f other shops there was none, save a baker's, the
owner of which seldom had much bread to sell, and the establishment
for brandy-balls, which was kept by Mrs. Burrows. The inhabitants
were chiefly labouring men, some of whom were in summer employed in
brick making; and there was an idea abroad that Pycroft generally was
not sustained by regular labour and sober industry. Rents, however,
were paid for the cottages, or the cottagers would have been turned
adrift; and Mrs. Burrows had lived in hers for five or six years, and
was noted in the neighbourhood for her outward neatness and attention
to decency. In the summer there were always half-a-dozen large
sunflowers in the patch of ground called a garden, and there was a
rose-tree, and a bush of honeysuckle over the door, and an alder
stump in a corner, which would still put out leaves and bear berries.
When Head Constable Toffy visited her there would be generally a few
high words, for Mrs. Burrows was by no means unwilling to let it be
known that she objected to morning calls from Mr. Toffy.

It has been already said that at this time Mrs. Burrows did not live
alone. Residing with her was a young woman, who was believed by Mr.
Toffy to be the wife of Richard Burrows, alias the Grinder. On his
first visit to Pycroft no doubt, Mr. Toffy was mainly anxious to
ascertain whether anything was known by the old woman as to her son's
whereabouts, but the second, third, and fourth visits were made
rather to the younger than to the older woman. Toffy had probably
learned in his wide experience that a man of the Grinder's nature
will generally place more reliance on a young woman than on an old;
and that the young woman will, nevertheless, be more likely to betray
confidence than the older,--partly from indiscretion, and partly,
alas! from treachery. But, if the presumed Mrs. Burrows, junior, knew
aught of the Grinder's present doings, she was neither indiscreet nor
treacherous. Mr. Toffy could get nothing from her. She was sickly,
weak, sullen, and silent. "She didn't think it was her business to
say where she had been living before she came to Pycroft. She hadn't
been living with any husband, and had got no husband that she knew
of. If she had she wasn't going to say so. She hadn't any children,
and she didn't know what business he had to ask her. She came from
Lunnun. At any rate, she came from there last, and she didn't know
what business he had to ask her where she came from. W