"Oh, Tom!"
"Your father's discharged me. If he hadn't, I don't know what I should have done, because—look at me, miss—I ain't fit to be seen."
"Oh, Tom, I am so sorry! How I shall miss you!"
"I feel that bad over it, because of you, that I can't express. But it ain't my fault."
"I am sure it is not, Tom. Have you thought what you shall do?"
"Well, miss, I'm going to London, to be a policeman, if they'll take me on. It ain't my idea: it's somebody else's. And perhaps if I get to be a policeman, I'll be put on somewhere near Camden Town. I don't ask for anything better, miss; for then I shall be near where you will be sometimes, and I can look after you. Don't speak to me, miss, don't look at me, for I feel like breaking down. Good-bye, Miss Phœbe, good-bye, and God bless you!"
And, choking with tears, the honest fellow rushed away.
CHAPTER XVII.
FANNY CONFIDES A SECRET TO HER MOTHER.