Even the wretched little climbing-boys had their gala-day on the
1st of May, when they had a holiday and a feast under the terms of
Mrs. Montagu's will.
The story of Mrs. Montagu is well known. The large house standing
in a garden at the corner of Portman Square and Gloucester Place,
now owned by Lord Portman, was built for Mrs. Montagu by James
Wyatt at the end of the eighteenth century, and the adjoining
Montagu Street and Montagu Square derive their names from her.
Somehow Mrs. Montagu's only son got kidnapped, and all attempts to
recover the child failed. Time went on, and he was regarded as
dead. On a certain 1st of May the sweeps arrived to clean Mrs.
Montagu's chimneys, and a climbing-boy was sent up to his horrible
task. Like Tom in the Water-Babies, he lost his way in the network
of flues and emerged in a different room to the one he had started
from. Something in the aspect of the room struck a half-familiar,
half-forgotten chord in his brain. He turned the handle of the
door of the next room and found a lady seated there. Then he
remembered.
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