Emmeline’s expectation that they would never see Diamond Jubilee again was not fulfilled. They saw him again only a week later.

During the interval, various things had been happening in Paradise Court. The police had long been on the look-out for a pretext to make a raid on Mother Grimes’s premises, and the theft of Emmeline’s watch gave them just the excuse they wanted, for Bully Ben lived at the informal little school kept by that lady, of whom he was an old pupil. When the raid took place, they discovered not only the watch, but so many other stolen properties that Mother Grimes herself, Bully Ben and several more of the older pupils presently found themselves being lodged at His Majesty’s expense for longer or shorter terms. Emmeline’s watch was not directly responsible for this, for the prisoners had been tried on other charges of which there were plenty; so that she had all the delight of its being restored to her[236] without the disagreeable experience of appearing in the witness-box.

Bad though it was, Mother Grimes’s establishment had been Diamond Jubilee’s only home, and his probable fate now that it had been broken up weighed much on Aunt Grace’s mind, for something in the appearance of the forlorn little street arab as he stood up to bear witness to Micky’s innocence had touched her kind heart. She said nothing as yet on the subject to any of his former adopters, but simply arranged for his coming to make a fortnight’s stay with a respectable old woman in the village, who was glad to eke out her slender earnings by receiving little town children in need of a country holiday.

Diamond Jubilee arrived; a much pleasanter Diamond Jubilee than he had been on his first introduction to the children, for Aunt Grace had provided for his going through a series of carbolic acid baths, and had furnished him with a sufficient stock of Micky’s old clothes to allow of his former wardrobe being burnt. It is much easier for a boy to have self-respect when his outward appearance is neat, and Diamond Jubilee’s language and manners improved very decidedly. Of course, there were occasional outbreaks when the ways of respectability bored him, and less occasional lapses into the speech of Green Ginger Land, but on the whole he was so docile[237] and well-behaved that Aunt Grace became more unwilling than ever to let him go back to the workhouse, far less to the old Paradise Court life.

He came to play or to go for walks with the Bolton children most afternoons, and on these occasions Aunt Grace always took care to be present, much to his delight, for he had developed a chivalrous devotion to her.

‘She’s a rare clever gal,’ he told Micky.

Perhaps Micky was more gratified by the compliment than Aunt Grace felt in her turn when Diamond Jubilee confided to her that Micky would have been ‘a master one’ at Mother Grimes’s trade, if only he had been brought up to it—he was that quick and sharp!

All this time a certain plan was ripening in Aunt Grace’s mind, and at last one tea-time she mooted it to the children.

‘How would you like to adopt Diamond Jubilee again?’ she suggested cheerfully.

‘Scrumptious!’ said Micky, with his mouth full of bread and jam. ‘He’ll be champion at bowling when I’ve trained him a little more.’

‘And Punch is getting quite fond of him. He came and licked all over his face yesterday,’ put Kitty.

Emmeline looked doubtful. It was all very well having Diamond Jubilee for a fortnight’s visit, but adopting him again was another matter.

[238]

‘I’m afraid, Micky, it would hardly do to keep him here, even to play cricket with you,’ said Aunt Grace. ‘You see, he needs to be kept under strict discipline. No, my idea is for you children to send him to Mr. Faulkner’s Home. They’d take him for fifteen pounds a year, and it would be the making of him.’

‘Then shouldn’t we ever see him?’ said Kitty dolefully.

‘What a beastly dull sort of adoption!’ exclaimed Micky.

‘And where are the fifteen pounds to come from?’ said Emmeline, ‘even with birthday money and Christmas money put together we don’t get nearly fifteen pounds.’

‘Well,’ said Aunt Grace slowly, ‘you know I promised to get you a donkey and cart. If you were willing to do without them, I’d give you each five pounds a year instead, and you could pay for Diamond Jubilee’s keep at the Home. As to not seeing Diamond Jubilee, and its being a dull sort of adoption, he could always come and spend the summer holidays with us, you know, and you would get letters from him in between-whiles and hear a great deal about him from Mr. Faulkner. But, after all, whether it’s dull or interesting isn’t the question. The question is whether you are willing to deny yourselves a pleasure so as to give a poor little[239] boy who has never had a chance yet the opportunity of growing up into a good, useful man. I don’t want to press you in any way, and I don’t want you to settle anything in a hurry, but talk it over quietly among yourselves and tell me in a day or two what you think of the plan.’

For the rest of the day the children were rather silent and preoccupied. It was not nearly so much fun adopting Diamond Jubilee in the fashion Aunt Grace suggested as when his presence in the neighbourhood had involved the perils and delights of a plot; but they were good children in the main, and Aunt Grace’s suggestions had a way of sticking.

Emmeline came up to the schoolroom that evening, when the twins were drinking their supper-milk, and began fidgeting with the blind-tassel. ‘............