"Oh, of course!" he said, nodding. "Of course. We want lads accustomed to the trade, my man."

"You should teach him the trade, Mr Ruddle," said one of the young ladies quickly, and I darted a look of grat.i.tude at her.

"Too busy, Miss Carr," he said, smiling at her. "We don't keep a printer's school."

"I'll teach him," whispered the young man eagerly, though I heard him; "I'll teach him anything, if you'll promise not to be so cruel."

"What a bargain!" she replied, laughing; and she turned away.

"I don't think we need keep you, my lad," said the young man bitterly.

"Indeed!" said the other young lady; "why, I thought he was to carry our parcel of books?"

"But he is a strange boy, my dear young ladies," said the elder man; "I'll ring for one from the office."

"No; don't, pray!" said the lady addressed as Miss Carr quickly. "I don't think we will carry the parcel. You will carry it for us, will you not?"

"Oh, yes, indeed I will!" I cried eagerly; and I stepped forward, for there was something very winning in the speakers voice.

"Stop a moment, my man," said the elder gentleman rather sternly, while the younger stood biting his lips; "where do your father and mother live?"

Those words made something rise in my throat, and I looked wildly at him, but could not speak.

He did not see my face, for he had taken up a pen and drawn a memorandum slip towards him.

"Well; why don't you speak?" he said sharply, and as he raised his eyes I tried, but could not get out a word, only pointed mutely to the shabby band of c.r.a.pe upon my cap.

"Ah!"

There was a deep sigh close by me, and I saw that the young lady addressed as Miss Carr was deadly pale, and for the first time I noticed that she was in deep mourning.

"My dear Miss Carr!" whispered the young man earnestly.

"Don't speak to me for a minute," she said in the same tone; and then I saw her face working and lip quivering as she gazed wistfully at me.

"Poor lad!" said the elder man abruptly. Then, "Your friends, my boy, your relatives?"

"I have none, sir," I said huskily, "only an uncle, and I don't know for certain where he lives."

"But you don't mean that you are alone in the world?" said the young man quickly, and he glanced at the lady as he spoke.

"Yes, sir," I said quietly, for I had now recovered myself, "I am quite alone, and I want to get a situation to earn my living."

The elder gentleman turned upon me and seemed to look me through and through.

"Now, look here, young fellow," he said, "you are either a very unfortunate boy or a designing young impostor."

"Mr Ruddle!" exclaimed Miss Carr indignantly; and I saw the young man's eyes glitter as he gazed at her sweet, sad face, twenty times more attractive now than when she was speaking lightly a minute before.

"I don't want to be harsh, my dear, but here we are obliged to be firm and business-like. Now, boy, answer me; have you been to a good school?"

"No, sir," I said, speaking sharply now, for his use of the word "impostor" stung me; "I was educated at home."

"Humph! where do you come from?"

"Rowford, sir."

"Town on a tall hill?"

"No, sir," I said in surprise; "Rowford is quite in a hole; but we lived four miles from Rowford, sir, on the Cawleigh road."

"Then you know Leydon Wood."

"Oh yes, sir! that's where papa used to take me to collect specimens."

"Humph! Don't say _papa_, my boy. Boys who go into the world to get their living don't speak of their papas. John Lister!"

"Wait a minute, Ruddle," said the younger man, whose back was towards us; and I saw that he was leaning over Miss Carr and holding her hand.

"If you wish it," he whispered softly, "it shall be done."

"I do wish it," she said with an earnest look in her large eyes as she gazed kindly at me; and the young man turned round, flushed and excited.

I was shrinking away towards the door, pained and troubled, for I felt that I had no business there, when Mr Lister motioned me to stop, and said something to the elder gentleman.

He in turn screwed up his face, and gave the younger a comical look.

"Your father would not have done so, John Lister," he said. "What am I to say, Miss Carr?"

For answer the young lady rose and went and laid her hands in one of his.

"If you please, Mr Ruddle," she said in a low musical voice, "it will be a kindly act."

"G.o.d bless you, my dear," he said tenderly. "I believe if I were with you long you'd make me as much your slave as you have John Lister."

"Then you will?"

"Yes, my dear, yes, if it is really as he says."

She darted an intelligent look at me, and then hastily pulled down her c.r.a.pe veil as Mr Lister followed her to her chair.

"Come here, my lad," said Mr Ruddle, in quiet business-like tones. "We want boys here, but boys used to the printing trade, for it does not answer our purpose to teach them; we have no time. But as you seem a sharp, respectable boy, and pretty well educated, you might, perhaps, be willing to try."

"Oh, if you'll try me, I'll strive so hard to learn, sir!" I cried excitedly.

"I hope you will, my boy," he said drily, "but don't profess too much; and mind this, you are not coming here as a young gentleman, but as a reading-boy--to work."

"Yes, sir. I want to work," I said earnestly.

"That's well. Now, look here. I want to know a little more about you.