She was oddly dressed, with a profusion of chiffons which became her small form peculiarly well. So far, Edith had not heard her voice, but, as Mrs Bankes reeled before the force of her assailant's blow, she broke into a peal of hearty laughter, which, under the circumstances, seemed out of place as proceeding from those pretty lips. "Poor thing! She doesn't seem to like it! Give her another; teach her how to swallow a tooth or two." But even the creature who had struck her seemed to shrink from a display of such gratuitous brutality. "There's plenty more where that came from, and I expect she'll have 'em before I've done with her. But for the present I daresay she'll find that that's enough--it'll give her a taste of what's to follow." Edith, regarding the speaker, realised what a typical virago she was, almost masculine in build, big and broad, slovenly in her attire; her draggled bonnet was a little on one side of her head, and her black serge dress covered with stains. To Mrs Bankes' frightened eyes, the lust of combat was written largely over her. "I've got no time to waste. Let's put the slut through her paces, and have done with her. The sooner we're shut of her the better I'll be pleased." It was the woman who resembled a publican's wife who spoke. No one said her nay. She spoke to Edith. "First of all, hand over what you've got." Edith stared at her bewildered. "Hand over what I've got? I don't understand. I've got nothing." The woman brought down the palm of her hand with a bang upon the table. "No blarney, hand over what you've got, before we take it from you." "All I have is in there." The young wife held out her purse with a trembling hand. The virago, snatching it from her, subjected its contents to a rude examination. "Here's a card, a bill, two stamps, and a threepenny bit,--and that's all." "That's all I have--every penny. I give you my word it is." The four women stared at her, as if the surprise caused by her statement had deprived them of their power of speech. It was the publican's wife who was the first to find her tongue. "Of all the beauties I ever heard of!--if you haven't got the cheek of fifty! Why, you yourself sent word that you'd got about four hundred pounds' worth!" "I sent word? Four hundred pounds' worth of what?" The lady became, on a sudden, very angry. "If you try that on with me, you two-faced cat, I'll smash your face in with my own hands!" The little woman poured oil on the troubled waters--in a fashion of her own. "Let's begin calmly, at any rate. Let me deal with this person, we may arrive at an understanding quicker that way--she seems to require understanding." She addressed herself to Edith, in a manner which that lady found sufficiently startling. "We will begin at the beginning. That will prevent our leaving anything in obscurity. There seems to be a good deal of obscurity about just now. You will remember that when you came out of Wandsworth jail--"