at his expense.  One such put a sudden end to the exhibition.  A young ragamuffin drew near with a handful of rich mud, and carefully cast it right into the singer’s inverted mouth.  The man was on his feet in an instant, and pursuing the assailant, who, however, succeeded in escaping down an alley hard by.  Returning, the man went from one to another in the crowd, holding out his hand.  Harriet passed on into the bar.

“Slimy’s up to his larks to-night,” exclaimed Mrs. Sprowl, with a laugh, as she welcomed her visitor in the bar-parlour.  “He’ll be losin’ his sweet temper just now, see if he don’t, an’ then one o’ them chaps ‘ll get a bash i’ the eye.”

“I always like to see him singing on his head,” said Harriet, who seemed at once thoroughly at her ease in the atmosphere of beer and pipes.

“It’s funny, ain’t it?  And ‘ow’s the world been a-usin’ you, Harriet?  Seen anything more o’ that affectionate friend o’ yourn?”

This was said with a grin, and a significant wink.

“Have you found out anything about her?” asked Harriet eagerly.

“Why yes, I have; somethin’ as ’ll amuse you.  It’s just as I thought.”

“How do you mean?”

“Why, Bella, was in ‘ere th’ other night, so I says to her, ‘Bella,’ I says, ‘didn’t you never hear of a girl called Ida Starr?’ I says.  ‘Course I did,’ she says.  ‘One o’ the ‘igh an’ ‘aughty lot, an’ she lived by herself somewhere in the Strand.’  So it’s just as I told you.”

“But what is she doing now?”

“You say she’s turned modest.”

“I can’t make her out quite,” said Harriet, reflecting, with her head on one side.  “I’ve been at her lodgings tonight, and, whilst she was out of the room, I happened to get sight of a lot of pawn-tickets, for gold chains and sealskins, and I don’t know what.”

“Spouted ’em all when she threw up the job, I s’pose,” suggested Mrs. Sprowl.  “You’re sure she does go to work?”

“Yes, I’ve had somebody to follow her and watch her.  There’s Waymark goes to see her often, and I shouldn’t wonder if she half keeps him; he’s just that kind of fellow.”

“You haven’t caught no one else going there?” asked Mrs. Sprowl, with another of her intense winks.

“No, I haven’t, not yet,” replied Harriet, with sudden vehemence, “but I believe he does go there, or else sees her somewhere else.”

“Well,” said the landlady, with an air of generous wisdom, “I told you from the first as I ’adn’t much opinion of men as is so anxious to have their wives friendly with other women.  There’s always something at the bottom of it, you may bet.  It’s my belief he’s one too many for you, Harriet; you’re too simple-minded to catch him.”

“I’ll have a good try, though,” cried the girl, deadly pale with passion.  “Perhaps I’m not so simple as you think.  I’m pretty quick in tumbling to things—­no fear.  If they think I don’t notice what goes on, they must take me for a damned silly fool, that’s all!  Why, I’ve seen them wink at each other, when they thought I wasn’t looking.”