"What did you go into such a place for?"
"I had been all day in the streets and only got three pennies, and I wanted to go home."
"Well, why did you not go?"
"My mother said if I did not get sixpence to-day she would whip me, and so I went to that place. I did not think such nice dressed gentlemen would do so. What if they should have to beg some day! My father used to dress as fine as they when he kept the Café de l'Imperator."
"And where have you been since they abused you so?"
"I crept up into a cart in Pearl street; I was so sick, after the tobacco and the kick, for it was very hard."
"Could you not get home?"
"No, sir. Besides, what if I could, and my mother had been drinking. She would kick me again, perhaps."
"What, then, are you going to do to-night? You cannot sleep in the street; it is too cold."
"Won't you let me sleep?"——