r, _As I hope to live, it is our Tom._ They did not stay much
longer, but began to consider as soon as they got home what was to be
done. Alice was sensible that the tweezer-case mentioned in the
indictment had been given her, and was under a thousand frights and
fears that it should be discovered and was above all wondrous careful of
her landlady, that she did not go any more to the trials that Sessions.

The day they heard that sentence was passed, Jenny went to one of the
runners at Newgate, and giving him a shilling, asked what had become of
such a person. The fellow answered that he was to be transported. Jenny
came immediately home with the news to her sister. She shed a few tears
and said, what if he should want in Newgate? _Nay_, says Jenny, _let him
want what he will, I'm sure you shall not be fool enough to pawn your
things to relieve him_; and as her fit of compassion was soon over, so
they determined to remove their lodgings for fear that if he were under
necessity, as they could not well doubt he was, considering the figure
he made at his trial, he might send to her. But they needed not to have
been under any apprehensions of that sort, for shame and grief had
brought him so low that the gaol distemper seizing on him, he died the
same week he had been tried, and the runner to whom Jenny had given the
shilling, remembering her face, stopped her in the street, and told her
the news. When Alice heard it, she pretended to fall into fits, and
express abundance of sorrow and concern. The sorrows were not, however,
so deep but that brandy and two days' time effaced them so well that she
dressed in the best manner she was able, in order to go out and look for
a spark.

Unfortunately for her, her amours produced the usual consequence, a
loathsome distemper, which seizing about the same both her sister and
herself, through want of proper care, ruined both their constitutions;
and the ill consequence being increased by the use of improper food,
they were soon after in such a condition that their infamous trade of
prostitution fell off, and they were in danger of starving and rotting.
In this distress they knew not what to do, till at last advising with an
old woman whom they had scraped acquaintance with, she readily offered
them the use of her house, and to engage for them a surgeon, who should
complete their cure. The sisters were overjoyed at this, and in a hurry
accepted her offer, removing themselves and what lit