ALF PURVIS IN HIS NEW HOME—A FRESH LINE OF BUSINESS—PEACE AND LAURA STANBRIDGE.
We left Alf Purvis at the lodging-house in Westminster. On the following evening, at six o’clock, he presented himself with a faint single rap at the door of a house in one of the streets leading out of Regent-circus.
He was admitted by a buxom maid-servant, who ushered him into the back kitchen.
“Missis expected you would come,” said the girl, “and desired me to tell you to take a bath and wash yourself before you put on these clothes, which you are to wear.”
She pointed to a suit of second-hand garments, which were hanging on the back of a Windsor chair.
A huge tub half filled with hot water was on the floor of the kitchen.
The girl pointed to this, and said:—
“You will do as I tell you?”
“Yes,” answered Alf.
The girl left the room, and the boy had his bath and put on his new things.