es it very
difficult to say where a voice comes from. At last we saw the fellow
at the window, and we went up. He met us at the door. He said,
'Policemen, the lady knocked at my door and asked for a drink; I
didn't notice that she was drunk, and I gave her a brandy-and-soda,
and before I could stop her she undressed herself!' There was the
lady right enough, in her chemise, sitting in the arm-chair, as drunk
as a lord, humming and singing as gay, sir, as any little bird. Then
the party says, 'Policeman, do your duty!' I says, 'What is my duty?'
He says, 'Policeman, I'll report you!' I says, 'Report yourself. I
knows my duty.' He says, 'Policeman, remove that woman!' I says, 'I
can't remove her in that state. Tell her to dress herself and I'll
remove her.' Well, the long and the short of it, sir, is, that we had
to dress her between us, and I never had such a job."

The exceeding difficulties of this toilette, as narrated by the
stolid policeman, made Mike laugh consummately. Then alternately, and
in conjunction, the policemen told stories concerning pursuits
through the areas and cellars with which King's Bench Walk abounds.

"It was from Paper Buildings that the little girl came from who tried
to drown herself in the fountain."

"Oh, I haven't heard about her," said Mike. "She tried to drown
herself in the fountain, did she? Crossed in love; tired of life;
which was it?"

"Neither, sir; she was a bit drunk, that was about it. My mate could
tell you about her, he pulled her out. She's up before the magistrate
to-day again."

"Just fancy, bringing a person up before a magistrate because she
wanted to commit suicide! Did any one ever hear such rot? If our own
persons don't belong to us, I don't know what does. But tell me about
her."

"She went up to see a party that lives in Pump Court. We was at home,
so she picks up her skirts, runs across here, and throws herself in.
I see her run across, and follows her; but I had to get into the
water to get her out; I was wet to the waist--there's about four feet
of water in that 'ere fountain."

"And she?"

"She had fainted. We had to send for a cab to get her to the station,
sir."

At that moment the presence of the sergeant hurried the policemen
away, and Mike was left alone. The warm night air was full of the
fragrance of the leaves, and he was alive to the sensation of the
foliage spreading above him, and deepening amid the branches of the
tall plane-trees that s