"’Ill,’ she laughed, and her laugh, as her speech, told her origin and life. ’D. T. ay? Well, I was a-thinking of cutting it just now--that settles the business!’ "’Wait a moment. Lord Vancome is not suffering from _delirium tremens_.’ "I said this, not because I wished for her services, but because there were enough reports about already without her adding a false one. "’Who are you?’ I asked. "’My!’ she said. ’Well, you are a beauty! Where do you hang out not to know Totsey Ben of the ---- Theatre?’ "I was not previously aware of Totsey Ben’s existence, but though she did not give me the details in words, I now knew that she took a very minor part in a comic opera being played at that rather disreputable theatre. I could see also the vile and filthy slum in which she had passed her childhood, and many of the coarse and revolting experiences connected with her early life before she blossomed out into a ballet-girl. Nor were the visions connected with this transformation scene much more entrancing. "This girl, and such as she, without refinement, possessing only the coarse animal attractiveness, had been the chosen associates of Vera’s husband, a man who had been brought up surrounded with all the delicate associations of noble birth and culture. It takes many centuries to create a gentleman and refined taste; but sometimes only a few years to revert to the lowest order of civilized brutishness. "’Well,’ I said to the girl, ’I do not fancy you would be of much use as a nurse, so perhaps you might as well pack your things and go.’ "’I reckon you’re about right," she answered. ’But before I clear out, I will have my money or know why.’ "She went up to Vancome and shook him. "’Leave him alone,’ I said. ’Can you not see that he is ill?’ "’Ill!’ she cried. ’I knows that there sort of illness! Ain’t a bad sort neither till you wakes up with a splitter!’ She took hold of a half empty whisky-decanter that was on the table, and putting the bottle to her mouth, took a draught of the raw spirit. "’Girl,’ I said, ’you shall have your money; it is dearly enough earned.’ And I laid some notes on the table. Her manner immediately changed. "’Oh! you’re a swell, are you?’ she asked; and I was surprised at the extraordinary difference the new expression made in her face. She looked now what some men would call pretty, and her manner of speaking became less offensively vulgar. ’Sorry I made a row, but my temper’s been tried simply awful these last few days. I know how to behave, I do!’ And she curtseyed to me with her cheek resting on her hand, which was evidently part of the accomplishment taught her at the theatre. "’Go and look in the glass,’ I said. "She took up the notes, and going to a long mirror, looked, expecting to see the simpering expression called up for the occasion; but though there is little hope of rousing such a one even by fear, I thought it better to give her one chance before she left.