“Bless my Soul!” cries he, “what, has he not been Home all Night? Then you see, he must be sleeping out, and will not have risen yet, to disturb his Friend’s Family. So, go your Ways back, Mistress Cherry, and don’t be fretting; rely on it he will return as soon as he has breakfasted, which he cannot have done yet.”
So I turned away, sad at my Heart; and as I passed John Armytage’s Shop, I looked up at Violet’s Window, and saw her dressed, and just putting back her white Curtains. She looked down on me, and nodded, and smiled, but I shook my Head sorrowfully, and turned my Face away. Before I reached my own Door, I felt some one twitching my Cloak behind, and she comes up to me all panting.
“Cherry! dear Cherry!” says she breathlessly, “what’s the Matter?”
“I’ve lost my Father,” said I, with filling Eyes.
“Dead!” cries she, looking affrighted.
“He may be,” said I, bursting into Tears, “for he has not come Home all Night.”
“Oh, if that’s all,” says she, putting her Arm round me and drawing me into the House, “all may yet be well.—How many Women might cry, Cherry, if they thought their Husbands and Fathers were dead, every Time they stayed out all Night! Come, tell me all about it——” And she entered with such Concern into my Grief that its Bitterness was allayed.
“Come,” she said, “let us give him till Dinner-time—he may drop in any Minute, you know, and if you go looking for him, you know not where, you may miss him. So give him till Dinner-time, and after that, if he comes not, go and knock at every Door in Lime Street, if you will.”
And she stayed, wiling the slow Time as long as she could with talking of this and that. At length, Dinner-time came; I could scarce await it, and directly the Clock struck, I started forth. It occurred to me I would go to Mark.
As I approached the Gate, I heard Master Princeps say to the second Gate-keeper, “I’ll lay you a Wager this Girl is coming again to ask me why she can’t find her Father.”