ed. "SHE'S an assault case; brought in last night; badly kicked
and bruised about the head and shoulders. Speak to the mother. She'll
explain it all to you."

Travers and I moved over to the cot her hand scarcely indicated. "Well,
your daughter looks pretty comfortable this afternoon, in spite of the
little fuss," Travers began, tentatively.

"Yus, she's a bit tidy, thanky," the mother answered, smoothing her
soiled black gown, grown green with long service. "She'll git on naow,
please Gord. But Joe most did for 'er."

"How did it all happen?" Travers asked, in a jaunty tone, to draw her
out.

"Well, it was like this, sir, yer see. My daughter, she's a lidy as
keeps 'erself TO 'erself, as the sayin' is, an' 'olds 'er 'ead up. She
keeps up a proper pride, an' minds 'er 'ouse an' 'er little uns. She
ain't no gadabaht. But she 'AVE a tongue, she 'ave"; the mother lowered
her voice cautiously, lest the "lidy" should hear. "I don't deny it that
she 'AVE a tongue, at times, through myself 'avin' suffered from it. And
when she DO go on, Lord bless you, why, there ain't no stoppin' of 'er."

"Oh, she has a tongue, has she?" Travers replied, surveying the "case"
critically. "Well, you know, she looks like it."

"So she do, sir; so she do. An' Joe, 'e's a man as wouldn't 'urt a
biby--not when 'e's sober, Joe wouldn't. But 'e'd bin aht; that's where
it is; an' 'e cum 'ome lite, a bit fresh, through 'avin' bin at the
friendly lead; an' my daughter, yer see, she up an' give it to 'im.
My word, she DID give it to 'im! An' Joe, 'e's a peaceable man when 'e
ain't a bit fresh; 'e's more like a friend to 'er than an 'usband, Joe
is; but 'e lost 'is temper that time, as yer may say, by reason o' bein'
fresh, an' 'e knocked 'er abaht a little, an' knocked 'er teeth aht. So
we brought 'er to the orspital."

The injured woman raised herself up in bed with a vindictive scowl,
displaying as she did so the same whale-like curved back as in the other
"cases." "But we've sent 'im to the lockup," she continued, the scowl
giving way fast to a radiant joy of victory as she contemplated her
triumph "an' wot's more, I 'ad the last word of 'im. 'An 'e'll git six
month for this, the neighbours says; an' when he comes aht again, my
Gord, won't 'e ketch it!"

"You look capable of punishing him for it," I answered, and as I spoke,
I shuddered; for I saw her expression was precisely the expression
Mrs. Le Geyt's face had worn for a passing second w