Review.

The skies cleared and the crowd gradually melted , going off into apparent space as London crowds will , and leaving little track of its elements behind it . As the crowd dissolved I saw that my Rip Van Winkle was accompanied by a child . A daughter , perhaps ? A question to be

answered in the negative at once . The child was plebeian all over , whilst the man , whether his ancestors were near or remote , had had ancestors somewhere . As the- child , holding the hand of her companion , went slowly along the

pavement , I noticed that the old man ' s shoes were wretchedly worn and tattered , that his clothes were in the last stage of greasiness , raggedness , and seediness , and that he carried suspended before him a cigarbox . I passed him , and as I did so he

threw open the lid and exposed his wares , a few boxes of vestas and fusees . The child's right hand was clasped in the old man ' s left , and he bent down over her with a helpless dependence . As I went by she offered mutely a little box of vestas which she carried in her left-hand . I sometimes hear from philanthropists who have reduced mercy to a science , and who adminster

charity by machinery , that an indiscriminate almsgiving is criminal . But shall I harden my heart against one case of genuine want for fear that a score of imposters may profit by me ? Let them profit . Do I not profit also . I held a sixpence towards the

child . She drew back a little and dropped the hand in which she held the vestas . " I ain't got no change , " she said . I made a motion with my hand and she advanced her own and took the coin and curtsied . The old man raised his battered hatand

, guessing at a purchase , said " Thank you . " I walked a little further on and made pretence of looking in at a window . Glancing back , I saw the child give the coin to the old man . He tested it with his fingers and with his teethand the two

, then turned away together and passed clown a street to the left . I suspected gin . I was a little interested in the man and wished to see if my suspicions were just , I sauntered slowly after them , and saw the child enter a baker ' s shop . When she

emerged with a small loaf I could almost have cried at the eager way in which the blind trembling hands reached out for it . It touched me too to see that those blind

trembling hands tore off the top of the small loaf for the child before they conveyed an atom to the old man ' s lips . The two sat down upon a door-step round another corner . The stone was still wet with the recent rain , but they were

heedless of the discomfort , and munched greedily at the bread . I left them there and went away—a little angry with myself for being well-dressed and well-fed . I wandered along Oxford Street , constructing as my manner isa whole cargo of stories to

, account for my Rip Van Winkle ' s poverty . The weather gave signs of becoming permanently unpleasant , and I turned homewards . I had got into Holborn when I saw the old man and the child once more . The little creature smiled as she saw me

and once more curtsied . I heard her say " There ' s the gentlemen , " and the old man once more raised his battered hat , looking blindly before him the while . . When an

hour before he had said " Thankf you , his voice bore out my impression of his face . It was a cultivated voice , a little set and stiff in pronunciation perhaps , —as the voice of the self-educated are sometimes apt to be . I welcomed this second falling in with him . "Have you sold out your

stock , " I asked the child . She answered that they hadn't sold nothing . " But , " she added , " you gin us a tanner , and , " with a mixture of the sexes , " another lady gin us tuppence . " The old man stood still whilst the child spoke , and held the

battered hat in his hand . The blind face flushed a little as he said " I am very much obliged to yon , Sir . " Perhaps you will be able to guess why I felt a little ashamed of myself . I seemed to have reminded the old man of an obligation , although I had assuredly no such design . He took an uncertain groping step forward and pulled at the hand of the child .

It was partly through a feeling of awkwardness which would not let me say " Good-bye , " and which yet seemed to wake some sort of fai-ewell necessary that I walked along by the blind man ' s side . I suppose he knew by my step that I was still therefor he turned his melanchol

, y eyes on me as if waiting for me to speak . I said some indifferent thing or other about the weather . He answered and we glided into talk . I told him in a minute or two that he had been well educated .