Mr. Brown looked doubtful too. He realised that Mrs. Berryman's granddaughter could not, by any possibility, be well brought up at home; but at the same time he felt that they ought not to allow that fact to prejudice them against her.
"I see what it is," he said at length; "you don't know whether or not we ought to allow a friendship between our little maid and this Melina. Well, can't you ask some one's advice upon this point?—some one who knows the child?"
Mrs. Brown's face brightened at this suggestion.
"I'll speak to Mr. Blackmore," she said; "he knows her. Agnes told me the other day that it was to please him that Melina first went to Sunday school, and that he always stops to talk to her when they meet."
Mr. Blackmore, who was doing the work of a curate in the way of visiting in the parish, had called on the Browns a few days previously. Mrs. Brown regretted that she had not thought of speaking of Melina Berryman to him then; but she might possibly meet him out of doors before very long, she reflected, in which case she would certainly do so.
"You cannot have Melina Berryman here to tea this Saturday," she told Agnes, "but I won't say that she shall not come a little later on."
With that Agnes had to be satisfied, but she looked and felt exceedingly disappointed.
On every occasion now when Mrs. Brown did her shopping she kept a look out for Mr. Blackmore, but she did not see him for some days. One afternoon, however, she was tempted by the bright spring weather to take a walk on the outskirts of the town, and, as she turned the corner which brought her to Jubilee Terrace, she saw Mr. Blackmore enter one of the cottages.
"I'll wait about and speak to him when he comes out," she thought, and proceeded to stroll up and down the pavement before the cottages. By and by she noticed a shabbily-clad little girl hurrying along towards her, followed by a group of small boys who were amusing themselves by laughing at her and calling her names.
Mrs. Brown paused, and the boys noticing the disapproval on her countenance, grew suddenly silent; but as soon as they had passed and believed her to be out of hearing, they commenced jeering at the little girl again, calling her "Saint Melina," evidently in the hope of provoking her to wrath.