After that the organ-grinder and his child passed frequently through that street, and whenever she could, Nelly would exchange a few kind words with them, and the man would play for her, knowing well that she had no pennies to offer in return; but at such times she used to wish so much that she had a little money of her own.
The Italian would sometimes look at her tattered dress, and her face, gradually growing thinner and paler, as if he thought her quite as forlorn as himself; and once, when he heard her mistress call her in, and scold her for "talking to such characters in the street," he shook his head, and muttered something in his native tongue.
And so it came to pass that the poor Italian and his daughter became Nelly's only friends in that great, busy city.
XII.
Ambition.
"Tell me the same old story,
When you have cause to fear
That this world's empty glory
Is costing me too dear."