens," said Barling acutely " you can't prevent it. It may 
 suit you," here he addressed Watson, " it may suit you, my good woman, 
 to keep this young lady in a state of ignorance about her origin ; it by no 
 means follows that it suits everybody else to do so. Just as well we 
 should imderataud each other." 
 
 "Heaven protect ms," said Watson fervently, "from understanding 
 you." 
 
 " I can't bandy words with a woman," he said irritably, " my time's too 
 valuable. What I've got to tell you, missie, is simply this. You know a 
 woman who calls herself Lady Isobel? " 
 
 " She did," admitted Watson, " once " 
 
 " Thank you," said Barling. " Now we've got something to go on. She's 
 ill." 
 
 " I'm sorry," said Maggie. Aunt Watson shook her head, suggesting 
 silence. 
 
 " Aud," Barling leaned over the counter and Maggie shrank back to the 
 shelves, still holding Watson's hand, " and she wants to see you at once. 
 She's got most important information to give you." 
 
 " If there's anything that we don't know," declared Watson, " we don't 
 want to know it." 
 
 " Did it ever occur to you," said the veterinary surgeon, with great 
 deliberation, " that a girl owes something to her parents ? " 
 
 " Maggie doesn't," snapped Aunt Watson. 
 
 " For goodness sake, shut your head, ma'am. You're not en in this 
 scene. You've no business playing in the piece at all. You .>'e an out- 
 sider." 
 
 " She's my very best friend," cried Maggie. 
 
 " A mistake that does more credit to your heart than to your head, my 
 girl. Let's look the simple facts in the face. If by energy, by acuteness, 
 by good nature, by skill, by " — Barling had another virtue to enumerate, 
 but the title elnded him — " I should be the means of discovering aour 
 parents, wouldn't you be thankful to me for it ? " 
 
 " Depends ! " said Maggie, iu an undei-tone. 
 
 "The day will come," he prophesied, "when you won't be able to thank 
 me enough. Here is the address where you'll find this woman that'-* 
 got information to give you. She's, so to speak, at her last gasp, and I 
 warn you fairly there's no time to lose." 
 
102 LOST PKOPEKTY 
 
 "If you'.vo" aa'id ttil yOU' want to say," remarked Watson bluotly, "it 
 wouldn't be a bad idea for you to go out of tbe shop." 
 
 " I'm as Capable of taking a hint as any one," he said, with dignity. 
 " The moment I get an inkling that my company's not wanted, I make 
 myself scarce." 
 
 He put on his hat, adjusting it to the correct angle of rakishness with 
 the aid of a long slip of looking-glass. 
 
 " Dou't lose that address," he said warningly, " and don't lose a day in 
 going to see her. If you arrive too late, I shan't take the blame, mind. 
 And if you find yourself thankful to me for taking all this trouble on your 
 behalf, all you've got to do is to drop me a line, and — " 
 " Mind the step," said Watsou. 
 
 A long and earnest discussion that night in the shop parlour after the 
 shutters had been put up. The china animals on the mantelpiece looked 
 on, their painted black eyes staring with more tlian usual astonishment ; 
 the blue linen waves of the ship's model seemed less boisterous than usual 
 in the presence of commotion of another nature Examination for the 
 Civil Service, said a notice received a week since, was to take place the 
 next day and the day after, and Maggie bewailed the disturbance of 
 Barling's visit as likely to militate against her new chances of success ; 
 but Aunt Watson argued her out of this, saying it should, on the contrary, 
 make her try all the more. At times during the conference Maggie had 
 nearly made up her mind not to visit the infirmary, to take no notice 
 whatever of the request brought by Barling ; five minutes later felt 
 persuaded that she had no right to shirk trouble, and that Lady Isobel's 
 last moments must be cheered by her presence. Also she had to consider 
 iu her own mind — this being a part of the subject which she could not 
 discuss with Watson — the probable etfect upon Lucas's views, if she were 
 forced to acknowledge some deplorable woman as her mother. Blank 
 inabihty to refer to a parent was bad enough ; the prospect that hovered 
 now in front of her was worse. Watson, no less disturbed, pleated the 
 tablecloth absently, repeating again and again some phrase of counsel as 
 though anxious to persuade herself of its excellence. 
 
 "Well, well," said Maggie, gathering up her books and turning out a 
 light in the hanging chandelier, "talking doesn't seem to improve the look 
 of it." 
 
 " Don't go upstairs empty-handed, dear. Take those things oflf the 
 clothes' horse iu the kitchen with you." 
 " Aunt! " 
 " Yes, Maggie ? " 
 
 " Don't you often feel that you'd like to have some sensible, reliable 
 person about you that you could ask advice of in times like this f " 
 
 " I flatter myself," said Aunt Watson, with pride, " that I'm as sensible 
 and reliable as most women." 
 
 "/meant," urged Maggie, hesitatingly, "I meant a man." 
 " If you talk like that again," said the other sharply, " I'll never, never 
 forgive you. Be off to bye-bye this minute, and don't forget to say your 
 prayers." 
 
 The night had turned warmer, and Maggie, opening the window of her 
 room before lighting the gas, stepped out on the narrow iron-barred ledge 
 whkh generous minds called a balcony. Watson changed rooms with her 
 in the summer, so that the insurgent sunUght should not awaken the post- 
 ottice girl too early, being herself anxious to arise betimes but unwilling lo 
 allow Maggie to anticipate the labours of the day. Lamps were in the 
 upper floors of the houses opposite ; the tailor whose shop window said 
 aggressively "We Guarantee an Easy Fit. Isn't that Good Enough'/" 
 and might be supposed to be a person of some decision of character, was 
 
LOST PROPERTY 103 
 
 accepting with humility the denunciations of his loud-voiced wife, just then 
 reviewing his conduct on an evening at Southend in the year elRhty-four. 
 At the comer of the street stood a constahle, waiting for a tardy potman 
 with offering in a tankard. As Maggie hrought her gaze round slowly to the 
 other end, a cough, immediately bolow, arrested her and sent hot blood to 
 her face. 
 
 " Maggie ! '' 
 
 " That's never you, Lucas ! " 
 
 " But it is. How are you ? " 
 
 " I was feeling worried," she whimpered delightedlj'. " Whatever's made 
 you come back ? " 
 
 " Dr. James found a berth for me," said Lucas, taking off his pince-nez, 
 "and insisted that I should return and take it at once. It's hard, but I 
 thought it better to obey." 
 
 " Got a place under the Board ? " she asked with interest. 
 
 " Maggie," he said reprovingly, " don't be absurd. I am taking a position 
 in a private school, of course." 
 
 There was a pause. 
 
 " How many days have you been back ? " she asked. 
 
 " Only came down to-day. We had dinner, and then I thought I — I 
 might as well stroll round on the chance of seeing you." Maggie, looking 
 down, could see that he was in evening dress ; the fact increased her 
 gratification. She hoped that some other young women who lived in the 
 street and were intolerably dignified because they had a young man to 
 call for them on Sunday afternoons, might be looking from their windows. 
 " What were you worrying about? " he asked. 
 
 " I shall have to tell you sooner or later, I suppose, but not now ! I'm 
 going in for my new examination to-morrow and the next day, and — and 
 seeing you will help." 
 
 "I'll meet you when it's over." 
 
 " Afterwards I am going to visit — to visit a workhouse infirmary." 
 
 " Interesting experience," said the wise youth below. " I will accom- 
 pany you." Maggie, usually a young woman with some ability in repartee, 
 could think of no words to say. " This is something like Romeo, isn't 
 it? " he added. 
 
 "I've never been far from London." 
 
 " ' For thou art,' " recited Lucas, turning up the collar of his overcoat, 
 " ' As glorious to this night, being o'er my head. As is the winged 
 messenger of heaven, When^er — ho bestrides the — ' how does it go? 
 ' When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds, And sails upon the 
 bosom — ' " 
 
 " Don't be rude," laughed Maggie. 
 
 " I shall be waiting for you on 'Thursday," he whispered, looking up. 
 
 Maggie Cannon, a happy girl, went in and closed the windows. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE long ward of the infirmary, divided down the centre by a high 
 partition, had on either side two rows of beds with a gangway 
 between. Seated on the beds, or near to them, were women, some not 
 much over forty and others near to scoring a century. Here and there 
 they made up committee meetings, and for a brief space found agreement 
 in condemning the behaviour of some other occupant of the ward, who 
 either bided her time patiently in her own corner or sbuQlcd up and dowo 
 
104 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 apologizing to old enemies and canvassing for support in order to make a 
 party of her own. Many of the oldest had hut one word recorded on the 
 blue form pinned to a board over their heads, and this word, Dementia, 
 they showed with great dignity when visitors called and made amiable 
 inauiries after health. Usually there were about six distinct quarrels 
 going on in the ward, and the excitement caused thus, and the interest 
 they gave, appeared in the majority of cases to prolong life. When these 
 fai ed, tne old white-ha>ed women could invent grievances that answered 
 just as well as, for instance, that a neighbour was shamming illness, and 
 thj.s obtaining beer which she thereupon sold to others ; that the muscular 
 young nurse, who strode up and down the ward ruling her queer province 
 with the manner of a good-tempered autocrat, was showing favouritism ; 
 being in i-egard to cooked meat exceedingly partial to scrump, scrump they 
 could never get ; these and fifty other causes for discontent could always 
 be relied upon for chasing monotony and providing an object in life. The 
 women who had on their blue forms the notable word were all harmless, 
 and in a general way possessed but one small warp of the br?in : an old 
 lady with close curling grey hair assured strangers in confidence that her 
 neighbours, out of sheer spite, cut this hair every alternate Thursday 
 when she was asleep ; a maiden lady, in fear of being arrested for bigamy, 
 begged visitors on no account to breathe a word to her non-existent 
 lawyers ; another knew that a prince of royal blood dogged her footsteps 
 with the energy of unrequited affection ; another was the Archbishop of 
 York, but desired that the information should for the present be kept a 
 secret because of the jealousy of her sister, who represented Canterbury. 
 
 Maggie and Lucas were received at the doorway by the masterful young 
 nurse, and here the matron (at sight of whom the chattering ward silenced 
 its noise and assumed a gentle smile of resignation) gave them up and 
 rustled off in her silk dress to other duties. Maggie had finished her two 
 days' examination at Burlington House, and believed she had done well ; 
 many of the questions had happened to concern branches of subjects to 
 which she had of late been specially applying her young mind. Some of 
 them, it is true, had made her turn cold with fear. " If the present worth 
 of £3,011 16s.," said one riddle, "due six months hence at 3| per cent, be 
 invested in 2| per cent. Consols standing at 92", what will be the net 
 income derived from the investment when the income-tax is 7d. in the 
 £?" Maggie had restrained herself from giving to this the frivolous 
 reply, " When it's a jar! " fearing the examiner might not have a sense 
 of humour. For essay subject she chose "M:)thers and Daughters," in 
 preference to " Shakespeare as an Authority on English History." She 
 decided not to attempt to write a short account of the physical features, 
 inhabitants, and government of Alaska, for which omission Lucas reproved 
 her, saying he thought this knowledge was in the possession of all. 
 Lucas, in graver mood than that which had possessed him below the 
 balcony, had travelled with her from the London terminus, and she had 
 felt elated to perceive that, behind bis veil of mature austerity, there was 
 genuine pleasure in being in her company. It was as she walked down 
 the left-hand side of the ward, and glanced at the inquisitive old faces on 
 either side, that her fears returned. She smiled nervously at the old 
 •women who nodded a welcome. Lucas following, his silk hat in his hand, 
 frowned at them so severely that the word went round that he was a 
 young Dissenting minister. 
 
 "No," said the nurse, in answer to Maggie's question, "I shouldn't 
 call her tiresome ; I should call her just lazy. I can't get her to do a 
 single thing." 
 
 " She was always like that," remarked Maggie, 
 
 " Is she an old servant of yours, miss? " 
 
LOST PROPERTY 105 
 
 " I think," said Maggie, rejecting a desire to brag, " I think it was the 
 other way about." 
 
 "Fancy!" remarked the nurse, with surprise. "Perhaps there's 
 something, then, in what she says. I get so used to hstening to everj- 
 thing and believing nothing, that upon my word — Here she is t Be sure 
 to call her Lady Isobel or else she won't answer you." 
 
 The nurse went to the side of the low bed and touched a scarlet flauuel 
 shoulder. Lady Isobel was one of the few who had not yet risen for the 
 day, and Maggie noticed that her eyes, as she half opened them, looked 
 very old and very tired. Two medicine bottles stood on the cupboard 
 near, aud another inmate, seeing visitors, came, adjusting her white cap, 
 to explain that Lady Isobel had refused to take her last dose ; that it was 
 no use blaming Jter, she had tried to persuade, but one might as well 
 argue with a brick wall. Maggie made her way to the other side, and, 
 bending, whispered something in Lady Isobel's ear. The tired eyes 
 opened widely. Lucas took up an illustrated newspaper to avoid an 
 introduction ; it was one thing to accompany ^laggie on this visit to an 
 old acquaintance, but there was no necessity for him to make fui-ther 
 condescension. Looking at his watch, he decided to allow ten minutes 
 for the interview. 
 
 " You've both come to see me, then," said Lady Isobel slowly, " at last." 
 She looked round at Lucas, returning her gaze after a moment to Maggie. 
 "I'd rather talk to you than to him. There's been another gentleman, a 
 pleasant — " Forgetting the subject of her remarks, she stopped. Maggie 
 prompted her by repeating the last words. " Inquisitive, though," added 
 Lady Isobel. 
 
 " I dislike him," said Maggie, " but I am indebted to him for bringing 
 your message." 
 
 "You talk," remarked Lady Isobel, speakmg in a slow, helpless way, 
 " nicely." 
 
 " Glad you think I've improved. I thought you had made away with 
 yourself years ago " 
 
 " Too much trouble," sighed the woman in bed. " Shan't last long now, 
 though." 
 
 " You mustn't talk like that." 
 
 " It'll save the trouble of living. I'm as tired as anything." 
 
 " Make her have her medicine," whispered the young nurse. " Perhaps 
 she'll take it from you. She wants it bad enough. Dr. McAndrew 
 shook his head when he left her this morning. Or if you could cheer her 
 up—" 
 
 " Do you remember," said Maggie, seating herself on the edge of the 
 bed and bending down to the putfed white face, " do you remember what 
 a game it used to be in No- Way-Through when we lived together'? The 
 job I used to have to get you dressed, the way you always would spend 
 your time in reading, the trouble there was to get your boots on — oh," and 
 Maggie went on determinedly, " and can you recollect that time that you 
 bought a hat and put it away directly afterwards ? " 
 
 " It comes back to me," she said feebly, " in bits. My head — " 
 
 " Your head's all right," said Maggie, placing her cool hand above Lady 
 Isobel's eyes. 
 
 " It isu't reliable. If I begin to think much, I — " 
 
 She stopped agaiu. She pressed her tiiiger-nails into the palms of her 
 bands, gazed vacantly at the ceiling; her face contracted, her head shook. 
 Presently she recovered. Maggie rose aud took Lucas's handkerchief 
 from his sleeve to wipe Lady Isobel's face. The woman moved her gaze 
 in his direction again, but seeming to feel that the trouble was too great, 
 relinquished the effort and returned to Maggie. 
 
106 LOST PHOPEBTY 
 
 " That wasn't a bad tit," she whispered. " What were you saying?" 
 
 " I was reminding you," said Maggie, with determined Ught-hearteduess, 
 ' of the time when Dr. James came down and gave me a suvereigD and 
 there wa.3 a youug lad with him and—" 
 
 " That's what — " flushing with sudden excitement—" that's what I want 
 to tell you about. Don't," she added appealingly, "don't let me forget. 
 I'ake my hand and hold it — thanks If I wander, stop me." 
 
 An old lady called to Lucas under the impression that he was a guardian. 
 or at the least the friend of a guardian, and he had to go to her to receive 
 a detailed statement of grievances. Maggie, fearful but intensely desirous 
 of listening to Lady Isobel's information, glanced around, and felt glad 
 that this had occurred. She did not want Lucas to hear; if there should 
 be anything to tell him, she would rather herself impart the news. 
 
 " I was always specially fond — " Lady Isobel. speaking with trouble and 
 with halts in the sentences, looked at the silver brooch which held the 
 collar of Maggie's blouse — "of you, Maggie. Best stroke of luck I ever 
 had when you came to live with me. I'd watched you before that." 
 
 " It did me good too. I learnt all about house-work." 
 
 "You were always different from me" Maggie restrained her retort, 
 and seeing Lady Iso'bel's eyes still attracted by the silver brooch, un- 
 fastened it, and pinned it on the scarlet bedgown. Lady Isobel smiled 
 contentedly. " I was always fond of jewellery. I remember thinking 
 when I got married that my life was going to be all jewellery." 
 
 " Wasn't he a nice man ? " 
 
 "He was all right," said Lady Isobel wearily; "it was me that was 
 wrong. Let me see," she added, in her tired way. " Didn't he die? " 
 
 "Yes, dear." 
 
 " Thought so. It'll be my turn next." 
 
 " No, no," said Maggie cheeifully. " You never were in a hurry about 
 anything, and you mustn't begin now." 
 
 " I told you there was a baby, didn't I '? " 
 
 " You mentioned it once, but- but you didn't tell me any more." 
 
 " I've told so many lies," she moaned, " I forget what I have said. 
 But I want to tell you the truth now. There's nobody el.se it's woith 
 while telling the truth to. When I was in the bar at Cannon Street 
 Station-" 
 
 One of those terrible struggles came again with the excitement. The nurse 
 hastened from a dispute which she was endeavouring to settle at the end of 
 the ward, and the two fanned Lady Isobel's drawn face, nurse moistening 
 the lips with brandy. As Lady Isobel recovered, the nurse remarked that 
 she would have to send for the doctor. 
 
 " Had I told you what I — what I wanted to, Maggie? " 
 
 " You were talking of the time when you were at Cannon Street 
 Station." Maggie's voice trembled. She found herself staring search- 
 ingly at the white face, endeavouring to find some suggestion there of 
 her own features. What would Lucas think? What would Watson 
 say? 
 
 " He was a medical student at Guy's, and nothing would suit him but 
 that we must get married on the quiet. I didn't want to get married," she 
 added petulantly, " but he insisted on it when — " her lips moved without 
 speech, and Maggie, dipping her fingers in the brandy, did as the nurse 
 had done. "Then afterwards it was deadly dull and respectable, and we 
 (]uarrelled, and I got mad, and when the baby came," here she craned 
 herself up on her elbow and talked more hurriedly, " I made up my mind 
 atter a few months that I'd never set eyes on it more. So what did I do? 
 I went back to the bar, and I — " 
 
 She slipped lack limply into her former position, the sudden flushing of 
 
LOST PROPERTY 107 
 
 face came again. The nurse returned with the doctor, and the doctor, 
 pushing Maggie aside, took the management into Lis own hands. 
 
 " She should not have had visitors," he remarked sharply. 
 
 " Twasn't my fault, sir," said the nurse. 
 
 " Nothing ever is your fault," he said with satire. " Perhaps you'll Im 
 good enough to send them away now." 
 
 " Can I stay and have just one word with hei," pleaded Maggie 
 earnestly, " when she recovers?" 
 
 " I'm thinking," said the doctor, looking up at her and changing his 
 tone, " that 'twould not he advisable. Come another day if she's still 
 alive, but go now, there's a good young lady." 
 
 " You must ! " said the nurse, as Maggie hesitated. " You'll only get 
 me into another row." 
 
 Maggie, determined not to leave the building until she had again seen 
 Lsdy Isobel, nevertheless culled Lucas, and together they went, observed 
 closely by all the patients, to the door at the end. It opened suddenly as 
 they reached it, and a man, scarlet-faced with hurrying, stood back on the 
 landing. 
 
 " Caught you, then ! " cried Barling. " I was afraid you'd be gone. I 
 missed the blessed train, or else I should have been able to give you the 
 favour of my company down." 
 
 "There was no necessity," she said. 
 
 " Want to pass ? " demanded Barling of Lucas. 
 
 " No," replied Lucas ; "I am accompanying Miss Cannon." 
 
 " Like your cheek," cried the veterinary surgeon heatedly. " There's 
 too many mixing themselves up in this business." 
 
 " The same idea occurs to me," said Maggie. " Anyway, you can't see 
 her. The doctor's there." 
 
 " What do I care for doctors? " 
 
 " My experience is that doctors don't care much for you. Come along, 
 Lucas." 
 
 " You'ie doing," he said, with a determined effort to be paternal, "a 
 vtry silly thing, if you don't mind my saying so. I've got information — 
 You needn't Usten, mister ; it don't concern you." 
 
 Lucas shrank, appalled for a moment by the man's rudeness. 
 
 •' She has given me," said Maggie, holding the sleeve of Lucas's frock- 
 coat, " all the information that I require." 
 
 " After," cried Mr. Barling explosively, "promising me she wouldn't! 
 'Pon me word, if this ain't what comes of trusting a woman. I've a jolly 
 g«X)d mind to wring — " 
 
 "The poor woman," said Lucas, "appears, so far as I can judge, 
 seriously ill." 
 
 " Assuming," remarked Barling ferociously, " that you're old enough to 
 tell the ti-uth, it's no use my trying to see her now. But me and this 
 young lady must see her together, and if you've got any urgent appoint- 
 ment in town, don't let us keep you. D'you hear ? " 
 
 " I am not likely," said the other, with sudden spirit that made Maggie 
 feel proud, " I am not likely to leave at your suggestion." 
 
 " Ever suffer from nose-bleed?" asked Barling aggressively. 
 
 " I was never," said Lucas, " in less danger of doing so than now." 
 
 "After all," said the veterinary surgeon, hedging suddenly, "there's 
 ways of settling disputes without letting yourself down to a common 
 brawl. Personally — Now what is it ? " he demanded irritably of the 
 matron. The matron, jingling her keys, explained that she had simply 
 come for the purpose of asking Mr. Barling, as a guardian's friend, and 
 therefore entitled to honour, whether he would accept a cup of tea in hcr 
 room, to pass the time of waiting. Were the young lady and geutlemaa 
 
108 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 friends of Mr. Barling's? If so, would they also please accept the 
 invitation ? 
 
 " I do want tea," said Maggie to Lucas. "It will save my head the 
 trouble of aching." 
 
 "March along," ordered Barling; "it's no use standing here in the 
 draught arguing." 
 
 In the matron's room was unexpected comfort, with a neat maid to 
 bring in the brass tray, and, the door once closed, it seemed as though 
 the infirmary might be miles away. The matron was a genial, cultivated 
 woman, and her manner repressed Barling's ebullient mood. She had a 
 nephew at Cambridge ; Lucas was able to give information concerning 
 him and his college, and Maggie, joining in the interest thus produced, 
 the veterinary surgeon found himself shunted from the main conversation 
 into a siding where he could only keep quiet. Once or twice be tried to 
 divert the talk from the subject of Cambridge University to the question of 
 the CsBsarewitch Stakes, but with no success, and his annoyance at 
 Maggie's pride in listening to her companion's talk, combined with the 
 heating effect of the tea — a beverage to wliich he was not partial — made 
 him almost apoplectic. 
 
 A bell rang. Immediately afterwards the maid entered to whisper a 
 message to the matron. 
 
 " Excuse me t " said the matron, and hurried out. 
 
 "You seem to think you know a bit," remarked Barling defiantly to 
 Lucas. " Ever been to Kempton ■? " 
 
 " Kempton," said Lucas, in his deliberate way, " has not yet ^ome 
 under my observation." 
 
 " I only want ' Yes ' or 'No.' You do iiot know Kempton ? " 
 
 " That was the impression I endeavoured to convey." 
 
 " D'you know Hurst Park ? " 
 
 " My acquaintance with Hurst Park has yet to be made." 
 
 " Ever backed a gee-gee in any shape or form ? " 
 
 " The people who do back horses give me but little attraction to join 
 their ranks." 
 
 " Doesn't know Kempton, never heard of Hm-st Park, never backed a 
 gee-gee," summed up Barling hotly, " and yet he has the dashed cheek — 
 Oh," said Barling, appealing infuriatedly to Maggie, " why ain't I 
 talking like him and him like me ? Why is it 1 must lose my temper 
 whilst he — " 
 
 "Am I wanted?" said Maggie, starting up as tlie maid with a serious 
 face re-entered the room. 
 
 " Only for one moment, miss." 
 
 In the passage outside the room she met the Scotch doctor and the 
 matron. They gave her their information without preface : Lady Isobel, in 
 one of her fits, had gone. Just before the last came on she had said, 
 " Where's Maggie, my Maggie ? " and these had been the last words she 
 had uttered. The doctor, opening and shutting his silver pencil-case, said 
 cheerfully that, all things considered, it was perhaps just as well. A 
 terribly indolent and untidy woman, of no use to herself or to anybody 
 <4se, and reformation was vmlikely to have come at her time of life. 
 "Just a burden to the ratepayers," said the doctor. The matron sup- 
 ported this view of the case, but with more of gentleness, remarking that 
 some women were born lazy and some were bom busy, and the busy ones 
 ought to thank Heaven for their good fortune. As for this poor woman 
 who had just gone, probably she had left no one to regi-et her departm-e. 
 Did the young lady know if she had any relatives living? 
 
 " Only one," said Maggie, wringing her gloves tightly, and pointing 
 them at herself. 
 
LOST PROPERTY 109 
 
 The doctor looked at his watch, and, showing much alama at finding 
 the hour so advanced, hurried off and left the matron to deal with the 
 situation. This lady counted her keys before offering a new remark , 
 when she spoke her voice took a more business-like tone that was at once 
 detected by the sensitive girl. From the matron's room came the rumbling 
 sound of Barling's voice arguing. 
 
 " Would you care," said the matron, " to sco that the parish does not 
 have to put her away ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "She's been a great expense as it is," — the matron spoke rather as 
 though the disbursements had come out of her own pocket — " and you can 
 scarcely expect them to go on paying out and out and out." 
 
 " No." 
 
 " To-day's Thursday. Shall we say Sunday next? Will Sunday suit 
 you ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " How was it you never found her out before? It seems very funny. " 
 
 " Shouldn't have thought," said poor Maggie, still twisting the gloves, 
 " that there was anything amusing about it." 
 
 "When I say funny," explained the matron, "I mean strange. You 
 don't think I'm speaking harshly, I hope ? " 
 
 " I'd somehow got that idea." 
 
 " We have to deal," said the other, " with such a lot of all sorts that 
 it's rather diflScult not to appear unkind now and again. It's a trying time 
 for you, I know, to feel that you've lost a near relative." 
 
 "Somehow," sighed Maggie, "it isn't so much the losing her that's 
 given me a shock as — " 
 
 " Still, relations are relations, mind you. There's no getting away from 
 that. Would you like us to arrange all about next Sunday ? There's a 
 firm in the neighbourhood would do it in a very ladylike way for five 
 pounds. Please yourself, of course." 
 
 " I've been spending rather a lot lately on some evening classes, but 
 I've got just about five pounds left. If you don't mind seeing to it for 
 me — " 
 
 "That's all right," said the matron, now quite genial. "I'll send you 
 a card to let you know the exact time. It'll give you a day or two to get 
 your black ready. Will there be any other followers ? " 
 
 The door opened and Barling came out, still talking in his overpowering 
 way. 
 
 "Ah, here you are," he said to the two. "Still gossiping, eh ? I'll 
 just run up and see her for a few moments alone, and then I'll come back 
 and have a chat with you, missio. I've got a lot of things to say to you 
 that I can't say to any one else." 
 
 The matron spoke to him in an undertone. 
 
 " You don't mean to say," shouted Mr. Barling indignantly, ' that she's 
 had the cheek to — Well, upon my word, this is a pretty go. And she 
 hadn't finished giving me all the particulars — You can go back, Mister 
 Clever," he said to Lucas, who had come to the dooi-way ; " thds don't 
 concern you." 
 
 " Anything," said Lucas, coming forward, "that affects Miss Cannon 
 affects me also." 
 
 " Lucas ! " she cried, with a burst of thankfulness. 
 
 " I shall have to do something to you, my old university chum," said 
 the veterinary surgeon, with a pained manner. " You ought to be turned 
 out to grass. I don't want you in the stable just now. The ybung filly, 
 whose arm you've got the impudence to be holding, is a groat deal too 
 good to run in harness with you." 
 
110 LOST PROPEETY 
 
 " That I am quite willing to adroit." 
 
 " No, no," said Maggie. 
 
 "Look here," cried Barling, addressing the matron, "you're a sensible 
 woman, or well say as sensible as a woman can expect to he " The 
 matron bowed recognition of the guarded compliment. " By putting 
 questions to this party who's just popped otf the hooks, I've managed to 
 hnd out, putting two and two together, that this young lady's possibly 
 connected with a certain family, and maybe, for all we know, there's tons 
 of money about waiting somewhere. It took me a long time to discover 
 all that, but I did discover it." 
 
 "She very seldom told the truth," remarked the matron. "If you 
 don't mind my saying so," she added apologetically to Maggie, " about 
 your own — about your own — " 
 
 " Mother," said Maggie, in a low voice. 
 
 Mr. Horace Barling, prepared to go on with his case, stopped, his mouth 
 open. Lucas took his hand from Maggie's arm. 
 
 " Your own mother? " said Lucas inquiringly. 
 
 Maggie gave a shamefaced nod of affirmation. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 AUNT WATSON, astounded at the news which Maggie brought, but 
 greatly relieved to find that the incident which she had sometimes 
 feared had terminated so swiftly, threw herself the next morning into 
 arrangements for the funeral with something approaching enthusiasm, and 
 this proved of greater assistance than Lucas's cautious sympathy. Lucas 
 himself was suddenly snatched away from town to take up, at the instance 
 of Dr. James, the position of assistant master in a highly aristocratic school 
 at Chislehurst, not long started, which set out, on its dignified prospectuses, 
 such a determination to keep select that there seemed reason to fear that 
 the lads who were willing to become pupils could not produce fathers able 
 to reach the lofty standard set by the principal, whilst parents able to give 
 satisfactory proofs in regard to blood and ancestry might be unwilling to 
 pay the high fees demanded. Dr. James, however, in explosive mood, 
 decided that Lucas, who had been home for three days, could not be 
 allowed to become a mere loafer, and ordered the youth to take up the 
 position at once. 
 
 " I will not have you here, sir," said Dr. James, speaking with the 
 extravagance of one who has a sudden sense of his own responsibiUty, 
 " eating your confounded head off." 
 
 To the Academy for Young Gentlemen of Refined Birth, Standing in its 
 own Grounds, Lucas therefore went, sending a very brief note of farewell, 
 which, coming with the rest of the worries, seemed to Maggie quite 
 natural. She braced herself sturdily to receive more trouble on her 
 shoulders ; to her surprise, this closed the tale of ill-luck. Aunt Watson 
 went with her on the following Sunday, and together they Ustenod to the 
 funeral service ; and because Watson cried Maggie also wept, and in 
 sympathy two small girl strangers, who had drifted to the graveside, in 
 the absence of other engagements of a pressing nature, howled to the 
 skies. 
 
 Later came sunshine. Miss Margaret Cannon, of King Street, Camden 
 Town, was one morning informed, on a partly printed sheet of blue note- 
 paper, that she had passed ; that her number was sixty-five in the recent 
 examination for eighty lady clerkships. 
 
 Maggie gave a cautionary notice to the manageress, who shook her head 
 
LOST PROPERTY 111 
 
 Badly and remarked that girls never seemed to know when they were well 
 off, but revived slightly on finding that months might elapse ere the actual 
 appointment was made. Watson organized a supper that evening in the 
 shop parlour which was talked of by neighbours for more than ten days. 
 To this feast, Miss Cheyney as an old colleague, and Mr. Brice as an inoffen- 
 sive member of the other sex, and Captain Bells as a friend of everybody, 
 were bidden ; and towards the end of the banquet, when Watson, flushed 
 with playing the dual parts of cook and hostess, brought in (as cook) a 
 tipsy cake that really ought to have been locked up, Mr. Brice it was who 
 made a speech, punctuated by Captain Bells with " Good ! " and " That's 
 the style ! " and " Steam ahead ! " and suchlike commendatory interjec- 
 tions, wishing long life and a successful career to our fair young friend. 
 Miss Cannon, who, whatever trium.phs might be in store for her, whatever 
 heights in the Civil Service she might attain, would always remain in their 
 memory as one of Nature's sweetest blossoms, one of Heaven's most 
 gracious gifts. Maggie was amused, but Miss Chej'ney wept, and said 
 that if ever she should manage to get a husband she did hope he would be 
 one possessing the gift of public speech, that she might ever look up to 
 him with reverence, admiration, and perhaps a touch of awe. Watson, 
 scandalized at the topic being discussed by, as she said, mere children, 
 tried to arrest the debate, and called on Captain Bells for support ; but 
 Miss Chej'ney would not be stopped, and declared with fervour, " Give her 
 a husband she could be a slave to, or none at all." 
 
 "That wouldn't suit my book," said Maggie. "I should want him to 
 look np to me." 
 
 Watson coughed uneasily. 
 
 " If he was a chap of what I may call acumen," remarked Arthur Brice, 
 " he couldn't very well be off from doing so." 
 
 " We'd better have some music," said Aunt Watson hastily to Captain 
 Bells. " Can you remember that song about ' Illy-ollo-o ' ? " 
 
 "To feel," said Maggie vrith decision, "that he had any reason for 
 entertaining pity for me would be absolutely unbearable." 
 
 " So long as he had a loving heart," sighed Miss Cheyney, " and a nice 
 manner, and the gift of the gab, I shouldn't mind his pity." 
 
 " When I get married " — began Maggie thoughtfully. 
 
 "Yon would never darken my doors again if you did," exclaimed 
 Watson suddenly. 
 
 " But, aunt ! " 
 
 " W'e must reelly have some music," went on the other hurriedly. 
 "Miss Cheyney, you ought to be able to sing a bit with a face like yours. 
 You're all talking about a subject you don't 'alf understand. Isn't that so. 
 Captain Bells? " 
 
 ■The young people smUed compassionately at this absurd suggestion, 
 but they consented to apply themselves to music, and Captain Bells, to 
 Maggie's accompaniment, sang a melody with a seafaring flavoui-, 
 flavour which would have been increased if the singer had possessed 
 a more accurate memory. Want of this compelled him to give the third 
 
 verse as, — 
 
 " So wo Inm toe am teo nm. 
 And we lam tee um teo ay. 
 And the good ship is a lam tee lun tee oh I 
 For we Inm tee — " 
 
 thus clouding, to some extent, the poet's intentions. Watson told the 
 Captain that ne ought to learn the words before he again attempted to give 
 a public rendering, and Captain Bells, somewhat depressed, acbnitted that 
 this was not a bad idea. "But, bless my soul," said Captain Bells 
 dejectedly, " as years go on I find it harder than ever to get anjiihing into 
 
112 LOST PKOPERTT 
 
 my silly old head." Mr. Brice and Miss Cheyney sang a duet called 
 " The Butterfly and the Rose," in which Mr. Brice as the Butterfly was 
 upbraided by Miss Cheyney as the Rose for paying attention to others, the 
 Rose pointing out that- — 
 
 " He stays with me a mnnient, 
 And then away he poes 
 To other brilliant flow-wcra, 
 And forgets the English Rose," 
 
 throwing so much of storm into the reproach that when the duet, thanks to 
 careful piloting hy Maggie, at length reached harbour, there was a 
 general impression in the room that Arthur Brice was a deceiver of the 
 gayest and most irresponsible kind, a youth whose word could not he 
 relied upon. Altogether a great night, one that helped Maggie to forget 
 temporarily that Lucas had left town without seeing her to say 
 good-bye, and persuaded her, during the time of waiting for further news, that 
 she was without grievance of any kind. 
 
 Because love can sometimes be kept out by a "House Full" 
 announcement when the mind is occupied with other subjects, Maggie was 
 also greatly helped when the polite request came that she should present 
 herself to a lady doctor at such and such a place, bring her own doctor's 
 certificate, and be prepared for vaccination. This done satisfactorily, she 
 would take duty on a j^ear's probation in the Savings Bank Department of 
 Her Majesty's Post Office the first day of the following month at a salary 
 of sixty-five pounds per annum. She found two necessary references in 
 Captain Bells and in Arthur Brice's master, and having filled up a form 
 declaring that she was not a widow, not a wife, found herself suddenly 
 pulled up against a high brick wall by discovering that a birth certificate was 
 required, giving the names of father and mother and the precise reason 
 for their respective departures from this earth. Now some obstacles in 
 one's career have to be climbed, but some will vanish if one pretends not to 
 see them. Maggie ignored the inquiry, and somewhere in an office, a 
 Civil Service clerk, just then in the throes of a short story on which he had 
 been engaged for years, conspired with her, without knowing it, and the 
 high brick wall crumbled to the ground. Then the work at Queen 
 Victoria Street commenced. To sign on duty at half-past nine each morn- 
 ing, at which moment a red line was drawn in the attendance book and 
 the volume taken away (you were not allowed to sign on until you had 
 taken off your hat, just as later in the day you could not sign off at four 
 o'clock writh your hat on) ; to apply yourself to figures under the watchful 
 eyes of a lady superintendent of whom, when she found fault with your 
 addition, you could always say privately that you believed she was forty- 
 one, if a day ; to take your half-hour for lunch in the dining-room, where, 
 eating up to the figure of say ninepence, you exchanged views on summer 
 holidays and vague intentions in regard to autumnal costumes ; returning 
 then to the desk to work on with a quarter of an hour snatched for tea — to 
 do all this was with Maggie to undergo a precise drill in which her life 
 had hitherto been wanting. She found herself making the acquaintance 
 of a department where some hundreds of young women of a higher type 
 than those she had hitherto met were engaged ; sitting at a sloping desk 
 with others engaged in work of great seriousness, she discovered in odd 
 moments from her neighbours the distinguishing traits of other girls, and 
 from other girls the weaknesses of her immediate neighbours : found that 
 Miss So-and-So was a nice girl enough, but rather religious ; that a second 
 talked of nothing but her brother, who was reading for the Bar ; that a 
 third, who lived at Bayswater, was by way of being an artist, and made hat 
 money out of black-and-white work. 
 
 Having no one else in the world to writ© to, she scribbled to L^ioas in a 
 
LOST PEOPERTY 113 
 
 luncheon half-hoar a long letter on an official form, giving her impressiona 
 of the new work ; and this she would ha%'e posted to Chislehurst, only that 
 she remembered the change in his manner effected by the news ascertained at 
 the infirmary, and, reddening fiercely at the idea that she might be forcing 
 herself upon his notice, she tore up the communication and determined to 
 wait for Lucas to take the first step. She met Dr. James one evening in 
 the City ; he gave her tickets for the Botanical Gardens, asked what she 
 was doing, congratulated her on being in the Savings Bank, and seemed to 
 have forgotten their former dissensions. He had heard from Lucas ; 
 Lucas was not finding his life strewn with roses, " and," said Dr. James 
 with heat, " a very good thing too. He'll never be a man unless he gets 
 knocked over once or twice." Maggie smiled mournfully, after she had 
 said good-bye, at the foolish ideas of elderly people. 
 
 She was more touched on finding information about Lucas's principal in 
 the daily journals. One of Maggie's duties was to read aloud to Watson 
 the names that appeared ou Wednesdays and Saturdays of those who, in 
 the task of swimming through life, gave up the sometimes exhausting 
 task of keeping heads above water. Nothing cheered Watson so much 
 as the recital of this list, emphasizing as it did the fact that, in spite of the 
 rapacious emporium at the corner, swallowing a fresh shop every year, she 
 herself was still able to pay twenty shillings in the pound. Not content 
 with the London names, Watson insisted ou knowing the worst, even 
 down to Yeovil ; and it was in the early names of the country bankruptcies 
 that Maggie one night encountered the name of the principal of the 
 private school at Chislehurst. He had foiur Christian names and a 
 hyphenated surname, but this had not shielded him from disaster ; and 
 Maggie, full of regret for Lucas, stayed up that night after she had sent 
 Watson to bed and wrote to him a letter, brief, affectionate, sympathetic. 
 That second thoughts (which are always cautious and often wrong) 
 might not interfere, she ran out at once and posted it. Lucas's principal, 
 a man untrammelled by the niceties of etiquette, opened Maggie's letter, 
 and, read aloud, it enlivened a very admirable breakfast. Pmding soma 
 trouble in refastening the envelope, he threw the letter in the fire. 
 
 As for Lucas, he had given time to consider the subject of his friendship 
 with Maggie, and had found himself unable to decide whether or not, iu 
 view of the new information concerning her parentage, it would be a reck- 
 less, foolish, and un-Lucas like proceeding to permit, the brilliant possibihty 
 of marriage with him to remain in Maggie's thoughts. Entirely sure about 
 most things, a confidence made firm by his very brief university career, he 
 was not quite certain on this point until he consulted the lady principal, 
 by placing before that wise woman a h3rpothetical case, where A. stood for 
 Lucas, B. for Maggie, and C. for Maggie's mother. The lady principal, 
 herself of speckled origin, could scarce express her amazement at A. think- 
 ing for a moment that any good was likely to result, in all the circumstances, 
 from an alliance with B. The lady principal, remembering her own 
 troubles with aspirates in early marriage days, difficulties which reappeared 
 even now in moments of excitement, gave several cases where Culture had 
 mated with Lower Middle Class, thiriking to raise Lower Middle Class, 
 but ever failing in the delectable essay. The principal, called in to support 
 this view, replied in the vague, expansive way which always gave anxious 
 parents the impression that they were dealing with a large-hearted 
 philanthropist with whom 'twere almost profane to haggle about terms, 
 and said that love properly directed could be a source of great happiness 
 and made a means of getting you along in the world : misdirected it could 
 only lead to a lack of mutual respect, a contentious home, a sense, so to 
 say, of disproportion and generally speaking — if his wife would excuse the 
 apparent vulgarity of his phrasing — the very deuce. Lucas, impressed 
 
114 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 by the unanimity of these experts, wrote to Maggie a letter which was not 
 intended to be so formal as its carefully finished sentences made it appear. 
 Oaly when he had posted the letter did there come to him the novel and 
 disturbing suggestion that for once in his life error might have crept into 
 his actions. The next morning, as he was taking six dejected 
 pupUs through the paths of Euclid, and had lost them and found them and 
 lost them again, the principal came into the class-room, and, taking him 
 aside, announced the fact that it was not possible to pay the last quarter's 
 salary due, suggesting that Lucas should pack up and go with all 
 convenient despatch. 
 
 " That's what I should do," said the principal, touching Lucas's shoul- 
 ders genially with the tips of his fingers, " if I were in your position." 
 
 " You think, sir, that it is useless for me to stay on ? " 
 
 " My dear fellow," said the principal, now taking him by the elbows, 
 " my dear fellow, there isn't a brass farthing in the place. And if there 
 was one, / should take it. All the same," added the principal with 
 emotion, "good luck to you, my dear sir. If ever I can be of the 
 slightest use — " 
 
 Wherefore Lucas packed up his bag, said good-bye to the six boys, who 
 having already heard of the failure, and seeing prospect of relief, had 
 become slightly less desolate, so that they gave Lucas a ghost of a cheer 
 as he went off thoughtfully through the grounds (which were what some 
 people with no imagination would have called a back garden) and walked 
 away to the station. There had been races at Wye, and one or two special 
 trains, filled with the kind of passengers v.'ho spend their lives in 
 punctiUous attendance at such meetings, retarded the ordinarj^ traffic. 
 The last special pulled up at the station to take breath, and an amiable 
 porter, with the desperate air of one v?ho is risking his hope of salvation 
 for the sake of beuefitiiig his fellow-man, permitted Lucas to join it in order 
 to reach London without any further delay. The third-class compartment 
 of flushed, overfed-lookiug men, carrying poles and wearing satchels with 
 their names in white letters, hailed him with enthusiasm. 
 
 "Goggles!" they shouted, as the train prepared to go on. "What 
 price, Goggles'? Any blank price you like — There! " as the train started 
 with a jerk and Lucas stumbled. " liuew he was a starter Goggles," 
 with a change of simile, " show us some card tricks. Don't go pretending 
 you ain't got a pack about you, now. What's this on the end of your 
 chain?" 
 
 " Boys," said a man in the corner authoritatively, " this is a gentleman 
 friend of mine." 
 
 " Go it. Barling. Roast him I " 
 
 " He's a fi-iend of mine," said Mr. Horace Barling ; "he isn't going to 
 be roasted, his watch ain't going to he pinched, his breast-pin going to be 
 let alone. D'year me, or must I holler? " 
 
 " Serious ? " 
 
 Mr. Barhng gave a long and apparently complete set of forcible 
 adjectives, intended to show how very serious in the present case he 
 intended to be, adding as inducement to good behaviour that if they did 
 not leave his fi-iend alone, some of them would find their faces shifted. 
 This seemed so sound as an ai'gument that, with a sigh of regret, they 
 relinquished the agreeable task of badgering the youth, and room was 
 found for him between two bookmakers, that he might sit opposite to 
 Barling. 
 
 " I'm obliged," he stammered. 
 
 " So you ought to be," said Barling, leaning across. " Seen anything of 
 our lady friend lately'.' You know who I mean." 
 
 •'Miss Canaou? " 
 
LOoT PROPERTY 116 
 
 " I allways call her Mag," said Barling. 
 
 The rest of the compartment returned to the consideration of a grievance, 
 btarting for "Wye that morning, with their usual determination of getting 
 the best of evei7body, it appeared that dm-ing the day two jockeys had by 
 some means had the best of them ; they were indignant in the frantic way 
 of men who having squandered expressive words on minor grievances, are 
 inarticulate when serious trouble presents itself. 
 
 " Me and her," went on Barling, inventively, drumming with his 
 knuckles on his knees, " are rare good pals. Of course I don't want to 
 raise anybody's anticipations too high, but — Well," said Barling, 
 with restraint, " p'r'aps I'd better not say what I was going to say." 
 "I should be glad to know," said Lucas, "exactly what you mean." 
 " I'll tell you," said Barling, with a burst of frankness, " I'll tell you in 
 two words. I've got so much attached to her on account of her stand-o£Ssh 
 manners, that, so help my goodness, I'm beginning to think that in spite of 
 all I shall have to make up my mind to — " 
 
 " Well ? " said Lucas shai-ply. 
 
 " To marry her," said Barhng half-excusingly, " to take her as she is, 
 and to jolly well chance it." 
 
 The special train, encouraged by the view of London and willing to make 
 up for lost time, ran swiftly downhill, giving the passengers an added 
 grievance by swinging them from side to side. 
 
 " If you dared I " said Lucas menacingly. 
 
 " There's just one thing about it," retorted the other with warmth, " and 
 that ain't two. I shouldn't ask your permission. You're like the chap 
 that fell out of the balloon." Lucas could not avoid showing ignor- 
 ance of this anecdote. "You ain't in it I" whispered the veterinary 
 Burgeon. " Hallo ! we're running through St. John's t " 
 
 Lucas placed his bag in the cloak-room at Charing Cross, and losing no 
 time by going first to see his guardian, and unable to endure the leism'ely 
 progress of a yellow omnibus, ran to Camden Town. He had posted the 
 letter very late on the previous night ; possibly by happy chance Maggie 
 might not yet have received it. He tried to persuade himself that some- 
 times letters went astray : uuf(jrtunately, you could not always rely upon the 
 post office for this. Barling's remarks had disclosed to the young man how 
 considei^able a place in his own affections Maggie really occupied, and he 
 arrived at King Street heated and full of anxiety. He dare not appeal at 
 the shop door for fear of being met by Watson, whom he could not coimt 
 amongst his friends. He was forced to walk up and down for quite half 
 an hour, keeping the upper ^vindows well in sight : undignified, perhaps, 
 but this he was willing to endure. Presently, as a hght appeared in the 
 room with the narrow balcony, Lucas, astonished at his own daring, picked 
 up some small stones and threw them. 
 
 The blind went up and the window was pulled open. Maggie, standing 
 there, looked down at Lucas. 
 
 " Maggie," he whispered hurriedly, " I sent — I sent you a letter." 
 
 " I know," said Mag{.Me, her voice trembling. " I have just received it. 
 I'm sorry. Good-bye." 
 
 " But, dear! " 
 
 " Good-bye ! " 
 
 G^mg back, she closed the wmdow and drew the blind again. 
 
116 LOST PEOPERTY 
 
 CHAPTEB XIX 
 
 QUEEN Victoria Street is such a loug and such a broad and such a 
 useful street that the city must sometimes wonder how trai&c waa 
 managed without it. Beginning at the Mansion House, with important 
 shops and blocks of offices that are in themselves small towns and 
 might well elect a Mayor of their own, it gives itself up for a space to 
 machinery ; enormous wheels whir round, doing nothing at all with 
 strenuous energy. Lower down, something of calm ensues ; a church 
 stands reticently back from the street, and there is a College of Arms, 
 where those who have misgivings in regard to their ancestors can have 
 their qualms appeased in a manner that, except perhaps in regard to 
 accuracy, leaves little to be desired. To Maggie, the College of Arms did 
 not appeal ; for her the most interesting place in Queen Victoria Street 
 was the Savings Bank Department of Her Majesty's Post Office, and there 
 she worked every day, now past her year's probation, and an assured 
 member of the Civil Service. Maggie had become popular in the Warrant 
 Branch, being indeed a cheerful young woman, able to make friends even 
 amongst other young women, and careful not to allow her personal 
 troubles to be shared by those who had no concern in them. She had not 
 seen Lucas since the night on which she gave him a curt farewell, but this, 
 a bitter memory enough and one that never left her, she regarded as her 
 own affair, and one not to be communicated to the uninterested. Now 
 and again an attractive-looking clerk in the section was called, as for the 
 tumbril, and resigned her post, and a collection was made to give her a 
 W'edding present, on which occasions serious clerks looked more thoughtful, 
 and gleeful wonder was expressed by the frivolous as to whose turn it 
 mightp be to go nest. In these gay conferences Maggie took no part. 
 She walked home each evening, a tall, erect girl, with a swing that came 
 from exercise at the gymnasium, in the company of her middle-aged friend, 
 whose presence was agreeable because she could take interest in matters 
 other than the probable intentions of man ; and this had become so much 
 a matter of routine that it startled Maggie greatly one afternoon in August, 
 when half the city was on hohday, washing it were back, and the working 
 half wishing it were away, and she herself had made written application to 
 leave at three, in order to take Watson for a fourpenny 'bus ride, to find a 
 shining silk hat of old-fashioned shape lifted. 
 
 " Dr. James ! " 
 
 " Miss Cannon," said Dr. James, with a sharp bow. 
 
 "What weather!" remarked* Maggie, clutching hurriedly at the first 
 stray thought. 
 
 " I've been out of England for some time," said Dr. James, excusing 
 himself from responsibility. " Some small investments in South 
 America — " 
 
 " May I introduce my friend ? We are walking home together." 
 
 The middle-aged friend being hauled up, Dr. James taking her aside, in- 
 formed her that he desired to walk home with Miss Cannon ; would the 
 Uiiddle-agod lady obhge him extremely by depriving them of her presence ? 
 Middle-aged friend said, with an extravagance that she did not mean, 
 " Only too pleased ! " and, with a nod, humed off. 
 
 " Good walker '? " then asked Dr. James abruptly. 
 
 " 1 think so." 
 
 With the old white-haired gentleman making the pace, Maggie went 
 swiftly up New Bridge Street, up Bride Street, along the crowded pave- 
 
LOST PROPERTY 117 
 
 ment of Holborn as far as Bloomsbury Street. It was a warm afteraoon, 
 not the kind of day one would choose for violent exercise, but Dr. James 
 swung his hat and strode along determinedly, now and again giving a look 
 aside to see that Maggie was keeping level. At Bloomsbury Street the old 
 gentleman slackened pace and resumed his silk hat. 
 
 " Excellent, excellent ! You haven't said a word the whole of the way." 
 
 " Haven't had a chance," panted Maggie. 
 
 " Concerning Lucas — 
 
 " Ah ! " said Maggie, reddening, as Dr. James looked at her. 
 
 " He is at my place just now." 
 
 Maggie had no remark to make on this. 
 
 " He is improved," said Dr. James, recommencing the walking match 
 up the straight, ruler-made road towards Gower Street, " improved, but 
 another set-back is necessary, and I want y6u — Not walking too fast, 
 am I ? " 
 
 " I hope not." 
 
 " He has told me about his treatment of you." 
 
 " That," said Maggie Cannon, with spirit, "might well have remained a 
 secret between us.'' 
 
 " But I made him tell me." 
 
 " I felt sure Lucas was not to blame." 
 
 They reached the house which bore the unobtrusive brass plate, and 
 Maggie held out her hand to say good-bye. 
 
 " You must come in. Oblige an old man by helping him in a rather 
 ditficult circumstance. Believe me,"- — this with great earnestness — "be- 
 lieve me, your presence is indispensable, ab-so-lutely indispensable. You're 
 not afraid to see Lucas again ? " 
 
 " No," said Maggie, " I'm not afraid to see him." 
 
 The man-servant appeared on the instant. Dr. James pushed open the 
 door of the front room on the groiind floor, and Lucas came forward, look- 
 ing older, Maggie thought, than when she had seen him last, more of a 
 man. He was surprised to see her, and seemed fearful of offering his hand 
 until Maggie took the initiative. Up and down the carpeted floor was a 
 straight line worn into semblance of a pathway, and upon it Dr. James 
 started exercise. 
 
 " Getting on all right in — in your new berth, Lucas? " 
 
 " Thank you, Maggie, yes. The prospects, so far as money is concerned, 
 are good, but — " He stopped. "I have been hoping for a chance 
 encounter, Maggie. I wanted to say something to you." 
 
 Dr. James, stopping his walk, frowned and turned to hear the girl's 
 reply. At that moment, one of those piano-organs which spend their lives 
 in offering jagged bits of melody to neighbourhoods that require silence, 
 instead of going to districts where they can effect happiness, started in 
 Gower Street, and Dr. James was off the pathway and out of the 
 room, calling loudly for " Barnes ! Barnes! Barnes! 'Why on earth — " 
 
 " Maggie," — Lucas seemed anxious to speak before Dr. James's return, 
 — " J want you to forget all about that letter." 
 
 " I have already done so." 
 
 " I am sorry, very sorry, that I ever sent it." 
 
 " And I am sorrj', Lucas, that you wrote it." 
 
 " I'm miserable without you." 
 
 " Tm not particularly jolly," admitted Maggie. " If it were not for Aunt 
 Watson — ' ' 
 
 "I shall never do anything great," here he took out his watch and 
 wound it nervously for the sake of something to do. " I find there are so 
 many just as clever as I." . 
 
 " Disappointment," she remarked kindly, " is doing you good." 
 
118 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 " I have had sufficient. What I want is to be sure that some day, when 
 I am earninf; enough, I can ask — I can ask you to be my wife." 
 
 " What say ?" Maggie mado him repeat this sentence for the sheer 
 pleasure of listening to it again. " No one else," said Maggie thoughtfully, 
 " will ever say that to me. All the same, my answer is ' No.' " 
 
 " Maggie ! " 
 
 Dr. James, returning hurriedly from the fray outside, resumed his pro- 
 menade on the carpet. 
 
 " Besides — " 
 
 "Go on, my dear." 
 
 " Besides," accepting the doctor's encouragement, " I could never 
 marry any one with the feeling that he looked down upon mc." 
 
 " I should not do that, Maggie." 
 
 " You'd try not to," said Maggie, " but you would all the same. You'd 
 always bo thinking of Lady Tsobel." 
 
 Dr. James took out his watch and listened, waiting for the space of one 
 minute ; and as the young man, with chin resting on fist, did not reply to 
 this last remark, went to a corpulent, closed writing-desk, and unlocking 
 it, sent the cover back ; found in one of the disclosed pigeon-holes a 
 long white envelope, sealed ; came across the room and handed it to 
 Lucas. 
 
 " I was to give you this," he said slowly, " if I thought fit. I think it 
 will do you good to read it now." 
 
 Dr. James goes over to lean his forehead against the window, whilst 
 Lucas with a penknife slices open the end of the envelope. Maggie blows 
 into her gloves, and smooths out the journal which she has carried 
 
 " Well ? " says the doctor presently. 
 
 " She " — Lucas tries to keep his voice even — -" she was— " 
 
 " Your mother, my lad." 
 
 " And not Maggie's ? " 
 
 " And not Maggie's," agrees Dr. James. 
 
 Dr. James, having given this information, seizes the opportunity to 
 recommence exercise, and starts uji the pathway to the window, wheels 
 round and returns again, glancing the while at Lucas to see how 
 far the young man is humbled by the disclosure ; rather gratified apparently, 
 with the situation, and humming presently, to encourage the tramp, the 
 march of the Grenadiers. 
 
 Maggie is putting on her gloves with great rapidity, her young head full 
 of mixed and contending emotions. Relief in the thought that now again 
 her mother is to be some impersonal being, with gentle features and a quiet 
 voice, who can be made to exist in her imagination, taking the place of that 
 poor futile woman who had been stopped in the unusual effort of teUing the 
 truth. The scene in the infirmary can be forgotten now. Hard, though, 
 on Lucas. 
 
 " I wouldn't have come here if I'd known it was for this," she says quietly. 
 " You ought to have been told privately, Lucas. I'm sure you didn't 
 want an audience." 
 
 " An audience," interrupts the older man, " was, for a pei'formance like 
 this, absolutely necessary. I'll see you to the door." 
 
 Maggie, following Dr. James, glances round at Lucas. " Don't trouble 
 to say good-bye to him," whispers the doctor. 
 
 " Good-bye, Lucas," says Maggie, going back and offering her hand. "I 
 am so sorry." 
 
 " This," he says, humbly touching her hand, " this changes everything." 
 
 " Everything, eveiT^thing ! Except — except my affection for you." 
 
 " You don't mean that you forgive me? " 
 
 " But that is just what I do mean," says Maggie. 
 
LOST PROPERTY 119 
 
 As he beat respectfully, a new Lucas, to meet her lipa, Dr. James 
 kicked at the open door and gave a gestm-e of self-reproach. " It just 
 occurs to me," said Dr. James resentfully, " that I never did understand 
 women." 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 HERE, if one listened tocouveutiou an J observed its reminding nudge, 
 this story of Maggie Cannon would come to a stop. But I wuut 
 you to see her once more at a time when Lucas had become headmaster 
 under the London Board, and she had resigned her position iu the fiavings 
 Bank, becoming in her turn the recipient of a set of fish knives and forks 
 from the other young ladies of the department ; " With Best Wishes for 
 Future Happiness," said the card inside the plush-iined ease. Think of 
 her, please, as a young woman with a httle servant under her command, 
 hving at a point in North-West London where you might with equal truth 
 say that you were on the edge of the country and yet hand in hand with 
 xte intellectual activity of town. Think of her (before James William 
 appeared) as a yoimg woman, the afternoon's domestic work over, and a 
 chapter of Dr. Chavasse's book studied, taking craftily, and unknown to 
 the headmaster of the board school a mile off, music lessons given by an 
 expert who had once nearlj^ studied under Macfarren, and who compensated 
 herself for some love disappointment by teaching the pianoforte with the 
 tierceness of a drill sergeant. You have not heard the worst. A wife 
 should have no secrets from her husband, and this Maggie knew ; yet on 
 evenings when Lucas was engaged with secondary classes, she, with some 
 of the money saved in wage-earning days, went to Minerva House, where 
 the Misses Thomas taught deportment at two guineas till perfect, and was 
 sometimes a guest of the Misses Thomas who held^a pretended At Home, 
 entering the room to be received by them with courtesy, and sometimes 
 hostess herself with the Misses Thomas as guests. The two reduced ladies 
 could not disclose all of Society's mysteries, but they were able to give 
 Maggie much information which she had not previously acquned, so that 
 when she and Lucas gave their first evening with a hand-round supper, the 
 wife of the art master said to the sweetheart of one of the assistants, in 
 putting on their hats iu the bedroom (both being warm with content 
 at having been allowed to recite), that as one who had mixed with the 
 best since childhood, and knew therefore what was what, she felt bound to 
 admit she had uever seen an evening better managed ; this iu the presence 
 of the little servant standing on tiptoe at the door and pretending to be one 
 of sis, who dutifully reported the cnticism word for word to her mistress, 
 and for her pains was accorded an extra evening off, with .the eventual 
 result that some of the gloom was lifted from the face of a young porter at 
 Broudesbury Station. With this devoted maid Maggie directed the house 
 at Broudesbury from the time of seeing Lucas off in the morning at half- 
 past eight to his return at five. Intervals came for inspection of furnitun' 
 shops in High Street, Kilburn, where bargains were hunted for and choice 
 articles at a reasonable price run to earth. If only Aunt Watson could 
 have seen the house ! 
 
 Maggie's pianoforte lessons enabled her to effect one of her most 
 notable triumphs. Out on a Friday evening at the house of one of Lucas's 
 managers — whose right side had to be discovered in order that the head- 
 master might take up position there — there came an hour when converea- 
 tiou, instead of flowing with smoothness, begau to spurt erratically. The 
 hostess, noting this, commanded that music should take its place. 
 
120 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 Maggie in her turn asked to play, Lucas interposed on her behalf with a 
 well-iuteuded excuse. The manager's wife, who prided herself ou her 
 aich manners, would not for a moment hear of a lui.sl)aiid answering for 
 his wife, for things had come to a pretty pass, said the manager's wife, 
 when this was allowed ; she insisted that Maggie should reply for herself. 
 Lucas pointed out to Maggie that she had not brought her umsic; that she 
 was not feeling quite well ; that, moreover, she had not touched her piano 
 for weeks ; whereupon Maggie, nodding carelessly, made her way through 
 the maze of spindle-legged bamboo furniture, and, gaining the instrument 
 (which was draped as though its real desire in life was to pose, not as a 
 pianoforte but as a dressing-table), sat down and played, to Lucas's 
 astonishment, a piece by Mr. German, without conspicuous error, and 
 with only the slips that might, so the ladies in the room felt, have occurred 
 to tlie best of them. Thus, by artfulness and determination, did Maggie 
 make herself respected in school society, and increase her position in 
 Lucas's esteem. Because the world is never at any time all smiles, 
 Maggie, looking around in her thoughts, still saw in one direction a frown. 
 Aunt Watson had declined to attend the marriage at the church in 
 Hampstead Road, had shut the door in Dr. James's face when that gentle- 
 man, liaving been won over by Maggie, bustled up to King Street to 
 claim her presence at the wedding breakfast at a Swiss restaurant in 
 Great Portland Street, and Watson, announcing a grim intention of never 
 again performing a kindly act, had sent word that she did not desire to 
 see Maggie, intimating in regard to Lucas that it would be gratifying to 
 her to find opportunity for wringing his neck. This to Maggie's tearful 
 regret. 
 
 "Give me," said Aunt Watson bitterly to customers when they made 
 polite inquiiies, " give me for choice a serpent's tooth. You do know 
 what you're dealing with there." 
 
 See, nevertheless, one Sunday afternoon in the autumn days, when 
 James William had become so ready to take the air that he plunged and 
 wriggled enthusiastically at the mere suggestion of an outing — see great 
 preparation at Brondesbury for a surprise attack. For which purpose 
 dinner had been finished promptly and James William had been ordered 
 to rest early and rest well, that he might rise fresh to take part in the 
 operations. James William slept in a swinging cot of lace and blue ribbons, 
 and accusations of temper levelled at him sometimes by his father and 
 contradicted by his mother, sometimes directed good-humouredly by his 
 mother and contested by his father, could not be brought against him 
 as he lay there snugly, a comforter between his lips rather in the fashion 
 of a slave to nicotine. Whilst James William took rest, his father went 
 out for a cycle ride and his mother gave the last touches to a cap which 
 might possibly fail to impress a lady of Aunt Watson's stubborn nature. 
 Then James William's mother dressed herself wonderfully in what the 
 amateur would have guessed to be a thirty-five guinea dress from Conduit 
 Street ; it had really cost as many shillings, and owed its charming exist- 
 ence to the combined efforts of Madame Somebody of Willesden Lane and 
 ^Maggie herself. The maid went off to wait ou Brondesbury platform and 
 see in the intervals between trains the corduroyed gentleman who pos- 
 sessed her heart, and Maggie read until James William awoke, because 
 youths of his age, if aroused prematurely, are apt to exhibit all the worst 
 traits of their disposition. 
 
 " I'm here, lovely boy," said James William's mother as he made his 
 first whimper. " Mumsie's looking after him. That's the way, isn't it '? 
 Oh, what a big strong man to be able to jump riyht out like that." 
 
 You will think that the youth was wanting in acumen, but it is only 
 right to bay that he did appear to be taken in by this extravagant praise, 
 
LOST PROPERTY 121 
 
 and his complacent air showed that he was really under the impression 
 that he had made the daring leap from the blue-ribboned cot unaided and 
 alone. This started him well, and as Maggie proceeded with the dressing 
 there were many incidents which James William expected, as, for instance, 
 the great disturbance of his young mother's modesty when his plump, 
 bare little knees appeared, moving her to cover her face or turn aside 
 discreetly ; and this amused him so much that he would, for the sheer 
 luxury of shocking the female mind, draw attention to these remarkable 
 limbs ; his disappointment when Maggie, interested in fixing him with 
 safety-pins, omitted to show that her sense of decorum was being grieT- 
 ously shocked, was painful to behold. It appeared presently that in the 
 distractions of the moment he had failed to recognize the cunning of the 
 trick, and the fact that he was now fully costumed being borne in upon 
 him, he raised his voice and wailed aloud to the ceiling, bewailing his 
 want of acuteness in being thus the victim of a deception, wriggling his 
 little body in the eflfort t<i disentangle himself from his apparel and pacified 
 only by the sight of another baby of similar appearance in the mirror, 
 wiiom he hailed as one likely to understand his feelings, giving his reflec- 
 tion presently a damp kiss on the glass as an expression of amity. Then 
 Maggie found her purse, and carrying .James William, now with a veil 
 over his face (as a horse is run in blinkers) that he might not be annoyed 
 by the sight of grievous externals, she puUed the door to and set ofif down 
 the road with seven matrons looking out through the deflected Venetians 
 of their respective houses. Seven ! Maggie counted them. 
 
 " Well, well, ircll," said Miss Brand in the corner of the tram-car, " it's 
 surely never you ! " 
 
 ^laggie had chosen a circuitous route by 'bus and tram-car in preference 
 to direct train, because in the terrible case of James William trying his 
 voice publicly, she could step out and hush him into peacefulness. 
 
 " Whose baby have you got hold of? " asked Miss Brand. 
 
 " Mine," said Maggie. 
 
 " Well, well ! " declared Miss Brand, falling back again amaxedly on 
 this ejaculation. " I never should have dreamt it. Fancy you with a— " 
 
 "What else do you expect?" asked Maggie, amused. "I suppose 
 you're married and settled down by this time ? ' 
 
 " Boy or girl?" asked Miss Brand evasively. Other lady passengers 
 in the tram-cjir edged up towards James William as the proud j'oung 
 mother lifted the veil and disclosed his round, astonished face. He 
 stared at Miss Brand until that young woman gave a look intended to 
 capture his infant affections, on which he sneered slightly and turned his 
 head to inspect the others ; they all commenced straightway to smile and 
 nod at him with tremendous energy. 
 
 " Oh, reelly," said Miss Brand, " a boy, eh ? Well, well - Oh, no ! " 
 with a shiver of elegance. " Personally, I'm not married yet. I don't 
 believe in hurrying ; it does look so unladylike." 
 
 " Same gentlemau ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Misa Brand, giving the baby one of her rings to play with, 
 " same gentleman, in the same business, and "—with a confidential 
 burst of indignation — " the same trouble about settling down to believe 
 something. I'm going now to Avenue Road, Regent's Park. Do you 
 know it ? " 
 
 " I used to live on the north side of Regent's Park," said Maggie, 
 making James William sit up with the support of her hand at his back, 
 " when I was a child. My people lived in Albert Terrace." 
 
 The inside passengers moved slightlv on hearing this and assumed an 
 attitude of increased respect towards Maggie and the boy. Two of them, 
 about to get out, rose and pulled the strap ; the ringing of the bell inter- 
 
129 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 csted the baby, and he plunged and struggled under his long ■white roba 
 with desire to perform the same interesting trick. " He's a perfect iittlo 
 gentleman," said one of the alighting passengers as she passed Maggie; 
 " any one can Kce that with 'alf a eye." Miss Brand, sensible of the 
 advantage that Maggie gained hy the last announcement, searched her 
 mind for a self-exalting sentence, but Maggie interrupted with questions. 
 Yes, Mr. Brice was still about. He had given up auctioneering, though, 
 and was now a teacher of elocution with a notice on his wire blind 
 announcing that he prepared ladies and gentlemen for the stage. No 
 previous knowledge required, blank verse a speciahty. 
 
 " I think of going into business for myself," said Misa Brand, with an 
 air. " I'm tired of making fortunes for other people." 
 " Is Miss Cheyncy engaged '? " 
 
 " Half engaged," answered Miss Brand. She hesitated a moment, and 
 then came over and sat next to Maggie, partly that she might examine 
 closely the making of Maggie's sleeves, partly to talk in a whisper. 
 " Fact of it is, we're both beginning to bo afraid that nothing'!! ever 
 liappen. Time's going on, mind you, and, as I saj' to her, we're neither 
 of us getting any younger, (/sec him, tlie sossy lil' chap. Let Auntie 
 lirand put the ring on !iis teeny weeny finger." James William at first 
 agreed to this, but, appearing to remember that the act might compromise 
 a man, struggled and showed a preference to get out of the difficulty by 
 swallowing the ring.) " As for my young gentleman, what d'you think'a 
 the latest '? Guess ! " 
 
 " I thought he'd finished all the sects." 
 
 "Theosophyl" declared Miss Brand, with gloomy triumph, "I never 
 so much as heard of it until he started the idea. At least I say I'd never 
 heard of it, but that's a lie ; I had heard of it, but I always thought it was 
 politics. Takes me all me time to learn how to pronounce the blessed 
 names." 
 
 "The Theosophy Society, " explained Maggie, with an unconscious 
 touch of Lucas's manner, " was, I believe, founded in New York in — " 
 
 " My dear girl," wailed Miss Brand, " do you think I don't know now? 
 Last Bank Holiday he talked of nothing else, instead of — • Is this the 
 ' Britannia' ? " 
 
 James William, urged to give up the ring, disputed indistinctly. The 
 trend of his argument appeared to be that it was his ring ; that people 
 should not make presents and then expect them to be returned ; that 
 possession was not going to be relinquished without a desperate hand-to- 
 liand struggle. Thus it was that when good-bye had been said outside 
 the bank to Miss Brand, who stood looking after them rather wistfully as 
 they went down High Street, mother and son had argument, Maggie 
 urging him to be a big man and be brave and not to cry, and James 
 William trying to keep back tears and thus earn a reputation for courage. 
 IMaggie herself felt more perturbed than she cared to own as, soothing her 
 !)oy, she approached the street where Aunt Watson lived. The emporium 
 liad crept down close to the shop and by a flanking movement had come 
 up on the other side of it, so that Mrs. Lammer's establishment looked 
 like a representation of obstinacy waiting to be bought at its own price. 
 Children were about, staying away from Sunday school and unable to go 
 liome until the hour should justify their return. Near a public-house men 
 lounged, realizing slowly the horrid fact that it would not re-open until 
 six. At the other end of the street a hymn flickered around a group of 
 people; best clothes were coming out of doorways to pay visits. In the 
 shop doorway stood W'atson, looking up the street. At sight of Maggie 
 she disappeared, and when Maggie arrived the door was closed. 
 
 " I teU you we don't open on Sundays," said the defensive-mannered 
 
LOST PROPERTY I'io 
 
 elderly woman who answered the rinj;, speaking as though the information 
 had been given repeatedly "If people can't shop Sat'day nights they 
 must wait till Monday mornin'." 
 
 " I don't want to buy anything. I want to see her." 
 " flight have said so at first," grumbled the elderly woman, fastening 
 her bodice. " Some people don't seem to know the value of time. This 
 way. Bob under the counter ! " 
 
 "It lifts up," said Maggie. The baby looked round the darkened shop, 
 awed by new surroundings. 
 
 " Seem to know all about it," grumbled the woman. She knocked at 
 the window of the door. " Nothing but worry in this place," she 
 complained. " Here's me trying to get out of me disables and — " She 
 went off by the side passage. 
 
 " Aunt," said Maggie hesitatingly, " I've come to see you." 
 Watson put down a book with a sigh of annoyance at the interruption. 
 She rose and nodded surpriscdly, and going over to the sofa motioned a 
 command to her visitor to take the easy-chair, seating herself with 
 uncomfortable gentility on the summit of the horse-hair mountain. The 
 furniture in .hi room seemed to have altered its position. 
 
 " There's a cap for you in this parcel," said Maggie, with something of 
 hurry. " I thought perhaps it might be time for a new one." 
 
 "If I'd waited for you to call before indulging — " began Watson coldly. 
 " But, aunt, you distinctly told me not to ! " 
 
 " Then," said the other, changing her argument, " why are you here 
 now ?" 
 
 " Aren't you glad to see me ? " 
 
 " Glad ? " Watson intended to make the laugh ironical, but it did not 
 come up to her expectations. " Nice opportunity to give a song and dance, 
 isn't it, when the one girl you've looked after pretty near all your life goes 
 and leaves you in the lurch and flatly disobeys you ? " 
 
 "If I hadn't married him when I did, I might never have had the 
 chance again," pleaded Maggie. 
 
 " You girls of the present day " (by long practice Watson was able to 
 give to this sentence a fine mixture of pity and contempt), "you girls of 
 the present day talk a lot about your independence, but what does it 
 amount to? You're earning your ovm living, and you're going on peace- 
 able and calm like. Suddenly all at once you must needs give it up, 
 sacrifice everything, and go and get married. Bah ! " said Aunt Watson, 
 " I've no patience with you. As I say, you are earning — " 
 " Perhaps we shall always be like that," said Maggie. 
 " And now I suppose you wish yourself hack ? " 
 " Only for your sake." 
 
 " Oh, please, don't bother your head about me." Aunt Watson nearly 
 slid from the horse-hair mountain. " I'm getting on comfortably enough. 
 I have a very good elderly woman in who takes all the trouble of house- 
 keeping ofif mo and — and — " 
 
 " Thought the place looked different." 
 
 " She has her own ideas, of course," said the other cxcusingly, "and 
 naturally enough she likes to carry them out. Now you are here, I s'pose 
 I shall have to give yon a cup of tea. You can put your parcel down," 
 she added grudgingly. 
 
 "It isn't exactly a parcel," said Maggie. The slumbering James 
 William supported this declaration with a kick, and Watson found her 
 spectacle case. " It's my baby." 
 
 "Babyl" exclaimed Watson, stopping in the adjustment of her 
 spectacles. "You've never had the impudence — " 
 
 Maggie, with immeasurable pride, drew the veil up, and James William, 
 
124 LOST PBOPERTY 
 
 openinR the whitre lids of his eyes, closed them again and yawned as 
 protest against the disturbance ; opened his eyes again, and finding that 
 Watson looked down upon him, stared up at her with equal interest and 
 reached out a chubby little arm. 
 
 " He wants yoiir glasses," said the interpreter, " but don't let him have 
 them." 
 
 "And why not?" demanded Watson fiercely. "Why shouldn't ho 
 have the specs to play with if he likes, bless his dear little heart ? " She 
 bent down to kiss him, and James William's fist touched her cheek, an 
 action that might well have been taken for defiance but was generously 
 looked upon as a caress. " He's heavy for you to lug about," said Watson, 
 in a new voice. " Shall I take him for a moment so as to give you a rest ? 
 I'm a bit awk'ard with children now, perhaps, but there was a time — " 
 
 Watson had beads on her bodice, and James WiUiam, once settled in 
 her arms, set about with great industry to pull them off. Maggie rose, and 
 smoothing out the lap of her dress, went to the fireplace and lighted the 
 gas stove. 
 
 " Naughty, naughty boy," sang the young mother over her shoulder as 
 she knelt at the fireplace, fearful lest a blunder on the part of her son 
 should imperil the more favourable aspect of affairs, " don't you go getting 
 into mischief n6w directly your mumsie's back is turned." 
 
 " He's as good as gold," declared Aimt Watson, as James William 
 dashed the spectacles to the ground, smashing one of the glasses. " He 
 couldn't be naughty if he tried. Could you, my sweetums ? " 
 
 James William, turning, winked at his mother confidentially, as who 
 should say, " Let her think so if she likes," 
 
 " Why didn't you send for me, dearie ? " 
 
 " Didn't dare after what you said. Two spoonfuls will do, won't they ? " 
 
 " It's just like old times," declared Watson, " to see you pottering about 
 again. When I'm alone all by meself I often think of you, Maggie, and 
 how us two — " 
 
 The grim servant, looking in, said with the manner of a rebellious slave 
 that she supposed there would be a jolly row if she did not set about 
 making tea. Her truculence increased when she was told that she need 
 not take the trouble, and she retired growling. 
 
 "What I've suffered from that creature, my dear," said Watson, giving 
 the baby her cameo brooch, "nobody could guess if they took a year to 
 do it. She's made my life a torture." 
 
 " Why not get rid of her ? " asked Maggie, laying the cloth. 
 
 " She won't be got rid of," wailed the other. " Gives me notice every 
 other week, and then doesn't go." 
 
 James William, showing signs of restlessness at this domestic talk, was 
 taken by Watson for a tour round the room, and it was here that he 
 showed the first symptom of acute observation which characterized his 
 maturer life as an infant. Begged by Watson to observe the china 
 animals on the mantelpiece, James William took a long breath and then, 
 in a moment of inspiration, said something that had distant resemblance 
 to the words " Bow-wow." 
 
 " I'd often wondered," said Aunt Watson delightedly, " whether it was 
 meant for a dog or for a cat. This decides it. Where does the little 
 precious get all his cleverness from?" 
 
 " Lucas is going to call for us after tea." 
 
 " He needn't 'urry," said Watson shortly. " Is he just the same as 
 ever? " 
 
 "I sometimes think," laughed Maggie, as she poured out the tea, 
 " that he's got something of my style, and 7 — " 
 
 "You've certainly got some of his. I think it's improved j'ou." 
 
LOST PROPERTY 125 
 
 James William 'was engaged on a new diversion, that of being taken 
 round the room to pull down every antimacassar and throw it on the floor, 
 when a knock was heard, and Maggie flew to answer it. The defiant ser- 
 vant tried to intercept, but Maggie was too quick ; and as Maggie brought 
 Lucas through to the shop psurlour the elderly woman made comparison 
 between Camden Town and Siberia, with a declaration of preference for 
 Siberia. 
 
 " How do you do? " Lucas spoke with something of his old gravity of 
 manner. " Considering the season of the year, the weatlier — " 
 
 Maggie shook her head reprovingly, to intimate that he had not adopted 
 the right tone. A sound of strident music in the street gave him another 
 cue. " The habit of enforcing reUgious ideas by clamour is not so new as 
 one might — " * 
 
 " Dad — dee ! " cried James William. And saved the situation. 
 
 " Dear httle man," said Lucas, throwing ofif his pedantic air as an overcoat 
 for which he had no use. " What sort of mischief is he up to now ? " The 
 baby indicated with something of pride the dismantled chairs. " He's 
 a scamp," declared Lucas, tickling the youngster in the neck. " He's a 
 villain. He's a most outrageous young bounder, that's what he is." The 
 baby ciowed with deUght. 
 
 " Lucas," said Maggie sedately, " don't use slang like that in front of 
 him. I want him to talk nicely when he glows up. " 
 
 " He and his mother," admitted Aunt Watson to Lucas defiantly, " are 
 learning you something, and chance it. You're much wore of a sensible 
 being than in the old days. Sit down and help yourself to the cake." 
 
 " We all improve as we get older," interposed Maggie. 
 
 " We ought to," said Watson, " but it don't always 'appen. Yon re- 
 member BeUs ? " 
 
 " Captain Bells." 
 
 " Got looped up now with a publican's widow," she said. " She tries to 
 say that she's always kept herself aloof from the business, but — I don't 
 know. It's a funny thing she can't see a tumbler without wiping it with 
 her haudkercher. Still I don i blame her for giving up public life. If I 
 had my will — " 
 
 James William fell presently asleep, and Lucas, going out into Regent's 
 Park to smoke a cigar (" 1 made him learn," remarked Maggie), the two 
 ladies were able to talk more freely. The growing emporium had made 
 several ofl'ers to buy up the lease of the shop, and by retaining au attitude 
 of not greatly caring, Watsou had been able to force the price. To give 
 up the shop would be a happy circumstance in one way, in that the 
 elderly servant would by this means be forced to detach herself ; but, said 
 Aunt Watson dolefuUy, " Where could I find a place to lay my old 'ead'? " 
 Unable to live a lazy existence, she would have gone back to service, but 
 Mrs. Maiden had long since spent all her money on fads and now kept a 
 small lodging-house, Mr. Maiden acting as agent for a Life Assurance 
 Company. 
 
 " I'll call on her," said Maggie impulsively. " Lucas shall insure with 
 hiui." 
 
 And there was no one else who would be likely to accept Watson's help, 
 even though it were offered gratis. On Lucas's return, Maggie consulted 
 with him privately iu the shop, returning after the conference to give 
 Watson formal invitation to come to Brondesbiu-y whenever she should be 
 free of King Street ; and this offer Aunt Watsou, after taking advice from 
 James William, accepted, with the provision that Maggie's maid should 
 thereupon be allowed to leave and to make her railway porter happy. On 
 this everybody's spirits improved, and the baby, not to be outdonp by the 
 othei-s, gave his celebrated entertainment (" Dear, dear I " sighed Watsou, 
 
126 LOST PROPERTY 
 
 " ho^v this takes one back I "), whereiu a puti'-pufi', a gee-gee, a roaring 
 lion, and a dicky-bird were successively imitated in a manner that to a 
 tiarsh critic might have appeared lacking in character and ditferentiation, 
 but Watsou declared them to be, if anything, miles better than the originals. 
 James William had never in all his life enjoyed himself so much. 
 
 " I say," cried Aunt Watson, light-hearted at the frank interest shown 
 by neighbours in her departing visitors, " don't go leaving the dear little 
 mite in the train and having him sent to the Lost Property office like — 
 I've put me foot in it again," she added penitently. "That comes of not 
 making a joke for such a long time. 1 never can say what I want to say." 
 
 " Aunt ! " cried Maggie, hugging James William, " neither can 1. I've 
 never properly thanked you for the kindness — " 
 
 " My dear," saicf Watson, bending tearfully to kibs the boy, " it always 
 is a pretty sate mvestment." 
 
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