When Hester left the jail she went straight to Sparrow Street. She knew that Bet had gone back there, and felt pretty certain either that she would see the girl herself or be able to leave a message for her with one of the other lodgers. She climbed the three pair of stairs, and knocked at the door of Bet's room. A voice, not Bet's, invited her in, and she found herself in a cloud of tobacco-smoke, and in the presence of both Granger and Dent, who were lounging one on each side of the fire, smoking very coarse tobacco, and imbibing beer from a great jug which stood on a little deal table between them. Both men started, and removed their pipes from their mouth, when Hester entered. "Well, Hetty, what's your pleasure?" asked Granger, in a would-be facetious tone. "Going, Dent?" For the younger man had risen to his feet and was preparing to leave the room. "Yes, I may as well see to that matter by the docks," mumbled Dent, as he made for the door. Hester stepped between it and him. "A word with you first, Isaac," she said, in that rich, peculiar voice of hers. "I want to speak with Bet--where is she?" Hester laid her hand on the man's shoulder. "Where's the girl, Elizabeth Granger, Isaac Bent?" she said. "Tell me that much, and then you can go." Dent laughed disagreeably. "Hands off, Hetty," he said. "Bless yer! What do _I_ know of Elizabeth Granger? Ask her father--he's there--the girl ain't nought to me. Stand away from the door, Hetty Wright--I'm in no end of a hurry." "So am I, and so is Will," said Hetty, without budging an inch. "We want Bet--we want the gel what you, Isaac Dent, has stolen away. She was Will's--she was his promised wife, and the good words 'most read over them, and they was very nearly wed. You stepped atween them, and stole her from Will. You're a thief out and out,--you take away a man's character from him, and you part him from his lass as well as stealing bank-notes and sealskin purses from ladies. Oh--I know you! And I'd rather be Will, lying in prison this minute, than I'd be you. Yes, you can go now, for I ha' said my say, and I'd never get the truth out of you ef I was to wait here forever But I'll find Bet, and she shan't be your wife if I can help it. I ain't a singer for nothing; I ain't the most popular singer in the slums for nought. So you needn't defy me; for if I like I can make matters hot for you." Hester had not only now moved away from the door, but she had flung it open, and Dent, muttering much, with his face white, and a very hangdog expression on it, slunk down the stairs. He said to himself: "There ain't no use in life bandying words with her; and it's true what she says--there ain't a man or woman in Liverpool what wouldn't do her bidding." When Dent was gone Hester went up to Granger, and, altering her tactics, began to ask him what he knew about Bet. The man was looking up at her in dull surprise, and with an expression of heavy, open-mouthed admiration.