



Produced by Beth Constantine, Juliet Sutherland, Charles
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version by Al Haines.










A GIRL OF THE PEOPLE

BY

L. T. MEADE




CHAPTER I.


"You have kept us waiting an age! Come along, Bet, do."

"She ain't going to funk it, surely!"

"No, no, not she,--she's a good 'un, Bet is,--come along, Bet. Joe
Wilkins is waiting for us round the corner, and he says Sam is to be
there, and Jimmy, and Hester Wright: do come along, now."

"Will Hester Wright sing?" suddenly demanded the girl who was being
assailed by all these remarks.

"Yes, tip-top, a new song from one of the music halls in London. Now
then, be you coming or not, Bet?"

"No, no, she's funking it," suddenly called out a dancing little sprite
of a newspaper girl. She came up close to Bet as she spoke, and shook a
dirty hand in her face, and gazed up at her with two mirthful, teasing,
wicked black eyes. "Bet's funking it,--she's a mammy's girl,--she's
tied to her mammy's apron-strings, he-he-he!"

The other girls all joined in the laugh; and Bet, who was standing
stolid and straight in the centre of the group, first flushed angrily,
then turned pale and bit her lips.

"I ain't funking," she said; "nobody can ever say as there's any funk
about me,--there's my share. Good-night."

She tossed a shilling on to the pavement, and before the astonished
girls could intercept her, turned on her heel and marched away.

A mocking laugh or two floated after her on the night air, then the
black-eyed girl picked