"I say, wasn't that a shame?" exclaimed Dan.
"It's a hard thing that she should keep you so tight, and not let you have a bit of fun, when you're slaving all day," cried Bessy.
"A hard thing is it," said Ned Franks, "that the lady won't let your child go swimming amongst the sharks?"
"If I was you, Norah," cried Dan, "I'd slip off without leave after the old dame was abed; you said she shut up soon after eight."
"That's just what Sophy told me," said Norah.
"But you was afraid, I s'pose, of being caught," observed Dan.
"I was more afraid," replied Norah, simply, "that mistress might be taken ill in the night, and you know she depends upon me."
"God help that poor child, she's beset with snares," thought the one-armed sailor. "When she comes home she learns nothing but dishonesty, covetousness, and untruth; at her place there's an evil influence drawing her in like a whirlpool to folly, and may be to worse. And she so simple and artless. Simple and artless now, but if she have much to do with that Sophy Puller, it is not long that she'll keep so. I should like to drop in a word of warning, but I can't do it here, as Bessy is always driving on the opposite tack."
"Norah," he said aloud, "will you let me walk back with you in the evening?"
"I should be so glad to have you," cried the girl, "and then I need not hurry back so early. Mistress told me unless my brother or some one would see me home, I was not to stay out after sunset."