GOLDEN-BROWN. 27 



and shapely, despite the rags and jags and the 

 washed-out gaudiness of the shawl. There was that 

 in their cheeks that all the wealth of London could 

 not purchase — a superb health in their carriage 

 princesses could not obtain. It came, then, from the 

 air and sunlight, and still more, from some alchemy 

 unknown to the physician or the physiologist, some 

 faculty exercised by the body, happily endowed with 

 a special power of extracting the utmost richness and 

 benefit from the rudest elements. Thrice blessed 

 and fortunate, beautiful golden-brown in their cheeks, 

 superb health in their gait, they walked as the 

 immortals on earth. 



As they passed they regarded me with bitter envy, 

 jealousy, and hatred written in their eyes ; they cursed 

 me in their hearts. I verily believe — so unmistakably 

 hostile were their glances — that had opportunity been 

 given, in the dead of night and far from help, they 

 would gladly have taken me unawares with some 

 blow of stone or club, and, having rendered me 

 senseless, would have robbed me, and considered it 

 a righteous act. Not that there was any bloodthirsti- 

 ness or exceptional evil in their nature more than in 

 that of the thousand-and-one toilers that are met on 

 the highway, but simply because they worked — such 

 hard work of hands and stooping backs, and I was 

 idle, for all they knew. Because they were going 

 from one field of labour to another field of labour, 

 and I walked slowly and did no visible work. My 

 dress showed no stain, the weather had not battered 

 it ; there was no rent, no rags and jags. At an hour 

 when they were merely changing one place of work 



