Midnight is a Place by Joan Aiken Page B

as death, but it was resolute and firm; she gave Anna-Marie and Lucas a kind glance and said simply, "Well, my lad, how can I serve thee?"
    "I—I'm sorry, I didn't wish to interrupt—" he stammered. "I only wanted to ask the way to the tax office—"
    "
Oh, oh, U joli bébé, tout en riant!
" exclaimed Anna-Marie at his elbow.
    For Mrs. Braithwaite held a baby in her shawled arms, and it was giving Anna-Marie a broad grin.
    "
Comment est-ce qu'il s'appelle, madame?
" Anna-Marie inquired politely.
    "English, English, Anna-Marie! And it's not polite to interrupt. She is asking about your baby—what he is called," Lucas apologized to Mrs. Braithwaite.
    "It's Betsy, my little lady—she's a girl, bless her."
    Then the woman looked fully into Anna-Marie's face and started. She said, hesitantly, "You'll excuse a poor woman asking, my little lady—I can see you're quality—but what might your name be? I wouldn't take a liberty, mostly, but it's a hard time for me, joost now—if you'll not think it amiss—"
    "
Je m'appelle Anna-Marie Murgatroyd, madame.
"
    "Murgatroyd! Why didn't I think on it mysel'?" Mrs. Braithwaite murmured. Then, unexpectedly, she dropped a slight curtsey and kissed Anna-Marie's cheek. "Bless your bonny face, lassie. You came by in time to put a good notion into my head, and maybe the saints sent you.... May you have a long life and a happy one, happier than poor Bess Braithwaite's. Murgatroyd," she murmured to herself again. "I'll go see the old lady directly. If ony can give me good counsel, she can." Then, remembering she had been asked a question, she gave Lucas clear and explicit directions for reaching the tax office, nodded kindly to them, hastily kissed her friend, and hurried off in the opposite direction.
    "I'll see thee again, Bess, afore tha takes ship—" the other woman called anxiously.
    "Happen—if there's time—"her brief answer came back before she vanished round a corner.
    Lucas and Anna-Marie turned the other way. Anna-Marie had not understood Mrs. Braithwaite's remarks, but Lucas had, and he wondered if there were still some relative of Anna-Marie's living in the neighborhood—who could "the old lady" be? Who would know?
    However this question was banished from his mind almost at once by the situation in which they now found themselves. It had been plain, from the unfriendly stares they had been receiving as they walked along, that strangers were not welcome in this part of the town. They caught muttered remarks: "Jack Puddings! Fancy boots! High nebs! What do they think they're faring t'do here? Let 'em goo back where they coom from while they'm still got their boots on!"
    The angry looks and hostile murmurs increased; they were jostled several times and Anna-Marie who had shown a tendency, earlier, to tug away from Lucas's protective clasp, now seemed glad enough to keep close by and clutch his hand.
    At one corner a fairly large group of boys had been playing a kind of football game, using a lump of wool tied with string for their ball. As Lucas and Anna-Marie approached, the ball, whether by design or accident, struck Lucas on the side of the head. The boys gave over their game and moved, half mocking, half threatening, into a solid phalanx in the middle of the path, so that it was impossible to get by. Some of them were big and heavy—nearer men than boys
    One of them—a large, lumping fellow of eighteen or nineteen, with a shock of fair, frizzy hair, thick lips, and pale blue eyes—called out, "Look a' the dainty bonnets. Eh, what a lace-edged pair! Knaw who they are, mates? Tak' a good peer at the high-belted mimsy scratlings!"
    "Nay, who are they, then?"
    "Divven't tha knaw? Old Randy Grimsby's foundlings from oop at t'Court all fatched oop i' hog's leather an' silk velvet!"
    In fact the clothes of Anna-Marie and Lucas were by no means luxurious, but they certainly seemed so in comparison with the rags worn by most of