As the vivacious woman wriggled on the seat she afforded occasional peeps of a rusty quilted petticoat with a red flannel lining. “She done it on the Monday as we see her on the Sunday,” Pamela heard her say mysteriously. She fell to wondering _what_ she had done: something very reprehensible certainly, judging from the shocked expression of the elder woman, who nodded sourly and tilted her paper bag. “She says to me, ‘Why don’t you take in a lodger?--some young lady as is engaged all day in business. There’s the spare room a-goin’ beggin’,’ she says. But I aint goin’ to do it, Mrs. Whitbourn; would you? Oh, ’e’s a good ’usban’. But there!”--the dusty head with the black chip hat shook sideways and the quick tongue lolled out--“you never knows nothin’, do yer?” “No, yer never does,” confirmed the solemn woman. “Lor’! ’ere we are at the church. Well, good-by, Mrs. Whitbourn. See you again some day.” They kissed lusciously; the sateen petticoat with the frowsy red lining whisked away. Pamela stared straight in front of her thoughtfully. “Yer never knows nothin’, do yer? No, yer never does,” kept striking in her head. “Yer never does.” She didn’t. Strange, that a suspicion of the particular wrong which Edred might do her had never before occurred to her. Had she found the secret of his coldness and unconcern--in another woman? Was there somebody else? First, a fierce, instinctive jealousy swept her; then she wished ardently that it might be so. That might be the deathblow of her mad, headlong love for him. She went to the very end of the journey, then took another omnibus back. At Bond Street she alighted and walked down to the dainty shop where she usually had tea. The woman’s words still haunted her. “Yer never knows nothin’, do yer?” One might go on for a lifetime, in a nest of different worlds like London, and never know. That was perfectly true. She turned her sleeve up furtively and drank in the angry purple of the bruises on her wrist. Was another woman responsible for them? It was a new idea and a very enticing one. CHAPTER XVI.