mending a pair of
socks. On her face there was an expression of naivete that may be
harmless in itself, but it was enough to arouse suspicion.

"What's the matter with you, why didn't you go to school?" asked Theresa
uneasily.

"I couldn't; I had a headache," said Philippina curtly, and broke the
thread as she gave a hasty jerk at the needle. Her dishevelled hair hung
down over her forehead and quite concealed her face.

Theresa was silent. Her gloom-laden eyes rested on the diligent fingers
of Philippina. It was easy to suspect that the girl had heard everything
Jason Philip had said, for he had such a loud voice. She could have done
this without going to the trouble of listening at the door. Theresa was
minded to give the girl a talking-to; but she controlled herself, and
quietly withdrew.

Philippina looked straight through her as she left. But she did not
interrupt her work, and in a short while she could be heard humming a
tune to herself. There was a challenge in her voice.

VII

Daniel's money was about at an end. The new sources on which he had
hoped to be able to draw were nowhere to be discovered. He defiantly
closed the doors against care; and when fear showed its gloomy face, he
shut up shop, and went out to drown his sorrows with the brethren of the
Vale of Tears.

Schwalbe, the sculptor, had made the acquaintance of Zingarella, then
engaged in singing lascivious couplets at the Academy, and invited the
fellows to join him.

The Academy was a theatre of the lowest description. Smoking was, of
course, permitted. When they arrived the performance was over. People
were still sitting at many of the tables. Reeking as the auditorium was
with the stench of stale beer, it left the impression of a dark, dank
cavern.

With an indifference that seemed to argue that Zingarella made no
distinction between chairs and people, she took her seat between the
sculptor and the writer. She laughed, and yet it was not laughter; she
spoke, and her words were empty; she stretched out her hands, and the
gesture was lifeless. She fixed her eyes on no one; she merely gazed
about. She had a habit of shaking her bracelet in a way that aroused
sympathy. And after making a lewd remark she would turn her head to one
side, and thereby stagger even the most hardened frequenter of this
sort of places. Her complexion had been ruined by rouge, but underneath
the skin there was something that gl