Without realizing the full meaning of her words, she said,-- "Oh, you have helped me now," and threw up her veil, showing a face where smiles were already triumphant.

Instinct told Stephen in the same second what she had meant, and yet had not meant to say.

He dropped her hand, and said in a low voice,-- "Mercy, did you really have tears in your eyes because I did not come?
Bless you, darling! I don't dare to speak to you here.

Oh, pray come down this little by-street with me." It was a narrow little lane behind the Brick Row into which Stephen and Mercy turned.

Although it was so near the centre of the town, it had never been properly graded, but had been left like a wild bit of uneven field.
One side of it was walled by the Brick Row; on the other side were only a few poverty-stricken houses, in which colored people lived.