d the other.

"If you refuse, mistress," said Editha with a careless shrug of the
shoulders, "you and your worthy lord go back to the gutter where I
picked you up ... and within three months of that time, I should
doubtless have the satisfaction of seeing you both at the whipping-post,
for of a truth you would be driven to stealing or some other equally
unavowable means of livelihood."

"We could send _you_ there," said Mistress Endicott, striving to
suppress her own rising fury, "if we but said the word."

"Nay! you would not be believed, mistress ... but even so, I do not
perceive how my social ruin would benefit you."

"Since we are doomed anyhow ... after this night's work," said the woman
sullenly.

"Nay! but why should you take so gloomy a view of the situation? ... My
Lord Protector hath forgot our existence by now, believe me ... and of a
surety his patrol hath not yet knocked at our door.... And methinks,
mistress," added Editha significantly, "'tis not in _your_ interest to
quarrel with me."

"I have no wish to quarrel with you," quoth Mistress Endicott, who
apparently had come to the end of her resistance, and no doubt had known
all along that her fortunes were too much bound up with those of
Mistress de Chavasse to allow of a rupture between them.

"Then everything is vastly satisfactory," said Editha with forced
gayety. "I rely on you, mistress, and on Endicott's undoubted talents to
bring this last matter to a successful issue to-night. ... Remember,
mistress ... I rely on you."

Perhaps Mistress Endicott would have liked to prolong the argument. As a
matter of fact, neither she nor her husband counted the risks of a
midnight fracas of great moment to themselves: they had so very little
to lose. A precarious existence based on illicit deeds of all sorts had
rendered them hard and reckless.

All they wished was to be well paid for the risks they ran; neither of
them was wholly unacquainted with the pillory, and it held no great
terrors for them. There were so many unavowable pleasures these days,
which required a human cloak to cover the identity of the real
transgressor, that people like Master and Mistress Endicott prospered
vastly.

The case of Mistress de Chavasse's London house wherein the ex-actress
had some few years ago established a gaming club, together with its
various emoluments attached thereunto, suited the Endicotts'
requirements to perfection: but the woman desired an increase o