I remarked to her, as we were standing together one evening after the women had been particularly noisy in coming in from the shop,-- "I am afraid I shall be obliged to have some of the women put in solitary if they continue to be so troublesome when they come in to supper." "Afraid!" she echoed scornfully, "I like to get them locked up." I looked in blank astonishment upon the human monster before me. "Are you in earnest?" I asked. "Do you mean to say that you like to add to the hard lot of those poor creatures by that dreadful punishment of solitary?" "Yes, I'm sure I do!" And with a coarse laugh she turned away. I hoped she could not mean it; but all of her actions, and all the reports that I heard of her, tended to produce the conviction that she had formed a just estimate of her own character; and, upon that, made a correct representation of herself. That remark of mine hit wide of the mark. Instead of touching her compassion it roused the spirit of mischief. She was on duty that night in prison, and, restless as the renowned adventurer who went to and fro in the earth seeking whom he might devour, she went on a search through the cells of the first division where my kitchen women lodged. The Deputy had ordered me to supply the women, on that division, with all the blankets they wanted, because they worked in the kitchens where it was hot and the air full of steam. And being the lowest tier of cells, they were colder than the others. I had done as he directed me, so that some of them had four or five. Allen, my steam woman, an old woman of nearly sixty, had six. Mrs. Hardhack stripped their beds, and counted their blankets. She took off all but two, and locked them up in a black cell. The sweep who sat 'tending the door saw the proceeding, and ran to tell me what was going on. "Mrs. Hardhack is stripping the blankets off the women's beds, and she hasn't left poor old Allen but two little strips of rags." I went to see what she was doing. No sooner did her eye light on me than she commenced to show me how well educated she was in the use of the dictionary. "Here are your women with six blankets, and the rule is that they shall have only two. A double one and a single one." I was in no wise accountable to her, and did not think it necessary to answer. I stood and looked at her. She went on,-- "You have no right to give your women more than the rest have. You have no right to give out blankets in that way, and the Master will know it directly. Here are your women with six blankets, and my shop women with only two. It's a shame to treat your women so much better than you do mine." When she had exhausted herself, I said, quietly, but loud enough for them all to hear,--