Sauntering along, I heard a shrill, woman's voice, evidently in anger; but took no notice till when near me I heard plainly, “You dirty little bitch, wait till your father comes home — ah — yer — nasty — dirty — hussy.” — Turning round, I saw a well grown, sturdy-looking girl, walking along, and behind her a middle-aged woman, who every now and then gave the girl a half push, half punch in the back. A push which quite shook her. The girl's face was quite white, and dirty, the expression on it was stolid, dazed, almost like — that of one stupefied by a drug, or drink. She did not resist the elderly female, but walked on quickly, the woman behind her. I stood still. As they passed me, the elder said almost in the girl's ear, “Yer dirty little beast, yer always were running after men — er — er — er,” and she gave punch after punch. I followed close on them, till they turned down a narrow court on the left, and went into one of several small houses in the court. Houses which looked as if inhabited by working people.

She's a fine girl, and has been caught with a chap, thought I, and walking on had passed into a street of more traffic, and forgotten the girl, when she ran past me as hard as she could, and when far off and nearly out of my sight, turned down a street and I quite lost sight of her. I was walking on, when suddenly she emerged, and again ran rapidly on. I became curious, and quickened my pace. She turned down another street, and when I got there, I saw her leaning against a wall, panting, and breathless. Said I to myself, that girl's running away. What's her game? — Quickly I walked up to her, for some vague notion stirred my concupiscence.

“What's the matter with you, my girl,” — I said kindly, and repeated it several times, without getting any reply. She stood breathing hard with her running, and staring at me. I saw she was handsome, pity came over me, and I told her she had better go to her home, where I had seen her followed by the woman a few minutes before. — Then she broke out violently. — “I won't — I won't. I'll never go home again. — I won't” — and her eyes glared on me, but suddenly they altered again to their stupid expression. — “What's the matter, tell me” I said, repeating that several times, but she made no reply.

“I'll go and fetch your mother then.” She made a half start as if to run off, but stopping herself, — “What business is it of yours? Leave me alone, who are you?” — “Go home, it's best for you, you'll come to harm.” — “I won't, you go and mind your own business.” Again we stood looking at each other, I scarcely knowing what to say or do.

I noticed that her dress was neat, and very respect-able for a girl of her class, but was rumpled, and that her bonnet had been flattened, and put somewhat into shape again. She looked what may be called draggled, and the vague idea I had formed at first from the been caught with a man in an equivocal position, perhaps has been tailed, I thought. Then I looked again, and she seemed to me handsomer than she had at first, and a lust for her sprang up, but it was mixed with pity, and a firm intention to help her if I could, yet with a curiosity to find out all about her.

“Where are you going?” — I at length asked, and again had to repeat it two or three times before I got the reply. — “Nowhere — I don't know.” — “You are going after your young man, and he's got you into trouble.” — No reply. — “Come with me, if you won't go home, and let us have a talk.” — She rubbed her eyes with her dirty hands, as if a tear had started, but I did not see a tear. Then, she looked at me with a stoney stare. “Now, my good girl, listen to me, — go home, go home now, or you'll get into worse trouble.” — “I shan't. I'd sooner drown myself,” — she said fiercely. — “Can I help you? — If you are in trouble, I will.” She answered not. — Again I advised going home — again came the enraged reply. — She'll go wrong somehow I thought, and as well with me as an-other, and then, — “Come home with me then.”

Again a long pause, again I repeated my offer. She eyed me closely, seemed almost to be trying to look through me, her lips moved as if she was speaking, but not a sound came from them. — Tired of this, and people noticing us as we stood together, tho but few passed in the by-street, and thinking now that I was only wasting my time, I said, “Good bye if you won't go home, and won't come with me — I'm going” — and I turned to go. — As I turned round, — “What are you going to do, where are you going?” said she hurriedly. — “Take you to a house where we can talk comfort-ably, for we can't stand here longer.” — “I won't — “Good bye then.” — A pause. — “I don't care, — said she sullenly — and she stood upright, still looking at me curiously. — “Will you come at once?” “I will.”

Side by side we walked to the larger thorough-fare. I hailed a cab, and held the door open, when with one of her feet on the step, — “You are going to take me back home,” said she, and stepped back from the cab. —I told her I would not, and in a minute we were on our road to J***s St. It was a full twenty minutes' drive.

In the cab I asked her questions, and got nothing but yes — or no — and sometimes no reply at all. — She kept eyeing me in a strangely sullen, fixed, manner. — Now I saw she was very handsome, and my prick tingled and rose up. — I felt for the moment sure there was a man in the case, and wondered if she'd been fucked, and why the sullen mystery, and longed to put my hands up her clothes and feel her slit, yet fearing I might spoil my chance, did nothing of the sort. Then I laid my hand on her clothes outside her thigh, in a careless, friendly manner, of which she took no notice, but began staring out of the window. We passed a baker's shop. — “Oh, give me a bit of bread or a bun, I'm so hungry,” said she in a plaintive tone. — “Hungry?” — “Yes, I've never had a bit in my mouth since six o'clock last night.” — “Nonsense.” — “I haven't in-deed, sir,” — and she put her hand to her eyes again, and I saw a tear that time, but it seemed as if her tears would not flow.

“My poor girl, you shall. In five minutes I'll give you some food.” — Directly after, I got out at a shop, bought some ham, beef, and rolls, and at *** a bottle of good sherry. In five minutes we were at J***s St., and in the room in which I first had Sarah Mavis. — It was not a busy hour there. How many times have I had fresh women in that room, I almost seem to have a property in it.

The servants have been changed many times since I first went there, but I was still well known, being frequently at the house, for I liked it, and whoever the servants for the time might have been, they soon knew me. “Get me knives and forks, plates and glasses.” “And what will you drink?” — “I'd like some ale, sir,” said the girl with a little hesitation. — Soon a tray with the needful implements was in the room, together with bottled ale. I turned out the food on to the plates, poured out the ale, and the girl began to eat ravenously, almost as if famished, but she ate and drank in silence, looking at me intently the whole time, as I sat opposite to her, pleased to see her enjoying the repast. In ten minutes she had eaten up nearly every scrap of food, of the ale she drank but moderately.

Then I brought her to the sofa, sat down besides her, and asked if she was not eighteen years old, for I had been struck whilst watching her eating, with the solid flesh about her, tho her face looked young. She said she was sixteen and a half. But still she was taciturn, and when I asked her questions, and I did many — it was always only, yes, or no, that I got in reply; and still that stolid, half sleepy, half stupid stare continued, which quite perplexed me. When she did not answer my questions at all, and several she would not answer, she stared harder than ever, and I felt quite irritated at it.

But now I began to think of getting into her, for tho I could not make her out, I felt convinced she had got in-to some scrape about a man. — Has she been stroked, or hasn't she? kept passing thro my mind, and was answered variously. — Of course it was stupid of me to think so much about those possibilities, but at the moment, I felt exactly what I write.