BARTHWICK. My dear----

MRS. BARTHWICK. [Indignantly.] How disgraceful!

BARTHWICK. [Hurriedly.] And where are you living now, Mrs. Jones?

MRS. JONES. We've not got a home, sir. Of course we've been
obliged to put away most of our things.

BARTHWICK. Put your things away! You mean to--to--er--to pawn
them?

MRS. JONES. Yes, sir, to put them away. We're living in Merthyr
Street--that is close by here, sir--at No. 34. We just have the one
room.

BARTHWICK. And what do you pay a week?

MRS. JONES. We pay six shillings a week, sir, for a furnished room.

BARTHWICK. And I suppose you're behind in the rent?

MRS. JONES. Yes, sir, we're a little behind in the rent.

BARTHWICK. But you're in good work, aren't you?

MRS. JONES. Well, Sir, I have a day in Stamford Place Thursdays.
And Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays I come here. But to-day, of
course, is a half-day, because of yesterday's Bank Holiday.

BARTHWICK. I see; four days a week, and you get half a crown a day,
is that it?

MRS. JONES. Yes, sir, and my dinner; but sometimes it's only half
a day, and that's eighteen pence.

BARTHWICK. And when your husband earns anything he spends it in
drink, I suppose?

MRS. JONES. Sometimes he does, sir, and sometimes he gives it to me
for the children. Of course he would work if he could get it, sir,
but it seems there are a great many people out of work.

BARTHWICK. Ah! Yes. We--er--won't go into that.
[Sympathetically.] And how about your work here? Do you find it
hard?

MRS. JONES. Oh! no, sir, not very hard, sir; except of course,
when I don't get my sleep at night.

BARTHWICK. Ah! And you help do all the rooms? And sometimes, I
suppose, you go out for cook?

MRS. JONES. Yes, Sir.

BARTHWICK. And you 've been out this morning?

MRS. JONES. Yes, sir, of course I had to go to the greengrocer's.

BARTHWICK. Exactly. So your husband earns nothing? And he's a bad
character.

MRS. JONES. No, Sir, I don't say that, sir. I think there's a
great deal of good in him; though he does treat me very bad
sometimes. And of course I don't like to leave him, but I think I
ought to, because really I hardly know how to stay with him. He
often raises his hand to me. Not long ago he gave me a blow here
[touches her breast] and I can feel it now. So I think I ought to
leave him, don't you, sir?

BARTHWICK. Ah! I can't help you there. It's a very serious thing
to le