Page:A Child of the Jago - Arthur Morrison.djvu/142

 hunchbacked boy went by her side. All this under convoy of the Reverend Henry Sturt.

A little distance gave more confidence to a few, and when the group had reached within a score of yards of Edge Lane, there came a hoot or two, a "Yah!" and other less spellable sounds, expressive of contempt and defiance. Roper glanced back nervously, but the rest held on their way regardless. Then came a brickbat, which missed the woman by very little and struck the truck-wheel. At this the parson stopped and turned on his heel, and Cocko Harnwell, the flinger, drove his hands into his breeches-pockets and afiected an interest in Mother Gapp's window, till, perceiving the parson's eyes directed sternly upon him, and the parson's stick rising to point at him, he ingloriously turned tail, and scuttled into Jago Court.

And so the Ropers left the Jago. Dove Lane was but a stone-throw ahead when