On gods surceased:
Their blood was Nin-ki-gal's.

And there, at the feet of the awful jesting hag, Circumstance, I
could only cry 'Winnie! my poor Winnie!' while over my head seemed to
pass Necessity and her black ages of despair.

When I came to myself I said to the woman,

'You can point out the grave?'

'Well, yes,' paid slip, turning round sharply; 'but may I ax who the
dickens you are?--an' what makes you so cut up about a pore woman's
darter? It's right-on beautiful to see how kind gentlemen is
nowadays': and she turned and tried, stumbling, to lead the way
downstairs.

As we left the room I turned round to look at it. The picture of the
mattress, now nearly hidden in the shadows--the picture of the other
furniture in the room--two chairs--or rather one and a part of a
chair, for the rails of the hack were gone--a table, a large brown
jug, the handle of which had been replaced by a piece of string, and
a white washhand-basin, with most of the rim broken away, and a
shallow tub apparently used for a bath--seemed to sink into my flesh
as though bitten in by the etcher's aquafortis. Winifred's
sleeping-room!

'Of course she wasn't her daughter,' said Wilderspin meditatively, as
we stood on the stairs.

'Not my darter! Why, in course she was. What an imperent thing to
say, sure_lie_!'

'There is one thing I wish to say to you,' said he to the woman.
'When I agreed with you as to the sum to be paid for the model's
sittings, it was clearly understood that she was to sit to no other
artist, and that the match-selling was to cease.

'Well, and 'ave I broke my word?'

'A person has heard her singing and seen her selling baskets,' I
said.

'The person tells a lie,' said the woman, with a dogged and sullen
look, and in a voice that grew thicker with every word. 'Ain't there
sich things as doubles?'

At these last words my heart gave a sudden leap. We left the house,
and neither of us spoke till we got into the Strand.

'Did you see the--body at all?' I asked Wilderspin.

'Oh, yes. After I gave her the money for the funeral I went to
Primrose Court. The woman took me upstairs, and there on the mattress
lay--what the poor woman believed to be the earthly body of an
earthly daughter. It was covered with a quilt. Over the face a ragged
shawl had been thrown.'

'Yes, yes. She raised the shawl?'

'Yes, the woman went and held the candle over the head of the
mattress and uncovered the face; and