'What if there is!' exclaimed the landlord. 'Can't sell a child. There's no market for them.' Old Ben explained: 'There is a child. Poor little Tottie! But we've sent her out to a neighbour's, thinking you would come.' 'And might frighten her, eh?' said the landlord. And shortly afterwards took his departure, leaving the man in possession with strict injunctions not to allow a thing to be taken out of the house. 'You're accountable, mind you,' were his last words. Bessie and her grandfather felt as if the house had been suddenly turned into a prison, and as if this man, with his strange face and snow-white hair, had been appointed their gaoler. As he did not appear to notice them, old Ben beckoned to Bessie, and they crept out of the parlour into the shop for all the world as if they had been found guilty of some desperate crime. In the shop they breathed more freely. 'What are we to do with him, Bessie?' asked Ben. 'What do they generally do with men in possession? They give 'em tobacco and beer, I've heard. O, dear! O, dear! I don't mind for myself, my darling; I don't mind for myself. It's time I was put away. But for you, Bessie--O, my darling child! what have I done to deserve this? What have I done? What have I done? 'Grandfather,' said Bessie firmly, 'you mustn't go on like this. We must have courage. Now, I've made up my mind what I'm going to do. I'm going to take care of you, dear grandfather, as you have taken care of me. You know how clever I am with my needle, and I intend to get work; and you shall thread my needles for me, grandfather. We can live on very little----' Her poor white lips began to tremble here, and she kissed the old man again and again, and cried in his arms, to show how courageous she was. 'I beg your pardon,' said a gentle voice behind them. It was the man in possession who spoke. 'I beg your pardon,' he repeated. 'May I beg a word with you in the parlour?' They dared not for their lives refuse him, and they followed him tremblingly. 'I am aware,' he said then, as they stood before him like criminals, 'that I am here on an unpleasant duty, and that I must appear very disagreeable in your eyes----' 'No, no, sir,' remonstrated Ben, feeling that his fate and Bessie's were in this man's hands; 'don't say that, sir! Quite the contrary, indeed, sir; quite the contrary, eh, Bessie?' And the arch old hypocrite tried to smile, to show that he was delighted with the man's company. '--But I assure you,' continued the man, 'that I have no desire to annoy or distress you. I have gone through hardships myself--with a motion of his hand towards his white hair--'as you may see.' 'What is it you want us to do, sir? asked Ben Sparrow. 'I am sure anything you want, such as tobacco or beer--or anything that there is in the cupboard----'