Chapter Two.
A Hot Supper.
When the royal carriage had passed by, the crowd immediately scattered, and then for the first time Flo perceived that she was deserted by her companions. She looked to right and left, before and behind her, but the little rough and ragged figures she sought for were nowhere visible.
She was still excited by the sight she had witnessed, and was consequently not much frightened though it did occur to her to wonder how ever she should find her way home again. She turned a few steps,—Saint James’s Park with the summer sunshine on it lay before her. She sat down on the grass, and pulled a few blades and smelt them—they were withered, trampled, and dry, but to Flo their yellow, sickly green was beautiful.
She gathered a few more blades and tucked them tenderly into the bosom of her frock—they would serve to remind her of the queen, they had sprouted and grown up within sight of the queen’s house, perhaps one day the queen had looked at them, as to-day she had looked at Flo.
The child sat for half-an-hour unperceived, and therefore undisturbed, drinking in the soft summer air, when suddenly a familiar voice sounded in her ears, and the absent figures danced before her.
“I say, Flo, would yer like somethink real, not an ony s’pose?”
Flo raised her eyes and fixed them earnestly on Dick.