Pictures and Problems from London Police CourtsHolmes, Thomas
History
Pictures and Problems from London Police Courts
Holmes, Thomas
Crime -- England -- London; Poor -- England -- London
I was afraid of a storm, but Mr. Milne handled her with considerable
tact, telling her that it was usual for ladies of quality and means to
be interviewed and sketched, so at last she agreed to sit still. But
that poor old face could not keep still. Change after change passed
over it; all the emotions of her queer mind rang in quick succession
their never-ending changes upon it, and Mr. Phil May had a hopeless
task. Mr. Milne could get her to talk, and talk she did fast enough,
but what a jumble that talk was! from one thing suddenly to another;
sensible talk and silly talk; half laughing and half crying; sometimes
pleased like a little child, at others raging with passion; tales of
her own girlhood; bits of romance and love. She was just beginning to
get coarse when I asked her to recite something for the gentlemen. Out
came a long string of verses descriptive of the books of the Old and
New Testament. Some hymns followed, and then on to her favourite Job,
from whom she recited one chapter perfectly. As soon as it was finished
she turned to Mr. Phil May and said: ‘Didn’t I say that correctly?’
I have it on the authority of Mr. Milne that Mr. May looked very
confused, and blushed when this question was put to him. I am bound to
confess that I did not see that blush, but I am inclined to think that
Mr. Milne wished us to infer that he knew all about Job. Jane talked
about those ‘nice young gentlemen’ to me many times afterwards, even
when nearing her end in the asylum.
I had bought a new trunk for Jane--an iron one--and my wife had packed
it ready for the journey to Duxhurst. I called her attention to it,
and told her it was time we were going. She indignantly refused a
‘tin box,’ as she termed it, and declared she would have a leathern
travelling trunk, with ‘J. C.’ painted on it. Argument and promises
were of no avail. For a ‘lady possessed of £17,000 to visit Lady Henry
Somerset with a tin box! No, indeed, not Miss Cakebread!’ To end the
matter, she gathered up her brown-paper parcels, went straight to
Tottenham Station, and, with some money that Mr. Phil May and Mr. Milne
had given her, paid her fare to Sawbridgeworth, where, in less than an
hour after her arrival, she was deposited in the local ‘lock-up,’ and
was next day sentenced to a month’s imprisonment in Cambridge Gaol.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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