Miss Striem did not carry out her threat of charging Mavis for the extras she refused to eat. In time, Mavis got used to the food supplied by "Dawes'"; she did not swallow everything that was put upon her plate, indeed, she did not eat with good appetite at three consecutive meals; but she could sit at the table in the feeding-room without overwhelming feelings of repulsion, and, by shutting her eyes to the unconcealed mastication of the girl opposite, could often pick enough to satisfy her immediate needs. The evening was the time when she was most hungry; after the walk which she made a point of taking in all weathers, she would get quite famished, when the morsel of Canadian cheese and sour bread supplied for supper was wholly insufficient. At first, she was tempted to enter the cheaper restaurants with which the streets about Oxford Street abound; but these extravagances made serious inroads on her scanty capital and had to be given up, especially as she was saving up to buy new boots, of which she was in need. She confided in Miss Meakin, who was now looking better and plumper, since nearly every evening she had taken to supping with her "boy's" mother, who owned a stationery business in the Holloway Road. "I know, it's dreadful. I used to be like that before I met Sylvester," Miss Meakin answered to Mavis's complaint. "But what am I to do?" asked Mavis. "Have you ever tried brisket?" "What's that?" "Beef!" "Beef?" "You get it at the ham and beef shop. You get quite a lot for five pence, and when they get to know you they give you good weight." "But you must have something with it," remarked Mavis. "Then you go to a baker's and buy a penn'orth of bread." "But where am I to eat it?" asked Mavis. "In some quiet street," replied Miss Meakin. "Why not?" "With one's fingers?" "There's no one to see you." Mavis looked dubious. "It's either that or picking up 'boys,'" remarked Miss Meakin. "Picking up boys!" echoed Mavis, with a note of indignation in her voice. "It's what the girls do here if they don't want to go hungry." "But I don't quite understand." "Didn't you come here through old Orgles's influence?" asked Miss Meakin guardedly. "Nothing of the kind; one of the partners got me in." "Sorry! I heard it was that beast Orgles. But most of the 'boys' who try and speak to you in the street are only too glad to stand a girl a feed." "But why should they?" "Don't you know?" "It would put me under an obligation to the man," remarked Mavis. "Of course; that's what the gentlemen want." "But it might lead silly girls into all sorts of trouble." "I think most of us know how to behave like ladies and drop the gentleman when he wants to go too far." "Good heavens!" cried Mavis, who was taken aback by the vulgarity of Miss Meakin's point of view. Perhaps the latter resented the moral superiority contained in her friend's exclamation, for she said with aggrieved voice: