A sham princess

"COULD it be that the Princess was going to die?" Bert held his breath as the thought smote him. He could almost hear the beating of his heart as he stood motionless, arrested b...

THE Princess was better. She was no longer in bed. Mrs. Kay had helped her to rise and dress herself; and now, in her shabby, threadbare frock, with thin, broken shoes on her fe...

THE hour of the Princess's departure had come. Already she appeared to belong to another place than the dingy underground room. A lady dressed in nursing costume had arrived in...

BERT found an early opportunity of pleading his own cause with the landlady. But in vain he begged her to let him remain longer in the miserable room he had called his home. He...

BERT read the Princess's letter over and over again, till he knew the words by heart. To keep it safely, he pinned it within his ragged jacket; but it was often in his hands, ti...

BERT felt rather shamefaced as he scrambled off the chair and drew it on one side, that the sailor might enter the room. But the sight he saw as the door opened made him forget...

IT was the morning of the 21st of June. Bert had risen almost as soon as it was light, and, having made very special ablutions ere he donned the ragged garments, which had anyth...

BERT was not likely to die. His worst injury was a broken rib, and that having been skilfully set, he was likely to do well. He did not suffer acute pain; yet the boy was misera...

The nurse wondered what kind of home he had, as she helped him to don the ragged garments he had worn when he was brought into the hospital. She was sorry to part with her good...

BERT had a warm welcome from Mr. Corney when he appeared at the top of the area steps. Cetywayo seemed to remember the boy who had been kind to him, and in a dignified and dista...

BERT hurried back to the Princess with his hands full of small packages. He proceeded to set out the nicest supper his limited means had enabled him to provide. Prin began to ea...

THE diamond brooch seemed to burn Bert's fingers as he held it, and he was glad to thrust it out of sight again beneath the mattress. It was plain now why Prin in her mental wan...

BERT was crouching on the bed close to his sister when the doctor came into the room. Dead or alive, Prin was Prin, and Bert felt no awe of her. He was bending over her, and his...