“Oh, not one!” some poor child would murmur pleadingly, while the tears welled up into her big round eyes, “not even a little one.  I’ve been waiting such a long time.”

“Can’t help that,” the honest fellow would reply, gruffly, but not unkindly, turning aside to hide his emotion; “you’ve had ’em all between you.  We don’t make ’em, you know:  you can’t have ’em if we haven’t got ’em, can you?  Come earlier next time.”

[Illustration:  “NOW THEN, PASS ALONG.”]

Then he would hurry away to escape further importunity; and the police, who appeared to have been waiting for this moment with gloating anticipation, would jeeringly hustle away the weeping remnant.  “Now then, pass along, you girls, pass along,” they would say, in that irritatingly unsympathetic voice of theirs.  “You’ve had your chance.  Can’t have the roadway blocked up all the afternoon with this ’ere demonstration of the unloved.  You’ll have to put up with your ordinary young men for to-day.  Pass along.”

In connection with this same barracks, our charwoman told Amenda, who told Ethelbertha, who told me a story, which I now told the boys.

Into a certain house, in a certain street in the neighbourhood, there moved one day a certain family.  Their servant had left them—­most of their servants did at the end of a week—­and the day after the moving-in an advertisement was drawn up and sent to the Chronicle for a domestic.  It ran thus: 

WANTED GENERAL SERVANT, in small family of eleven.  Wages, L6; no beer money.  Must be early riser and hard worker.  Washing done at home.  Must be good cook, and not object to window-cleaning.  Unitarian preferred.—­Apply, with references, to A. B., &C.

That advertisement was sent off on Wednesday afternoon.  At seven o’clock on Thursday morning the whole family were awakened by continuous ringing of the street door bell.  The husband, looking out of window, was surprised to see a crowd of about fifty girls surrounding the house.  He slipped on his dressing-gown and went down to see what was the matter.  The moment he opened the door, fifteen of them charged tumultuously into the passage, sweeping him completely off his legs.  Once inside, these fifteen faced round, fought the other thirty-five or so back on to the door-step, and slammed the door in their faces.  Then they picked up the master of the house, and asked him politely to conduct them to “A.  B.”

[Illustration:  “SURPRISED TO SEE ABOUT FIFTY GIRLS.”]

At first, owing to the clamour of the mob outside, who were hammering at the door and shouting curses through the keyhole on those inside, he was too confused to understand anything, but by dint of great exertion they succeeded at length in explaining to him that they were domestic servants come in answer to his wife’s advertisement.  The man went and told his wife, and his wife said she would see them, one at a time.