Explore "The Peacock of Jewels" by Fergus Hume on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The urchin presented a more dilapidated appearance than he had ever done before even when in his native slums as a street-arab. The neat serge suit with which Miss Grison's kindness had supplied him was smeared with green slime and covered with cobwebs, besides being torn in many places. But Alan did not look so much at the lad's clothes as at his face and figure, for he was terribly emaciated, and so weak, apparently with hunger, that he could scarcely keep his legs. When he saw Fuller he burst into tears, and Sorley allowed him to drop on to the carpet.
"How does the lad come here? " demanded Fuller indignantly, "and what have you been doing to him that he should be in this terrible state?"