It is the law of England that until one o'clock on Sunday morning all public-houses are obliged to be closed; this law is enforced with severe punishment to those who transgress it. Nevertheless now, a little before noon on this Sabbath morning, it was to a tavern or public-house that Helen bent her steps. No policeman was there to hinder or say her nay. Giving Robin a penny to play pitch-and-toss with some other boys, and telling him to wait for her, she pushed aside the swinging door and went in. She entered on an unusual scene. This tavern or public-house was evidently meant to combine a twofold object. The last things that could apparently be placed in conjunction met here; the tavern was also a jeweller's shop. It might perhaps be better described as a second-hand plate and jewel bazaar, to which was joined a drinking-bar. Helen, on entering, walked down a passage, and opened another door covered with green baize. Here she was greeted with an immense cloud of cigar smoke. In the centre of the room were a crowd of people, some fifty or sixty, unmistakably Jews. Round the room were ranged tables literally heaped with precious things--silver spoons, silver tea and breakfast services, tea-kettles, cups, vases. Watches were in such numbers that they might have been sold by the half hundred. On every side brisk business was going on. When Helen found herself in the midst of this busy, motley crowd she glanced eagerly round; then, apparently relieved from some anxiety, marched up with a firm step and business-like air to an old Jew, whose table, containing rings, brooches, studs, &c., was a little apart from the others, and pulling out an old purse extracted from it her treasure--the valuable diamond ring she had shown to Robin the night before. The old Jew examined it eagerly, turned it over, flung it on the counter, took it up again; finally offered Helen fifty pounds for a gem worth a thousand. Helen, however, had set her own value on the ring, and was too clever and knowing to be cheated out of what she considered her due. She would give the Jew the ring for one hundred sovereigns, paid down in gold on the spot. Whatever the reason, this offer was not acceded to; and Helen, with the valuable ring still in her possession, left the shop to try her fortune elsewhere. She was excited now, and defiant. Calling Robin, she went along the street, for a house of a similar character was to be found at the other end. Poor Helen! she never thought of danger, when danger of the kind she most dreaded was at her heels. A policeman now followed her down the street. When she reached its end, she again told Robin to wait for her, and promising to return in a few moments, turned the corner. Then and there she was arrested, and the diamond ring being found on her person, she was carried off to prison charged with the burglary she was engaged in two nights before. CHAPTER V. _JUSTICE AND THE LAW MIGHT HAVE STOOD STILL._