It is unnecessary to speak of the characters of its female visiters. Most of them were young, many of them were still blooming and handsome, but all of them were abandoned. "I need tell you nothing of these girls," said Sweeney, who was a bit of a philosopher in his way, ordering a pot of beer, and motioning me to take a seat at a vacant table--"but, as for the men you see here, half are house-breakers and pickpockets, come to pass the day genteelly among you gentlemen-sailors. There are two or three faces here that I have seen at the Old Bailey, myself; and how they have remained in the country, is more than I can tell you. You perceive these fellows are just as much at their ease, and the landlord who receives and entertains them is just as much at _his_ ease, as if the whole party were merely honest men."
"How happens it," I asked, "that such known rogues are allowed to go at large, or that this inn-keeper dares receive them?"
"Oh! you're a child yet, or you would not ask such a question! You must know, Master Wallingford, that the law protects rogues as well as honest men. To convict a pickpocket, you must have witnesses and jurors to agree, and prosecutors, and a sight of things that are not as plenty as pocket-handkerchiefs, or even wallets and Bank of England notes. Besides, these fellows can prove an alibi any day in the week. An alibi, you must know--"
"I know very well what an alibi means, Mr. Sweeney."
"The deuce you do!" exclaimed the protector of the king's revenue, eyeing me a little distrustfully. "And pray how should one as young as you, and coming from a new country like America, know that?"
"Oh!" said I, laughing, "America is just the country for _alibis_--everybody is everywhere, and nobody anywhere. The whole nation is in motion, and there is every imaginable opportunity for _alibis_."
I believe I owed the development of Sweeney's "ulterior views" to this careless speech. He had no other idea of the word than its legal signification; and it must have struck him as a little suspicious that one of my apparent condition in life, and especially of my years, should be thus early instructed in the meaning of this very useful professional term. It was a minute before he spoke again, having been all that time studying my countenance.