General Well'ngone In Love Read Free

as you see. London is
a city full of opportunities, if a person knows how to take
advantage of them. Is that not so, Levy?”
    The youngster who was accompanying them
nodded his head. “Full of them.”
    “ An orphan’s lot is a
difficult one, but it does not have to be a miserable one,” the
General continued. “The Earl of Gravel Lane is always on the
lookout for young men with keen eyes and sharp wits. If you should
ever find yourself in the neighborhood of Gravel Lane and would
like to discuss this matter further, I am certain the Earl would be
pleased to receive you.”
    The General looked up. At the top of a
rather dilapidated building a window had been flung open. A young
lady was glaring down at them, with her hands planted firmly on her
hips.
    “ Are you acquainted with
that young person?” asked the General.
    “ That’s Sarah, my
sister.”
    Sarah disappeared from the window.
    “ Does she always glare at
people in that manner?”
    “ Only when she is very
angry. I had better go.”
    At that moment Sarah returned to the window,
with a bucket in her hand.
    “ Berel! Come here this
instant!” she shouted. “As for you, General Well’ngone, if I ever
catch you talking to my brother again, you’ll get this bucket of
slops on your head! Understand?!”
    While Berel ran into the building, General
Well’ngone instinctively raised his hand to his head, to protect
his hat. Yet he did not move. Instead, he continued to stare at the
young lady in the window.
    “ Go away! Now!”
    His young companion, who did not wish to get
drenched by the unsavory contents of the bucket, tugged at the
General’s sleeve. “Let’s get out of here,” he pleaded. “She’ll do
it. Look at her eyes.”
    But that was the problem. The General was
looking at the young lady’s eyes. He had fallen in love.
     
    “Close the window, Sarah. I’m home.”
    Sarah turned around and scowled at her
younger brother. But she did put down the bucket, to Berel’s
relief.
    “ Do close the window,
Sarah. You’re letting in all the cold air.”
    Sarah took one last look down at the street.
She made a face at General Well’ngone, who was still standing
below, and then she slammed the window shut.
    “ Have you lost your
senses, Berel? I thought you knew better than to associate with
that band of thieves.”
    “ It wasn’t me who was
associating. The General wanted to say his condolences. I could
hardly stop him from doing that, could I?”
    “ What else did he want to
say?” Sarah demanded.
    Berel knew his sister was doing her best to
keep them together in their own home. And perhaps he had been wrong
to walk down the street with a well-known thief—if Mr. Melamed
heard about that, he might very well be carted off to the
orphanage. But Berel felt he was no longer a child who must report
every word of a conversation to his older sister, and so he changed
the subject by waving the package from the solicitor in front of
Sarah’s eyes. “Wouldn’t you rather know what Mr. Barnstock had to
say?”
    “ Did you really do it?”
she asked, while trying to grab the packet. “Did you convince him
to give us more work?”
    Berel removed the little money pouch with
his free hand and dangled that before his sister’s eyes as well.
“And on the same terms!”
    “ You are wonderful!”
exclaimed Sarah, giving her brother a hug. “With work, we truly
shall manage. Oh, Berel, I am so happy. And Mother and Father would
have been so proud of you. Were you not even a little
afraid?”
    “ Of course not,” he said,
placing the package and the money on the table in what he hoped was
a suitably indifferent manner. “Old sour face can’t scare
me.”
    “ We cannot call him that
any longer. It is thanks to Mr. Barnstock that we will be able to
stay here, and we must be grateful.” Sarah turned her attention to
the packet of papers. “I think I shall begin work now, while there
is still light.”
    However, before she could remove the ink and
pen