bus. That 'fitton' belonged to one of them."
"Well, it's not much of a place to look at!" "Don't judge by
appearances. About here live the women who have beggared kings. We
aren't going to let you down into unadulterated vice all at once. You
must see it first with the gilding on--and mind that rotten board."

Stand at the bottom of a lift shaft and look upwards. Then you will get
both the size and the design of the tiny courtyard round which one of
these big dark houses is built. The central square may be perhaps ten
feet every way, but the balconies that run inside it overhang, and seem
to cut away half the available space. To reach the square a man must go
round many corners, down a covered-in way, and up and down two or three
baffling and confused steps. "Now you will understand," say the Police,
kindly, as their charge blunders, shin-first into a well-dark winding
staircase, "that these are not the sort of places to visit alone." "Who
wants to? Of all the disgusting, inaccessible dens--Holy Cupid, what's
this?"

A glare of light on the stair-head, a clink of innumerable bangles, a
rustle of much fine gauze, and the Dainty Iniquity stands revealed,
blazing--literally blazing--with jewellery from head to foot. Take one
of the fairest miniatures that the Delhi painters draw, and multiply it
by ten; throw in one of Angelica Kaufmann's best portraits, and add
anything that you can think of from Beckford to Lalla Rookh, and you
will still fall short of the merits of that perfect face! For an
instant, even the grim, professional gravity of the Police is relaxed in
the presence of the Dainty Iniquity with the gems, who so prettily
invites every one to be seated, and proffers such refreshments as she
conceives the palates of the barbarians would prefer. Her maids are only
one degree less gorgeous than she. Half a lakh, or fifty thousand
pounds' worth--it is easier to credit the latter statement than the
former--are disposed upon her little body. Each hand carries five
jewelled rings which are connected by golden chains to a great jewelled
boss of gold in the centre of the back of the hand. Ear-rings weighted
with emeralds and pearls, diamond nose-rings, and how many other hundred
articles make up the list of adornments. English furniture of a gorgeous
and gimcrack kind, unlimited chandeliers, and a collection of atrocious
Continental prints are scattered about the house, and on every landing
squats or loafs a Bengali who c