She told me, in her innocent childish way, that papa had never loved her as her mamma did.

He had been always out of doors till very, very late at night.

She had crept from her little bed sometimes when it was morning, quite light, and had found mamma in the sitting-room, with no fire, and the candles all burnt out, waiting for papa to come home.
"I put an advertisement, addressed to Mr.Percival Nowell, in the _Times_ and in _Galignani_, for I felt that the child's future might depend upon her father's acknowledgment of her in the present; but no reply came to these advertisements, and I settled in my own mind that this Nowell was a scoundrel, who had deliberately deserted his wife and child.
"The possessions of the poor creature who was gone were of no great value.

There were some rather handsome clothes and a small collection of jewelry--some of it modern, the rest curious and old-fashioned.

These latter articles I kept religiously, believing them to be family relics.
The clothes and the modern trinkets I caused to be sold, and the small sum realised for them barely paid the expense of the funeral and grave.
The arrears of rent and all other arrears fell upon me.