high wall. The blunt flames
of the fire opposite threw a sombre glow on it.

The girl said, 'And don't you go hopping into debt, my young
cock-sparrow, or you'll know one side o' the turnkey better than t'
other.' She had a friend with her who chid her for speaking so freely.

'Is it too late to go in to-night?' I asked.

She answered that it was, and that she and her friend were the persons
to show me the way in there. Her friend answered more sensibly: 'Yes,
you can't go in there before some time--in the morning.'

I learnt from her that the Bench was a debtors' prison.

The saucy girl of the pair asked me for money. I handed her a
crown-piece.

'Now won't you give another big bit to my friend?' said she.

I had no change, and the well-mannered girl bade me never mind, the
saucy one pressed for it, and for a treat. She was amusing in her talk
of the quantity of different fires she had seen; she had also seen
accidental-death corpses, but never a suicide in the act; and here
she regretted the failure of her experiences. This conversation of a
good-looking girl amazed me. Presently Temple cried, 'A third house
caught, and no engines yet! Richie, there's an old woman in her
night-dress; we can't stand by.'

The saucy girl joked at the poor half-naked old woman. Temple stood
humping and agitating his shoulders like a cat before it springs. Both
the girls tried to stop us. The one I liked best seized my watch, and
said, 'Leave this to me to take care of,' and I had no time to wrestle
for it. I had a glimpse of her face that let me think she was not
fooling me, the watch-chain flew off my neck, Temple and I clove
through the crowd of gapers. We got into the heat, which was in a minute
scorching. Three men were under the window; they had sung out to the
old woman above to drop a blanket--she tossed them a water-jug. She was
saved by the blanket of a neighbour. Temple and I strained at one corner
of it to catch her.

She came down, the men said, like a singed turkey. The flames
illuminated her as she descended. There was a great deal of laughter
in the crowd, but I was shocked. Temple shared the painful impression
produced on me. I cannot express my relief when the old woman was
wrapped in the blanket which had broken her descent, and stood like
a blot instead of a figure. I handed a sovereign to the three men,
complimenting them on the humanity of their dispositions. They cheered
us, and the crowd echoed the chee