of a table in the hall, but no higher up.  In this way we saw the foot of the back stairs, and climbed up them on our hands and knees.  But in spite of the bit of fresh air near the ground the smoke certainly grew thicker, and it got hotter and hotter, and we could hear the roaring of the flames coming nearer, and the clanging of the bells outside, and I never knew what it was to feel thirst before then!  When we were up the first flight, and the smoke was suffocating, I heard Rupert say, ’Oh, Henny, you good girl, shall we ever get down again!’ I couldn’t speak, my throat was so sore, but I remember thinking, ’It’s like going up through the clouds into heaven; and we shall find Baby Cecil there.’  But after that it got rather clearer, because the fire was in the lower part of the house then, and when we got to the top we stood up, and found our way to the nursery by hearing Baby Cecil scream.

“The great difficulty was to get him down, for we couldn’t carry him and keep close to the ground.  So I said, ’You go first on your hands and knees backwards, and tell him to do as you do, and I’ll come last, so that he may see me doing the same and imitate me.’  Baby was very good about it, and when the heat worried him and he stopped, Rupert said, ‘Come on, Baby, or Henny will run over you,’ and he scrambled down as good as gold.

“And when we got to the door the people began to shout and to cheer, and I thought they would have torn Baby to bits.  It made me very giddy, and so did the clanging of those dreadful bells; and then I noticed that Rupert was limping, and I said, ’Oh, Rupert, have you hurt your knee?’ and he said, ‘It’s nothing, come to the_ Crown.’ But there were two of the young men from Jones’s shop there, and they said, ‘Don’t you walk and hurt your knee, sir; we’ll take you.’  And they pushed up my father’s arm-chair, which had been saved and was outside, and Rupert sat down, I believe, because he could not stand.  Then they said, ‘There’s room for you, miss,’ and Rupert told me to come, and I took Baby on my lap; but I felt so ill I thought I should certainly fall out when they lifted us up.

“The way the people cheered made me very giddy; I think I shall always feel sick when I hear hurrahing now.

“Rupert is very good if you’re ill.  He looked at me and said, ’You’re the bravest girl I ever knew, but don’t faint if you can help it, or Baby will fall out.’

“I didn’t; and I wouldn’t have fainted when we got to the_ Crown if I could have stopped myself by anything I could do."

CHAPTER XVI.

MR. ROWE ON THE SUBJECT—­OUR COUSIN—­WESTON GETS INTO PRINT—­THE HARBOUR’S MOUTH—­WHAT LIES BEYOND.

Mr. Rowe’s anxiety to see Rupert and Henrietta, and to “take the liberty of expressing himself” about their having saved Baby Cecil’s life was very great, but the interview did not take place for some time.  The barge Betsy took two voyages to Nine Elms and home again before Henrietta was down-stairs and allowed to talk about the fire.