"'And suppose she is?' asked Matilda.
"'I shall reason with her,' I said. 'I shall do all I can to save her. Yes—even if I have to find some work that will keep her.... She's my sister....'
"I wept for a moment or so. 'I can't help it, mother,' I sobbed. 'I got to see Fanny!'
"I recovered my composure with an effort.
"'So,' said Matilda, regarding me, I thought, with rather more irony and rather less admiration than I deserved. Then she turned to my mother. 'I don't see that Harry can say fairer than that,' she said. 'I think you'll have to let him see her after that. He'll do all he can to save her, he says. Who knows? He might bring her to repentance.'
"'More likely the other way about,' said my mother, wiping her eyes, her brief storm of tears now over.
"'I can't 'elp feeling it's a mistake,' said Ernest, 'for 'Arry to go and see 'er.'
"'Well, anyhow don't give it up because you've forgotten the address, Harry,' said Matilda, 'or else you are done. Let it be your own free-will and not forgetfulness, if you throw her over. One hundred and two Brantismore Gardens, Earl's Court. You'd better write it down.'
"'One hundred and two—Brantismore Gardens.'
"I went over to my books on the corner table to do as she advised sternly and resolutely in a fair round hand on the fly-leaf of Smith's Principia Latina."