"'Ear that, Emmer?" said a woman in a shawl, who was standing in a group of dishevelled companions. "The poor gal's been lyin' in that empty 'ouse for three weeks; ain't it a shime?"
"Ah, it's jest like 'em," said another, vaguely.
"Well, I ain't what yer might call soft-'earted," said the first, "but think of me livin' 'andy all that time, and the pore girl----"
"Yes, you can lay and rot for all _they_ care," said the other. "I might die in me bed time and time again, and no one any the wiser. Not but what I've got any right to becall you, Mrs. Robins. Think she's dead?"
"Dead? No. Can't you see the 'orspital nurse stoopin' down over 'er? They wouldn't 'a 'ad a 'orspital nurse if she was dead."
Just then the door of the house opened, and the crowd swayed excitedly as Susie appeared with the constable, and stood for a moment in surprise on the top step.
[Illustration: "THE CROWD SWAYED EXCITEDLY AS SUSIE APPEARED WITH THE CONSTABLE."]
"Where's the ambulance," cried the officious man. "Why don't they send for the ambulance? What _is_ the good of the police if they can't----"
"Now then, what's all this? Pass along, please, pass along."
Five or six policemen appeared simultaneously from different directions.
"Over there, in that house. That's where it is," cried several voices.
"Stand back there! let the police through!" cried others.
The constables pushed their way through the throng to the point where Susie and the policeman were standing, and the crowd stood in intense silence while a hurried consultation took place. A moment or two later Esther and Susie entered the hansom, which was still waiting in the hope of a case for St. George's, and drove off through the passage cleared by the police.
"Now then, pass along 'ere, _pass_ along," said the police. "There ain't nothing to look at 'ere."
"Well, but aren't you going to bring the girl out?" asked the officious man of a constable.
"What _is_ the good of making such a mystery of it?" said the officious man. "That's the way half the crimes go undetected. I daresay it's all simple enough if the truth were known. I maintain the public has a right to be taken into the confidence of the authorities."
"'Ushing of it up," said the woman in a shawl. "'Ushing of it up."