‘Not till we know more about him,’ said Emmeline. ‘Is your father out of work?’ she added to the boy, with some vague idea that it was the correct thing to ask questions of that kind before giving alms.
‘I ain’t got no father nor mother neither,’ he replied, still in his professional whine.
‘Who looks after you, then?’ asked Emmeline, more gently.
‘Old Sally Grimes,’ was the answer, ‘but she ain’t give me nothing to eat since yesterday morning, and she beat me something awful!’
‘Come along with me,’ said Emmeline. A sudden idea had taken possession of her.
‘What for?’ asked the boy half suspiciously.
‘I’m going to give you something to eat,’ said Emmeline.
The boy’s eyes glistened. It had been a picturesque exaggeration to say that he had had nothing to eat since yesterday morning, but he was really very hungry.
‘Thank you kindly, lady,’ he said, and Emmeline flushed with gratification. ‘Lady’ sounded so much grander than ‘Missy.’
‘What are you going to give him to eat?’ asked Micky, with interest. ‘There’s a man selling ice-cream over there.’