“No fear. He'll knock us about a bit, but he don't want a rope round _his_ neck, you be sure. And he ain't so bad neither, when he's not in the drink. He's sorry he hit me now.” “Oh, mother, I can't bear it! I hate him--I hate him; and he _isn't_ my father, and he hates me, and he'll kill me some day when I come home with nothing.” “Who says he isn't your father--where did you hear that, Fan?” “He calls me bastard every day, and I know what that means. Mother, _is_ he my father?” “The brute--no!” “Then why did you marry him, mother? Oh, we could have been so happy together!” “Yes, Fan, I know that _now_, but I didn't know it then. I married him three months before you was born, so that you'd be the child of honest parents. He had a hundred pounds with me, but it all went in a year; and it's always been up and down, up and down with us ever since, but now it's nothing but down.” “A hundred pounds!” exclaimed Fan in amazement “And who was my father?” “Go to bed, Fan, and don't ask questions. I've been very foolish to say so much. You are too young to understand such things.” “But, mother, I do understand, and I want to know who my father is. Oh, do--do tell me!” “What for?” “Because when I know I'll go to him and tell him how--how _he_ treats us, and ask him to help us to go away into the country where he'll never find us any more.” Her mother laughed. “You're a brave girl if you'd do that,” she said, her face softening. “No, Fan, it can't be done.” “Oh, please tell me, and I'll do it. Why can't it be done, mother?” “I can't tell you any more, child. Go to bed, and forget all about it. You hear bad things enough in the street, and it 'ud only put badness into your head to hear talk of such things.” Fan's pleading eyes were fixed on her mother's face with a strange meaning and earnestness in them; then she said: “Mother, I hear bad things in the street every day, but they don't make _me_ bad. Oh, do tell me about my father, and why can't I go to him?” The unhappy woman looked down, and yet could hardly meet those grey beautiful eyes fixed so earnestly on her face. She hesitated, and passed her trembling fingers over Fan's disordered hair, and finally burst into tears.