Fan | Page 7

lose that hope of ever seeing
her father, but it was a secret joy to know that he had been kind and
loving to her poor mother, and that he was a gentleman, and not one

like Joe Harrod; that thought kept her awake in her cold bed for a long
time--long after Joe and his wife were peacefully sleeping side by side.

CHAPTER II
That troubled evening was followed by a quiet period, lasting from
Wednesday to Saturday, during which there were no brawls indoors,
and Fan was free of the hateful task of going out to collect pence in the
streets. Joe had been offered a three or four days' job; he had accepted
it gratefully because it was only for three or four days, and for that
period he would be the sober, stolid, British workman. The pleasures of
the pot-house would claim him on Saturday, when he would have
money in his pockets and the appetite that comes from abstention.
On Saturday morning after he had left the house at six o'clock, Fan
started up from her cot and came to her mother's side at the table.
"Mother, may I go out to the fields to-day?" she asked. "I know if I go
straight along the Edgware Road I'll come to them soon. And I'll be
home early."
"No, Fan, don't you try it. It's too far and'll tire you, and you'd be
hungry and maybe get lost."
"Can't I take some bread, mother? Do let me go! It will be so nice to
see the fields and trees, and they say it isn't far to walk."
"You're not fit to be seen walking, Fan. Wait till you've got proper
shoes to your feet, and a dress to wear. Perhaps I'll git you one next
week."
"But if I wait I'll never go! He'll finish his work to-day and spend the
money, and on Monday he'll send me out just the same as before."
And as she continued to plead, almost with tears, so intent was she on
this little outing, her mother at length gave her consent. She even got
her scissors to cut off the ragged fringing from the girl's dress to make

her look more trim, and mended her torn shoes with needle and thread;
then cut her a hunk of bread for her dinner.
"I never see a girl so set on the country," she said, when Fan was about
to start, her thin pale face brightening with anticipation. "It's a long
tramp up the Edgware Road, and not much to see when you git to the
fields."
There would be much to see, Fan thought, as she set out on her
expedition. She had secretly planned it in her mind, and had thought
about it by day and dreamed about it by night--how much there would
be to see!
But the way was long; so long that before she got out of London--out of
that seemingly endless road with shops on either hand--she began to be
very tired. Then came that wide zone surrounding London, of
uncompleted streets and rows of houses partly occupied, separated by
wide spaces with brick-fields, market-gardens, and waste grounds. Here
she might have turned aside to rest in one of the numerous huge
excavations, their bottoms weedy and grass-grown, showing that they
had been long abandoned; but this was not the country, the silent green
woods and fields she had come so far to seek, and in spite of weariness
she trudged determinedly on.
At first the day had promised to be fine; now a change came over it, the
sky was overcast with grey clouds, and a keen wind from the
north-west blew in her face and made her shiver with cold. Many times
during that long walk she drew up beside some gate or wooden fence,
and leaned against it, feeling almost too tired and dispirited to proceed
further; but she could not sit down there to rest, for people were
constantly passing in traps, carts and carriages, and on foot, and not one
passed without looking hard at her; and by-and-by, overcoming her
weakness, she would trudge on again, all the time wishing herself back
in the miserable room in Moon Street once more.
At last she got beyond the builders' zone, into the country; from an
elevated piece of ground over which the road passed she was able to
see the prospect for miles ahead, and the sight made her heart sink

within her. The few trees visible were bare of foliage, and the fields,
shut within their brown ragged hedges, were mostly ploughed and
black, and the green fields were as level as the ploughed, and there was
no shelter from the cold wind, no sunshine on the pale damp sward. It
was