ture was finished; I hardly saw her alive.'

'Then they've been cheating you ever since, that's all. I know their
nice little ways.'

A woman may love one man and despise another, but on general feminine
principles she will do her best to save the man she despises from being
defrauded. Her loved one can look to himself, but the other man, being
obviously an idiot, needs protection.

'I don't think Mr. Beeton cheats much,' said Dick. Bessie was flouncing
up and down the room, and he was conscious of a keen sense of enjoyment
as he heard the swish of her skirts and the light step between.

'Tea and muffins,' she said shortly, when the ring at the bell was
answered; 'two teaspoonfuls and one over for the pot. I don't want
the old teapot that was here when I used to come. It don't draw. Get
another.'

The housemaid went away scandalised, and Dick chuckled. Then he began to
cough as Bessie banged up and down the studio disturbing the dust.

'What are you trying to do?'

'Put things straight. This is like unfurnished lodgings. How could you
let it go so?'

'How could I help it? Dust away.'

She dusted furiously, and in the midst of all the pother entered Mrs.

Beeton. Her husband on his return had explained the situation, winding
up with the peculiarly felicitous proverb, 'Do unto others as you would
be done by.' She had descended to put into her place the person who
demanded muffins and an uncracked teapot as though she had a right to
both.

'Muffins ready yet?' said Bess, still dusting. She was no longer a drab
of the streets but a young lady who, thanks to Dick's check, had paid
her premium and was entitled to pull beer-handles with the best. Being
neatly dressed in black she did not hesitate to face Mrs. Beeton, and
there passed between the two women certain regards that Dick would have
appreciated. The situation adjusted itself by eye. Bessie had won, and
Mrs. Beeton returned to cook muffins and make scathing remarks about
models, hussies, trollops, and the like, to her husband.

'There's nothing to be got of interfering with him, Liza,' he said.
'Alf, you go along into the street to play. When he isn't crossed he's
as kindly as kind, but when he's crossed he's the devil and all. We took
too many little things out of his rooms since he was blind to be that
particular about what he does. They ain't no objects to a blind man, of
course, but if it was to come into court we'd get the sack. Yes, I did
introduce