evented me coming."

"Have you seen Hannah? She's been a-grievin' about you, thinkin' as you
might ha' come to harm."

"No, I haven't been near the Old Bailey," said Lavinia hesitatingly.
"Perhaps you'll guess why. I dare say Hannah's told you about me and my
mother."

"Oh, to be sure she has. May be you don't know then that your mother's
got another husband?"

"I'm glad of it. She won't bother any more about me now."

"May be not. But what d'ye want?"

"I'd like to know if you can let me have a lodging. It'll suit me to
live at Hampstead for a while."

"But s'posing as it don't suit me to have you?"

"Then I must go somewhere else. I think Hannah would be glad if I was
with you."

"Aye, but you've been away from her goodness knows how long. What have
you been a-doin' of all that while?"

"Play-acting. I had a part last week in a play at the Lincoln's Inn
Theatre and Mr. Rich has promised me an engagement when the theatre
opens for the winter season."

"Oh," said Mrs. Higgins with a sniff which might have signified pity or
contempt, or both. "I dunno as I hold with play-actin'. Brazen painted
women some o' them actresses is and the words as is put in their mouths
to say--well--there----"

"I know--I know," returned Lavinia hurriedly and with heightened colour.
"But that isn't their fault, and after all, it's not so bad as what one
hears in front--in the gallery----"

"What, the trulls and the trapes and the saucy footmen! It made my ears
tingle when Hannah took me to Drury Lane. I longed to take a stick in my
hand an' lay it about 'em. So you're a play-actin' miss are ye? I'm
sorry for it."

"I can't help that, Mrs. Higgins. One must do something--besides there's
good and bad folk wherever you go."

"Aye, an' ye haven't got to go from here neither. A pack o' bad 'uns,
men and women, come to Hampstead. They swarm like rats at Mother Ruff's,
dancin' an' dicin, an' drinkin', an' wuss. I won't say as you don't see
the quality at the concerts in the Great Room, but the low rabble--well,
thank the Lord they don't come _my_ way."

Then Betty Higgins, who all this time had been eyeing the girl and
apparently taking stock of her, suddenly harked back to the all
important business which had brought Lavinia to her cottage.

"If I let ye a lodging what are ye a-goin' to do till October?"

"You spoke about the concerts at the Great Room just now," said Lavinia
meditatively. "Do they have singing?"

"Singin'