"I wonder I didn't go mad!" cried Sophy; "I think I was almost crazy, Mrs. Smith frightened me so! I didn't know what to do, or where to go, when I was left at last to myself. My father he was in prison; I'd not another relation in the town who could help me. I dared not go to Miss Cobb's, after what had been found in my box, I'd rather have died than go there! And I could not stay where I was, Mrs. Smith had said plain enough that she'd turn me out into the street!"
"Oh! Why did you not come to me?" cried Norah.
"As if your mistress would have let you have anything to do with—with one like me!" exclaimed Sophy. "'No,' thinks I, as soon as I could think at all, for my brain was whirling, 'I'll make a little bundle of my clothes, and I'll be off afore the whole town is astir, I can't bear to meet any faces I know!' So I made up my bundle, and crept down the stairs, and I was glad—oh, so glad—not to meet Mrs. Smith on the way. I opened the street-door and went out; I felt as if I were making an escape, I hurried down the street as fast as I could walk; I met none that I knew but the baker's boy, and I brushed past him without speaking a word. It seemed as if I could not breathe freely till I'd left the town behind, and got right out into the country."
"But where were you going?" asked Norah.
"I thought I would go to London. I knew that I had an aunt there in service, who lived somewhere in Portman Square; I fancied that I might find her out. Then I said to myself, 'how many make their fortunes in London, why should not I have luck too? And then there are such crowds of people in London, and they lead such bustling lives, that my father's troubles won't be the talk of the place, as they are here in a country town.'"
"But London is forty miles off!" cried Norah.
"I thought that I could walk the distance in two or three days," said Sophy, "or perhaps sell some of my pretty things, and get a lift on the way. It was a worry to me that I had no money; I had spent the last half-sovereign which my father had given me on a pair of new ear-rings. I walked on, and on, and on, passing one mile-stone after another, sitting down sometimes to rest myself by the way-side, till I was both hungry and tired. I had had no breakfast or dinner, you know. I stopped at last at a village. 'Here they won't know me,' thought I. I went up to a little inn; I'd opened my bundle and taken out something—I forget what—that I thought to exchange for food. There were two men by the door talking together, and they talked so loud that I could not help catching my poor father's name. They were talking of the two who had been taken up that morning for passing false coin, and were laughing over the dodges by which they had tried to escape the police! Oh," cried Sophy, clenching her hands, "I could not bear to hear more of that; I hurried out of the village as if the pavement burnt my feet! And then a dreadful fear shot into my mind; I had twice bought things with gold given to me by my father; I might have passed bad money unawares, and the police might be hunting after me. I had no peace after I thought of that danger! I was afraid of every man that I met, lest he should be a policeman in disguise! So I went on till the sun was beginning to set."
"Oh! Sophy," exclaimed Norah, "had you eaten nothing all that long time?"
"There were blackberries on the hedges, and I drank from a brook that I passed, but still I was very hungry and faint, and a chill drizzle was beginning to fall; I had determined that when I got into any place large enough to have a pawnbroker's shop in it, I'd sell or pledge my ear-rings, and get food and shelter for the night. Just as dusk was coming on, I got into a county town, and glad enough was I to see the three gilt balls hanging over a shop. I walked in with as bold an air as I could, but my knees were trembling under me, and I could not help a burning flush of shame spreading over my face, I was so dreadfully tired, you know. The pawnbroker looked hard at me, as he held the ear-rings in his hand. 'Where did you get these?' said he. I thought that he somehow knew me, and was going to give me up to justice. I was beginning to stammer out something, when another customer came in in a hurry, and took off his attention for a minute. Would you believe it, Norah? as soon as the pawnbroker's head was turned, I took the opportunity of slipping out of the shop, and hastening away as if for my life!"
"What? leaving the ear-rings!" cried Norah.