They had turned into Leigh Street, and had walked some distance in
silence, when Patty asked suddenly without looking round, "Then she
doesn't know I am coming?"
"I told her I'd bring you whenever I could; but she ain't looking for
you this evening. There, that's the house--the one in the middle, with
that wooden swing and all those kids in the yard."
He pointed to what had once been a fine old house of stuccoed brick,
with a square front porch and green shutters which were sagging on
loosened hinges. On the walls where the stucco had peeled away, the red
brick showed in splotches, and the pillars of the porch, which had been
white, were now speckled with yellow stains. Over the whole place, with
its air of fallen respectability, there hung the depressing smell of
mingled dust, stale cooking, and bad tobacco. A number of imposing and
well-preserved houses stood on the block, for of the whole
neighbourhood, it appeared to the girl, they had chosen the most
dilapidated dwelling and the one which was most crowded with children.
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