IT WAS a great delight to Diamond when at length Nanny was well
enough to leave the hospital and go home to their house. She was not
very strong yet, but Diamond's mother was very considerate of her,
and took care that she should have nothing to do she was not quite
fit for. If Nanny had been taken straight from the street, it is very
probable she would not have been so pleasant in a decent household,
or so easy to teach; but after the refining influences of her illness
and the kind treatment she had had in the hospital, she moved about
the house just like some rather sad pleasure haunting the mind.
As she got better, and the colour came back to her cheeks,
her step grew lighter and quicker, her smile shone out more readily,
and it became certain that she would soon be a treasure of help.
It was great fun to see Diamond teaching her how to hold the baby,
and wash and dress him, and often they laughed together over
her awkwardness. But she had not many such lessons before she was
able to perform those duties quite as well as Diamond himself.

Things however did not go well with Joseph from the very arrival of Ruby.
It almost seemed as if the red beast had brought ill luck with him.
The fares were fewer, and the pay less. Ruby's services did indeed
make the week's income at first a little beyond what it used to be,
but then there were two more to feed. After the first month he fell lame,
and for the whole of the next Joseph dared not attempt to work him.
I cannot say that he never grumbled, for his own health was far
from what it had been; but I can say that he tried to do his best.
During all that month, they lived on very short commons indeed,
seldom tasting meat except on Sundays, and poor old Diamond,
who worked hardest of all, not even then--so that at the end of it
he was as thin as a clothes-horse, while Ruby was as plump and sleek