CHAPTER XLIX.
SPANISH LACE.
She walked quickly down the street, hoping every moment to overtake Jasmine.

Miss Egerton had old-fashioned ideas about many things, and nothing could exceed her horror at the thought of this pretty and refined-looking child finding her way alone to a pawnshop.
"Poor little girl!" she said to herself.

"She must be really in absolute want.

What has she taken to pawn?
Oh, dear! this anxiety is terrible--and yet, and yet, how glad I am to know those orphan girls." Miss Egerton was very tired, had just returned from the death-bed of her dearest friend, had certainly heaps of worries of her own; but that did not prevent her whole heart from going out to Jasmine with an affection which was almost motherly.
When at last she found the little girl just coming out of Spiller's pawnshop she laid a trembling hand on her arm.
"Jasmine, oh, my dear child, you have been in there! You have been pawning something." Jasmine was in such a depressed state of mind that even Miss Egerton's unexpected return failed to astonish her.

She said, raising two sad eyes to the good lady's face-- "It was only that old Spanish lace.