Susan | Page 6

write to you when I can."
Susan clung silently to her mother's neck. If only she might have cried!
Freddie pushed up the handkerchief, and looked at her with his dark
heavy eyes.
"Good-bye, Susie," he murmured; "don't let old Emptycap bully you."
"And now," said her mother, "you must really go. Is Maria there? Kiss
Freddie."
She led Susan to the door where Maria waited; in the hall the cabman
was just shouldering the luggage.
"You know what I have told you, Maria. Take care of Miss Susan, and
I shall expect you home early to-morrow."
Susan looked back when she reached the foot of the stair, and Mother
smiled and nodded, waving her hand; then there was an impatient cry
of "Mother!" from Freddie's room, and she vanished.
When Susan was in the cab with only Maria and Grace to see, she cried,
and refused all comfort for some time; not only because she was going
away to strangers, but also because up to the last minute she had so

much hoped that Mother would say something about the pink
pin-cushion. On rattled the cab past all the shops that Susan knew so
well, and through the streets where she had often walked with Mother
or Nurse. The journey to Ramsgate was to be made by sea, and they
were to be driven to Saint Katharine's Docks to take the steamer which
started from there at ten o'clock. Susan had heard her mother's
directions to Maria, and knew exactly what they had to do; she felt
indeed that she should remember them better, for she was accustomed
to hear Nurse say that Maria had "no head." She had not therefore
much respect for her, and thought it likely that she would make
mistakes and forget things; but though this was the case, there was a
great deal to be liked in Maria. For one thing she was always
good-natured, and such a very good listener; really interested in all
Susan's information and startled at any wonderful story, for she was a
country girl, and had not yet ceased to be surprised at London life.
Presently, therefore, as they got further on, Susan felt bound to point
out and explain any objects or buildings of interest they passed. She
dried her eyes, looked out of the window, and drew her companion's
attention by sudden digs of her elbow, which at last became so frequent
that Maria's head was constantly on the move from one side to the other
for fear she should miss anything. Soon with a more violent nudge than
usual Susan shouted in her ear:
"Look, Maria! there's the Tower of London!"
"Mercy on us!" exclaimed Maria, gazing open-mouthed; "what a big
place!"
"It's where they used to cut off people's heads, you know," continued
Susan excitedly; "and kept them in dungeons years and years. And
where they smothered the little princes with a pillow, and buried them
under the stairs."
"Lawk!" said Maria.
"And the queen keeps her crown there now in a glass case."
"Well, I wouldn't do that," said Maria; "not if I was queen. Whatever's

the good of having a crown?"
What with the rattling of the cab, the noise in the street, and Susan's
own uncertainty on the subject, it was difficult to make Maria
understand this; so any further explanation was put off, and they both
looked silently out of the windows till they reached Saint Katharine's
Docks.
Here there was a good deal of bustle and confusion, and also a little
delay; for Maria, who had held the cabman's exact fare tightly grasped
in one hand all the way, dropped it in getting out of the cab. A brisk
young porter, however, came to their assistance: he picked up the
money, shouldered the luggage, and showed Maria where to take the
tickets; then he led them down some slippery steps and on board the
steamboat, which lay alongside the wharf ready to start. It was all new
and confusing to Susan, and it was not till she was settled on deck,
wrapped in a warm shawl with Grace in her arms, that she looked
round her at what was going on. There was so much to see that she
could hardly open her eyes wide enough to take it all in. First there was
the captain standing on his bridge with his rough blue pea-coat
buttoned up to his chin, and a gold band round his cap; his face was
quite round, and quite red, except in places where it was a sort of blue
colour. His voice was very hoarse, and Susan could not make out a
word he said, though he shouted out very loud now and then. Then
there were the passengers, hurrying across the narrow gangway, with
all