gh for anythink. But what do it matter! Good
Lor', what do _anythink_ matter when you can't get what you are
breaking your heart for! I'd give all the world for Jim, and Jim don't
care nothink for me."

She sighed heavily. Presently she drew herself upright, pushed her
chair back so that she could no longer see her image in the glass,
placed her two elbows on the table, pressed her cheeks down on her open
palms, and thought hard.

"Why did that man, George Sampson, come here to-night?" she said to
herself. "Did Jim bring him knowing that he is a detective; did he
bring him because he suspects me? Oh, he couldn't suspect me; Jim aint
that mean sort. Still, I don't like Sampson; I don't like his coming
'ere; I don't like the way he fixes me with his ferret eyes. Jim is
mad about Alison. He can't suspect me, of course; but he is mad about
it all. He is half broken-hearted, and he thinks less of me than ever.
Oh, Jim, Jim! and I do love you so terrible bad. Why don't you love me
even a little bit back again? I'd be good ef you loved me; I know I'd
be good. What is there in Alison Reed for you nearly to die for her?
She aint got my looks, she aint got my eyes, she aint got my bit of
money. I'm handsome, and I know it, and I'll have a tidy lot of money
when I'm married, for father tells me so. What is Alison compared to
me? Oh, nothing, nothing at all! just a mealy-faced, white-cheeked
slip of a girl. But somehow or other he loves her, and he don't love
me a bit; I'd do anything under the sun to win him. Why to-day, to-day
I did a _crime_, and 'twas for him, 'twas to win him; and, after all, I
failed. Oh, yes, I saw it to-night, I failed horribly."

Louisa pressed her hands to her aching eyes; tears rose and smarted her
eyelids; they rolled down her cheeks.

"I'm fit to kill myself!" she cried. "I did a crime for Jim, and I
dragged a girl into it, and I failed. Yes, I'll be straight with
myself, I did it for him. Oh, God knows what I've suffered lately, the
mad fire and the pain that has been eating me here," she pressed her
hand to her breast; "and then to-day I was passing the desk and I saw
the note, not in the till, but lying on the floor, and no one saw me,
and it flashed on me that perhaps Alison would be accused, and anyhow
that the money would come in handy. Shaw thought he put the note into
the till, but he never did. It fell on the floor, and 'twas open, and
I picked it up. I have it no