"This is your boy, as you call him, Nellie."
"I was sure I should know him again," the child said, "though I only saw him for a moment. We are very much obliged to you, boy, papa and me, because it had been mamma's locket, and we should have been very sorry to have lost it."
"I am glad I was able to get it back for you," George said; "but I don't want to be thanked for doing it; and I don't want to be paid either, thank you, sir," he said, flushing as the gentleman put his hand into his pocket.
"No! and why not?" the gentleman said in surprise. "You have done me a great service, and there is no reason why I should not pay you for it. If I had lost it I would gladly have paid a reward to get it back."
"Thank you, sir," George said quietly; "but all the same I would rather not be paid for a little thing like that."
"You are a strange fellow," the gentleman said again. "One does not expect to find a boy in the market here refusing money when he has earned it."
"I should not refuse it if I had earned it," George said; "but I don't call getting back a locket for a young lady who has lost it earning money."
"How do you live, lad? You don't speak like a boy who has been brought up in the market here."
"I have only been here three months," George said. "I came up to London to look for work, but could not get any. Most days I go about looking for it, and do what odd jobs I can get when there's a chance."
"What sort of work do you want? Have you been accustomed to any work? Perhaps I could help you."