‘What is that?’ she exclaimed,
‘A bundle of rags,’ said one.
‘And of very dirty ones too,’ said another.
‘Good heavens,’ said the lady, ‘it is a living child.’
‘A child! Impossible.’
‘Yes, I tell you it is, and we must save it.’
The actress led the way to the bundle of rags. They were the only clothes of a little lad who, hatless and shoeless and shirtless, was lying on the ground—to be trampled on by horses or men, it seemed to matter little to him. To him approached the awfulness of respectability as embodied in the persons of the Mayor and the Vicar, but he never moved; he was too tired, too weak, too ill to rise. Half awake and half asleep there he lay, quite unconscious, as they looked in his face—thin with want, grimy with dirt, shaded with brown curling hair. Presently the lad got upon his legs with a view to running away—that’s the invariable etiquette on the part of ragged boys in such cases—but it was too late. Already the enemy were on him. Holding his right hand across his brow so as to shade his eyes, he plucked up his courage and prepared for the encounter.
‘Hulloa, you little ragamuffin, what are you up to here?’ said the Mayor, in a tone which frightened the poor boy at once.
‘Pray don’t speak so, Mr. Mayor,’ said the actress; ‘you’ll frighten the poor boy.’
‘Dear madam,’ said the august official, ‘what are we to do?’