Thank you, no,’ replied Kitty, with a faint smile as she put down her empty cup; ‘I’m going now.’ Spilsby was struck by the educated manner in which she spoke and by the air of refinement about her. ‘Go home, my dear,’ he said, kindly, leaning forward; ‘this ain’t no time for a young gal like you to be out.’ ‘I’ve got no home,’ said Kitty, bitterly, ‘but if you could direct me--’ ‘Here, you,’ cried a shrill female voice, as a woman dressed in a flaunting blue gown rushed up to the stall, ‘give us a pie quick; I’m starvin’; I’ve got no time to wait.’ ‘No, nor manners either,’ said Spilsby, with a remonstrating bleat, pushing a pie towards her; ‘who are you, a-shovin’ your betters, Portwine Annie?’ ‘My betters,’ scoffed the lady in blue, looking Kitty up and down with a disdainful smile on her painted face; ‘where are they, I’d like to know?’ ‘’Ere, ‘old your tongue,’ bleated Spilsby, angrily, ‘or I’ll tell the perlice at the corner.’ ‘And much I care,’ retorted the shrill-voiced female, ‘seeing he’s a particular friend of mine.’ ‘For God’s sake tell me where I can find a place to stop in,’ whispered Kitty to the coffee-stall keeper. ‘Come with me, dear,’ said Portwine Annie, eagerly, having overheard what was said, but Kitty shrank back, and then gathering her cloak around her ran down the street. ‘What do you do that for, you jade?’ said Spilsby, in a vexed tone; ‘don’t you see the girl’s a lady.’ ‘Of course she is,’ retorted the other, finishing her pie; ‘we’re all ladies; look at our dresses, ain’t they fine enough? Look at our houses, aren’t they swell enough?’ ‘Yes, and yer morals, ain’t they bad enough?’ said Spilsby, washing up the dirty plate. ‘They’re quite as good as many ladies in society, at all events,’ replied Portwine Annie, with a toss of her head as she walked off. ‘Oh, it’s a wicked world,’ bleated Spilsby, in a soft voice, looking after the retreating figure. ‘I’m sorry for that poor gal--I am indeed--but this ain’t business,’ and once more raising his voice he cried up his wares, ‘Oh, lovely; ain’t they muttony? Spilsby’s specials, all ‘ot; one penny.’ Meanwhile Kitty was walking quickly down Elizabeth Street, and turning round the corner ran right up against a woman. ‘Hullo!’ said the woman, catching her wrist, ‘where are you off to?’ ‘Let me go,’ cried Kitty, in a panting voice. The woman was tall and handsome, but her face had a kindly expression on it, and she seemed touched with the terrified tone of the girl. ‘My poor child,’ she said, half contemptuously, releasing her, ‘I won’t hurt you. Go if you like. What are you doing out at this time of the night?’ ‘Nothing,’ faltered Kitty, with quivering lips, lifting her face up to the pale moon. The other saw it in the full light and marked how pure and innocent it was. ‘Go home, dear,’ she said, in a soft tone, touching the girl kindly on the shoulder, ‘it’s not fit for you to be out at this hour. You are not one of us.’