Rudyard Kipling 14] bring this sort up here. They steal things from the rooms. “It looks bad, I admit, but I was coming in after lunch, and she staggered into the hall. I thought she was drunk at first, but it was collapse. I couldn’t leave her as she was, so I brought her up here and gave her your lunch. She was fainting from want of food. She went fast asleep the minute she had finished.” “I know something of that complaint. She’s been living on sausages, I suppose. Torp, you should have handed her over to a policeman for presuming to faint in a respectable house. Poor little wretch! Look at the face! There isn’t an ounce of immorality in it. Only folly, — slack, fatuous, feeble, futile folly. It’s a typical head. D’you notice how the skull begins to show through the flesh padding on the face and cheekbone?” “What a cold-blooded barbarian it is! Don’t hit a woman when she’s down. Can’t we do anything? She was simply dropping with starvation. She almost fell into my arms, and when she got to the food she ate like a wild beast. It was horrible.” “IT can give her money, which she would probably spend in drinks. Is she going to sleep forever?” The girl opened her eyes and glared at the men between terror and effrontery. “Feeling better?” said Torpenhow. “Yes. Thank you. There aren’t many gentlemen that are as kind as you are. Thank you.” “When did you leave service?” said Dick, who had been watching the scarred and chapped hands. “How did you know I was in service? I was. General servant. I didn’t like it.” “And how do you like being your own mistress?” “Do I look as if I liked it?” “I suppose not. One moment. Would you be good enough to turn your face to the window?”