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This ain't no Thames; I know bettor than that." "Oh, but, cousin Juliet," Emily put in, "the Thames is young here, and it is old at London. Some day you will get old, and once on a time mother was a little girl like you." Still unconvinced the London child made no rejoinder. Mrs. Rowles began to cross to the lock-house by the planks of the lock. "Come carefully, Juliet, you are not used to this."
"Then, Juliet," said her mother, "do you think you could carry baby safely downstairs, and sit on the door-step with him until Miss Sutton goes away?" "I shall be sure to bump his head against the wall; I always do," was Juliet's sulky reply. "Oh, you must try not to do so," put in Miss Sutton. "And you might put his head on the side away from the wall," said Mrs. Rowles cheerfully.
Rowles worked the handles as quickly as he could; standing on the bank while the lock filled he asked the two gentlemen in the boat if they had seen anything of a little girl out by herself on the river. "No," replied one of the young men; "we only started from just below Littlebourne Ferry. I have noticed no little girl in a boat." "Nor I," added the other gentleman.
The big man promised to do all this, and went out with Rowles intending to have a pipe and a gossip with him, when down came a boat rowed by Leonard Burnet, and steered by the old master-printer; and so the gossip was cut short, though not the pipe. "I am not going through," said Mr. Burnet from the boat. "Help me to land, Rowles; I want to have a talk with you.
You see, sir, Rowles has been lock-keeper these seventeen years with eighteen shillings a-week and a house, and his hours from six in the morning to ten at night; so he always gets his money regular and his sleep regular, and he can't see why other men can't do the same." "We cannot be all of one trade," remarked Mr. Burnet.
Emily whispered to her mother, "Who is she?" "Your poor cousin from London. You must be very kind to her, poor girl; she is so disagreeable." Emily looked with a sort of awe at her sullen cousin. Then Mrs. Rowles set her own child on the ground, and went and put her hand on Juliet's shoulder, saying, "Emily wants to thank you for being so brave. You have a spirit of your own!"
Juliet sat opposite her aunt, looking out blankly at the houses as the train passed through the western suburbs. After a while she stood up at the window. Fields and trees were beginning to be more frequent than at first. Soon the houses became rare, and the fields continuous. Juliet's lips were muttering something which Mrs. Rowles could not hear in the noise made by the train.
So they all went into the "lodgers' rooms," as Mrs. Rowles called those which she was in the habit of letting, and there they sat together talking. "I am afraid," said Mrs. Rowles, "that Juliet will never do better until she learns to be guided by the orders and the advice of other people.
And I'm afraid that Tom's money can't be any too much for eight children living, and two put away in the cemetery, pretty dears! And I was just thinking to myself that it would seem friendly-like if I was to journey up to London and see how they are getting on. It is less trouble than writing a letter." "It costs more," said Rowles. A long, distant whistle was heard.
"Been ill these two months," he replied in a weak voice. "Sit down," said Mrs. Mitchell, pushing the best chair to her sister-in-law, and standing by the table to resume her work. "We did not know Tom was ill," said Mrs. Rowles. "I daresay not," answered Mrs. Mitchell. "I would have come sooner to see him if I had known."
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