He helped her to rise, took her by the elbow in a sort of amateur-constable way, and led her over and round the snares and pitfalls which lay between them and that red eye which had seemed to watch them.
It was a sort of openwork iron pot, full of hot coals, and a species of shelter was contrived round it by means of a judicious arrangement of paving stones and tarpaulin. When he had made her sit down on an inverted basket placed in the warmest corner by the fire, she glanced at him for the first time. He was a big, burly, black-bearded man; he had a kindly expression, and merry eyes, with a sort of cast in one of them which made it difficult to be sure which way he was looking.
'Still cold?' he asked, with one eye on her and the other apparently on the pole star. 'Have this coat; I'm warm enough. I had to hurry up so to catch you, young woman.'
He threw a rough pea-jacket round her as she said, looking down,—
'How did you catch me? Where did you come from?'
'Where did I come from? Why, from here. Directly I saw you cross the road I knew what was up. I never would let anyone go into that ditch if I could help it. It ought to belong to the Commissioners of Sewers,' he ended, having apparently changed his mind concerning the administrative functions of 'Government.'
'The question is,' he went on, 'where did you come from, and what did you come for?'
'I've come from Gray's Inn Road,' she said.
'How lucky, now. I live that way. I shall be able to see you home in an hour or two, when my mate comes to take his turn. You'll just have time to get warm. Here, drink this coffee. Had any tea?'