"I'm afraid you have. Go on, pet."
"The boy told me—I asked him—he had blue eyes and red cheeks and—and I thought he might be nice like an Irish boy, and—and—I—I felt," with sudden passion, "I would just die if I didn't see it—just one tiny bit! And he said I could—from the top of the monnyment—he said, 'Oh, yes, you can see Ireland right enough from there, you can see all the world,' but—I—couldn't—"
Nell's arms tightened about her.
"He was a wicked boy! He told a lie. I mustn't say 'lie,' but I will. I could only see—dirty—smoke—and houses—"
"How did you find your way there?"
"I don't know. It was very differcult, and I kept goin' wrong, but I asked people. And one woman gave me an apple off her barrow. It was very kind of her. But there was only smoke and houses—"
A sudden convulsive sob shook her from head to foot.
"I—I ran up a lot of the steps—" her fingers dug into Nell's arm—"and it was three pennies—and the man told me there are three hundred and forty-five steps—it was a long way—and," a little terrified shudder shook her, "there's a nasty cage—he said it's because people used to throw theirselves over to—because they wanted to kill theirselves, Nell! I—I didn't know people ever wanted to kill theirselves, did you?"
The shrinking terror in her eyes hurt Nell horribly.
"Don't, Atom—don't! Dear, it's only poor people who—who are mad—who don't know what they are doing. If they knew, they wouldn't do it."