“May I make so bold as to ask, Sig-nor,” she commenced, “’ow long the Doctor means to be a’curing Hannah Stubbs?” Ricardo stopped short, looking much like a school boy detected in some forbidden pleasure. “_How long?_” he stammered. “Really, Mrs. Battleby, that is a strange question to put to me! How should I know? I am not a medical man, and if I were, it is a thing on which I should find it impossible to speak with certainty. A long time, Doctor Steinberg anticipates, I suppose, since he offered to pay you for the investigation by the week. Surely, you are not tired of your agreement already.” “I didn’t say so, Sig-nor,” replied the landlady, with the same stiff manner, “but Hannah Stubbs, she is a very young girl, placed under my charge, as you may say, by ’er mother, and I think it is only proper as I should know what sort of physic it is, as Doctor Steinberg is a’treating ’er with!” The Professor actually trembled. Had this woman obtained any knowledge of their proceedings, and was she about to draw back from her bargain, and forbid the girl visiting them any more? “What a very strange lady you are!” he answered (Mrs. Battleby would have flown in his face, had he called her a “woman”). “I know nothing of medicines. How can I say if it be one thing or another? You must ask the Doctor! But it seems to have done Hannah good already. You should be satisfied with that!” “Perhaps I should be, if I were sure of it,” said Mrs. Battleby oracularly, “but I ain’t sure. I was kep’ up late last night, and she was sayin’ some very queer things in ’er sleep, as I didn’t quite like! You gentlemen must be keerful what you do with a young gal like Hannah, for she ain’t too strong in ’er ’ead, as any one can see.” “Of course we will be--we are, very careful,” replied Ricardo, as he shuffled down the stairs as quickly as he could. This unexpected interview with his landlady kept haunting him all day. Whilst he was attempting to instil the liquid Italian accents into the ear of the high-born, but dull Lady Alethea De Ruben, his thoughts were wandering back to Soho, and he was speculating what Mrs. Battleby meant by her sudden interest in Hannah Stubbs, and whether she intended to make a fuss about the girl visiting two men by herself, or to try and strike a higher bargain for her services.