The story told by Mrs. Jasher commenced with a short account of her early life.  It appeared that her father was a ruined gentleman and a gambler, and that her mother had been an actress.  She was dragged up in a Bohemian sort of way until she attained a marriageable age, when her mother, who seemed to have been both wicked and hard-hearted, forced her to marry a comparatively wealthy man called Jasher.  The elderly husband—­for Jasher was not young—­treated his wife very badly, and, infected with the spirit of gambling by her father, lost all his money.  Mrs. Jasher then went with him to America and performed on the stage in order to keep the home together.  She had one child, but it died, much to her grief, yet also much to her relief, as she was so miserable and poor.  Mrs. Jasher gave a scanty account of sordid years of trouble and trial, of failure and sorrow.  She and her husband roamed all over America, and then went to Australia and New Zealand, where they lived a wretched existence for many years.  Finally the husband died of strong drink at an advanced age, leaving Mrs. Jasher a somewhat elderly widow.

The poor woman again took to the stage and tried to earn her bread, but was unsuccessful.  Afterwards she lectured.  Then she kept a boarding establishment, and finally went out as a nurse.  In every way, it would seem, she tried to keep her head above water, and roamed the world like a bird of passage, finding rest nowhere for the sole of her foot.  Yet throughout her story both the young men could see that she had always aspired to a quiet and decent, respectable existence, and that only force of circumstances had flung her into the whirlpool of life.

“As I said,” remarked Random at this stage, “the miserable creature was more sinned against than sinning.”

“Her moral sense seemed to have become blunted, however,” said Archie doubtfully.

“And small wonder, amidst such surroundings; but it seems to me that she was much better under the circumstances than many another woman would have been.  Go on.”

In Melbourne Mrs. Jasher made a lucky speculation in mines, which brought her one thousand pounds.  With this she came to England, and resolved to make a bid for respectability.  Chance led her into the neighborhood of Gartley, and thinking that if she set up her tent in this locality she might manage to marry an officer from the Fort—­since amidst such dismal surroundings a young man might be the more easily fascinated by a woman of the world—­she took the cottage amidst the marshes at a small rent.  Here she hoped to eke out what money she had left—­a few hundreds—­until the coveted marriage should take place.  Afterwards she met Professor Braddock and determined to marry him, as a man more easy to manage.  She was successful in enlisting Lucy on her side, and until the green mummy brought its bad luck to the Pyramids everything went capitally.