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the crowd and hurry of this place, and if any cruel people should
pursue us, they could surely never trace us further. There's comfort in
that. And here's a deep old doorway - very dark, but quite dry, and
warm too, for the wind don't blow in here - What's that!'
Uttering a half shriek, she recoiled from a black figure which came
suddenly out of the dark recess in which they were about to take
refuge, and stood still, looking at them.
'
'
Speak again,' it said; 'do I know the voice?'
No,' replied the child timidly; 'we are strangers, and having no money
for a night's lodging, were going to rest here.'
There was a feeble lamp at no great distance; the only one in the
place, which was a kind of square yard, but sufficient to show how
poor and mean it was. To this, the figure beckoned them; at the same
time drawing within its rays, as if to show that it had no desire to
conceal itself or take them at an advantage. The form was that of a
man, miserably clad and begrimed with smoke, which, perhaps by its
contrast with the natural colour of his skin, made him look paler than
he really was. That he was naturally of a very wan and pallid aspect,
however, his hollow cheeks, sharp features, and sunken eyes, no less
than a certain look of patient endurance, sufficiently testified. His
voice was harsh by nature, but not brutal; and though his face,
besides possessing the characteristics already mentioned, was
overshadowed by a quantity of long dark hair, its expression was
neither ferocious nor bad. 'How came you to think of resting there?' he
said. 'Or how,' he added, looking more attentively at the child, 'do you
come to want a place of rest at this time of night?'
'Our misfortunes,' the grandfather answered, 'are the cause.'
'Do you know,' said the man, looking still more earnestly at Nell, 'how
wet she is, and that the damp streets are not a place for her?'
'I know it well, God help me,' he replied. 'What can I do!'
The man looked at Nell again, and gently touched her garments, from
which the rain was running off in little streams. 'I can give you
warmth,' he said, after a pause; 'nothing else. Such lodging as I have,
is in that house,' pointing to the doorway from which he had emerged,
'
but she is safer and better there than here. The fire is in a rough
place, but you can pass the night beside it safely, if you'll trust
yourselves to me. You see that red light yonder?'
They raised their eyes, and saw a lurid glare hanging in the dark sky;
the dull reflection of some distant fire.
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