"_What!_" screamed the man in black.

"Not a better girl, I verily believe. I haven't heard the reasons for her departure yet," he said, looking at Mr. Wesden; "but they're good ones, or I was never more mistaken in my life."

"You are mistaken," said Mr. Wesden; "I've tried to think the best of Mattie, but I can't. There are no honest reasons for her conduct, or she would have told me."

Sidney Hinchford paused,

"It must be very unreasonable conduct then," said Sidney, "and she must have changed very much during my absence from this house. But, upon my soul!" he exclaimed vehemently, "I shan't believe any harm in her, for one!"

The stranger regarded Sidney Hinchford attentively, then said--

"You need not have brought your soul into question, sir. Pledge that in G.o.d's service--nothing else."

"Oh!" said Sidney, taken aback at the reproof.

"You speak warmly; and somehow I've a hope of her not being very bad--of reclaiming her by my own earnest efforts. Young man, I will thank you."

He stretched forth an ungloved hand, which Sidney took--a hard hand, that gripped Sid forcibly and made him wince a little.

"You all seem in doubt, more or less," he said; "and that gives me hope.

Mr. Wesden and you don't agree in opinion, and that's something. Who's that white-haired man I see in the parlour!"

"That's my father, sir," said Sidney, smiling at the sudden curiosity evinced.

"Does he know anything about her?"

"Not so much as myself," said Mr. Wesden.

"Have you asked the servant--if you keep one?"

"I have asked her everything, and she knows nothing," replied the stationer.

"Then I'll go. I think I shall find her yet, mind you," he said in an excited manner. "I'm not a man to give up in a hurry, when I've taken an idea in my head. I've been sixteen years looking for that girl!"

"Are you a relation?" asked Sidney.

"Her father."

"Indeed!"

The stranger began hammering the counter with his hard hand, till the money in the till underneath rattled again. He began to take small leaps in the air, also, during the progress of his harangue.

"Her father--a poor man reclaimed from error, and knowing what it is to walk uprightly. A man who has, he trusts, done some good in his day--a man who now sets himself the task of finding that daughter he neglected once. And I'll find her and reclaim her--G.o.d will show me the way, I think. And you shall see her again, a shining light in the midst of ye--a brand from the burning, a credit to _me_! There's hope for her yet. Good night."

And very abruptly the gentleman in black leaped out of the shop and disappeared.

"That's an odd fish," remarked Sidney.

CHAPTER III.

A FLYING VISIT TO NUMBER THIRTY-FOUR.

Before Mr. Wesden had finally disposed of his business in Great Suffolk Street, he met with his greatest trouble in the loss of the companion, helpmate, wife, who had struggled with him for many years from indigence to moderate competence. Mrs. Wesden's health had been failing for some time, but her loss was still as unprepared for, and the husband bent lower and walked more feebly when his better half--his better self--was taken from him in his latter days.

"You have still me, remember," said Harriet, when the undemonstrative nature gave way, and he sobbed like a child at his isolation; and he had answered, "Ah! _you_ mustn't desert me yet awhile--you must comfort me,"

and refused to be comforted for many a long day. His character even altered once more--as characters alter in all cases, except in novels; and though the abruptness remained, and the silent fits were of longer duration, he became less harsh in his judgments, and more easily influenced for good. This was evident one day, when after an intense study of the fire before which he sat, he burst forth with----

"I wonder if I acted well by Mattie--poor Mattie, who would be so sorry to hear all the sad news that has happened since she left us."

Harriet, who had always taken Mattie's part to the verge of her own confession, answered warmly,

"No, _we_ all acted very badly--very cruelly. When she comes again, as she will, I feel a.s.sured--I hope she will forgive us, father."

"Forgive us?"

Mr. Wesden had not arrived to that pitch of kind consideration yet, but Mattie's departure and long silence were troubles to him when he was left to think of the past, and of the business from which he had at last retired in earnest.

The shop had changed proprietors, and the Hinchfords, father and son, had removed their furniture from Mr. Wesden's first floor to a little house Camberwell way, also. A very small domicile had this careful couple decided upon for their suburban retreat--one of a row of houses that we may designate Chesterfield Terrace, and the rents of which were two-and-twenty pounds per annum.

Mr. Hinchford, we have already premised, had somewhat lofty notions, which adversity had kept in check, rather than subdued. The removal to Chesterfield Terrace was a blow to him. The rooms in Great Suffolk Street had been only borne with, scarcely resigned to; but though he had lived there many years, he had never considered himself as "settled down"--merely resting by the way, before he marched off to independence and the old Hinchford state. It had been a mythical dream, perhaps, until Sidney's star rose in the ascendant, and then he had quickly built his castles in the air, and bided his time more sanguinely. When that vision faded in its turn, the old gentleman was sorely tried; only his son's strategy in feigning to require consolation had turned him away from his own regrets to thoughts of how to make them less light for--the BOY.

But 34, Chesterfield Terrace, Chesterfield Road, Camberwell New Road, was a blow to him. The air was fresher than in Great Suffolk Street, the large market gardens at the back of his house were pleasant in all seasons, except the cabbage season; there were three bed-rooms, two parlours, a wash-house at the back, and a long strip of garden, const.i.tuting a house and premises that were solely and wholly theirs, and ent.i.tled them to the glorious privilege of electing a member for incorruptible Lambeth; but the change was not all that Mr. Hinchford had looked forward to for so many years, and he grew despondent, and fancied that it could never be better now.

The Hinchfords had taken into their service Ann Packet, of workhouse origin, and undiscoverable parentage; she had pleaded to be const.i.tuted their servant, at any wages, or no wages at all, rather than at her time of life to be sent forth in search of fresh faces and new homes.

At this period, Mr. Wesden had required a servant also, and Ann Packet had begged Sidney Hinchford to engage her at once, before she should be asked to continue in the old service.

"What! tired of them?" Sidney had said with some surprise.

"They gave me warning," replied Ann, somewhat sullenly, "and I accepts the same. They turned poor Mattie away without warning at all, and I never forgives 'em that, sir."

"Ah! you are on Mattie's side, too, Ann?"

"There never was a girl who thought so little of herself, and so much of others!" cried Ann, "or who desarved less to be sent out into the streets. I gave up the Wesdens after that, sir."

"But Miss Harriet is Mattie's champion also, and will defend her to the death, Ann."

"And will she be a Wesden all her life, sir?" asked Ann Packet, with an archness for which she was only that once remarkable.

Ann Packet became domestic servant at 34, Chesterfield Terrace, then, and congratulated herself on the kitchen being level with the parlours, which was good for her ankles, and spared her breath considerably.

Meanwhile the shadows were stealing on towards the Hinchford dwelling-place; Sidney's month in service with his old employers had been extended to two months, after which the firm, utterly shattered by adversity, was to dissolve itself into its component atoms, and be never heard of more in the busy streets east of Temple Bar.

Sidney, it need scarcely be said, had not sat idle during the time; he had looked keenly round him for a change of clerkship. His employers had interested themselves in a way not remarkable in employers, towards securing him a foothold in other and more stable establishments, but business was slack in the City, and there were no fresh hands wanted just at present.