by at the same hour, saw the girl and stopped under
the arch. In another second the girl was by her side.

'What are you following me about for?' she snarled. 'If you're a grote
it's no go. You won't teach the copper anything he doesn't know.'

'Oh, I'm not following you,' said Victoria. 'Only I saw you about and
thought I'd like to talk to you.'

The girl shot a dark glance at her.

'What's your game?' she asked. 'You're not one of those blasted sisters.
Too toffish. Seen you come out of the Vez', besides.'

'I'm in the profession,' said Victoria coolly. 'But that doesn't mean
I've got to be against the others.'

'Doesn't it!' The girl's eyes glowed. 'You don't know your job. Of
course you've got to be against the others. We were born like that. Or
got like that. What's it matter?'

'Matter? oh, a lot,' said Victoria. 'We want friends, all of us.'

'Friends. Oh, Lord! The likes of you and me don't have friends. Women,
they won't know us . . . too good. Except our sort. We can't talk; we
got nothing to talk of, except money and the boys. And the boys, what's
the good of them? There's the sort you pick up and all you've got to
do's to get what you can out of them. Haven't fallen in love with one,
have you?' The girl's voice broke a little, then she went on. 'Then,
there's the other sort, like my Hugo, p'raps you've heard of him?'

'No,' she said, 'I haven't. What is he like?'

'Bless you, he's a beauty.' The girl smiled; her face was full of pride.

'Does he treat you well?'

'So so. Sometimes.' The shadow had returned. 'Not like my first. Oh,
it's hard you know, beginning. He left me with a baby after three
months. I was in service in Pembridge Gardens--such a swell house! I had
to keep baby. It died then, jolly good thing too! Couldn't go back to
service. Everybody knew.'

The girl burst into tears and Victoria putting an arm round her drew her
against her breast.

'Everybody knew, everybody knew!' wailed the girl.

Victoria had the vision of a thousand spectral eyes, all full of
knowledge, gazing at the housemaid caught by them sinning. The girl
rested her head against Victoria's shoulder for a moment, holding one of
her hands. Suddenly she raised her head again and cleared her throat.

'There,' she said, 'let me go. Hugo's waiting for me at the Carcassonne.
Never mind me. We've all got to live, he-he!'

She turned into Regent Street and another 'he-he' floated back. Victoria
felt a heavy weight a