“The editor must be put in prison,” she said; “he must be caught and put in prison.  Mrs. Jones the charwoman has a second cousin once removed, whose first cousin is married to a policeman, and Mrs. Jones is coming here to-morrow, and I’ll get her to see her second cousin, and the second cousin shall see her first cousin who is married to a policeman, and he will tell us what is to be done.  That’s going to the fountainhead, ain’t it, Miss Jasmine?  Never you fear, miss, darling, that editor shall be locked up in prison, and be made to give back your money.  Never you fear, dear Miss Jasmine, it will all come right when Mrs. Jones sees her second cousin who has a first cousin who is married to a policeman!”

Poppy became quite cheerful when she remembered Mrs. Jones’s remarkable means of getting at a policeman, but Jasmine could not be comforted; she shook her head almost petulantly.

“It’s all most puzzling for me,” she said, “about Mrs. Jones and her policemen; it sounds exactly like the House that Jack Built, and I shall have a swimming head myself if I listen to you.  No, Poppy, that policeman will never lock the wicked editor up in prison; he is a great deal too clever to allow himself to be locked up.  Oh, dear!  Poppy, what shall I do?  All your money is gone, and my story is gone, and I know you are wanting boots as badly as possible.  You are a dear, brave Poppy, but I know you have not a boot to your foot.”

“Yes, Miss Jasmine, I has, I has one boot and one shoe; the shoe is an out-door one, and heavy, and the boot is a light one.  Worn together, they make one walk a little one-sided, and the ladies, in particular Miss Slowcum, don’t like it, but, lor’, that don’t matter nothing to speak of; they can’t do nothing to me except tack on a few more names to Sarah.  It don’t fret me, Miss Jasmine, and it needn’t fret you.”

“All the same, I am going to get you your money, Poppy.  I have absolutely made up my mind.  I don’t know how to do it, but do it I will.  I had to come here to-night to tell you what had really happened; but now I am going home.  You won’t have to wear that dreadful boot and shoe together much longer.”

After this Jasmine managed to walk through the hall without being detected by Miss Slowcum; and very tired and weary, in process of time she found her way back to the Palace Beautiful.  She drank a glass of milk which Bridget had laid ready for her, and ate two or three slices of bread and butter.  Then she went into the little bedroom, with its three pretty white beds, and opening her own special trunk began to examine its contents.  She was dreadfully frightened at what she was about to do, but all the same she was determined to do it.  She would pawn or sell what little valuables she possessed to give Poppy back her wages.