‘Good! good!’ she cried, when she had eaten as much as she could. And she laughed at him, while he slowly ate something himself. ‘Look here!’ he suggested; ‘do you think you could find your way from your home to this another day?’ ‘Eh, ay! It’s none so far,’ said Sarah Emily. ‘Then, if you come every morning--every morning, mind--I’ll give you something to eat always, eh?’ he suggested. ‘But I can ayt such a lot, when I’m hungry,’ said Sarah Emily bashfully, putting her forefinger into her mouth. ‘Never mind! There’ll always be something. Wilt come?’ ‘Eh, I will so!’ said the child, clapping her hands, jumping upon his knee, and kissing him. Thus was the bargain struck. There is this day, in Thanshope, a dark-eyed young woman, of some twenty-four years, who has a husband, and some young children. When the little ones clamour for breakfast or dinner, she is in the habit of reproving them, by telling them that they don’t know what real hunger is; and, as an instance in point, she is given to relating the story how she sat on the doorstep one day in the ‘panic’ crying with hunger, and how the tall, pale-faced young man with the kind eyes picked her up, and carried her home, and gave her food; and how either he or his sister welcomed their hungry little visitor daily for---- ‘How long, mother?’ ‘Three months, child; every day--eh, they were kind; they were so.’ ‘Is he alive now, mother?’ ‘Ay, for sure he is, and----’ But the dark-eyed young woman always makes rather a long story of it, and freely intersperses remarks and comments, which, though doubtless interesting to her family, might not be considered of value by the public in general. Two days later, the postman brought Myles a summons to attend at the Central Offices of the Relief Committee that day, as he was one of the successful candidates for the clerkship, and the announcement that his salary would be twenty shillings a week. Thus the worst, materially, was tided over; but the bitterness of the cup he had drunk that terrible morning did not lightly pass away. CHAPTER VII. A PAUSE. When Myles began his work at the Committee Office, one conspicuous member of the Ladies’ Committee was temporarily absent. Adrienne Blisset was then occupied in learning the condition of her own affairs, and found herself soon in a totally different position from any she had ever expected to fill--very rich, as it seemed to her, and a person of great importance; and, what was strangest of all, with Sebastian Mallory coming and going and fulfilling his duties as executor, and explaining everything to her. She repeatedly told him that she could not believe it; it was impossible--there must be a mistake. All that money hers to do as she liked with, and she had not earned it, nor worked for it! ‘What an idea you have of working for everything you get!’ he exclaimed suddenly one day. ‘Do you carry it so far as to demand a service from every one to whom you accord a sign of favour?’