Page:A Child of the Jago - Arthur Morrison.djvu/93

This page has been validated.

VII

There was no chance all along Meakin Street. The chandlers and the keepers of cookshops knew their neighbourhood too well to leave articles unguarded. Soon Dickey reached Shoreditch High Street. There things were a little more favourable. There were shops, as he well remembered, where goods were sometimes exhibited at the doors and outside the windows; but to-day there seemed to be no chance of the sort. As for the people, he was too short to try pockets, and, indeed, the High Street rarely gave passage to a more unpromising lot. Moreover, from robbery from the person he knew he must abstain, except for such uncommon opportunities as that of the Bishop's watch, for some years yet.

77