Winifred's
sleeping-room!
'Of course she wasn't her daughter,' said Wilderspin meditatively, as
we stood on the stairs.
'Not my darter! Why, in course she was. What an imperent thing to
say, sure_lie_!'
'There is one thing I wish to say to you,' said he to the woman.
'When I agreed with you as to the sum to be paid for the model's
sittings, it was clearly understood that she was to sit to no other
artist, and that the match-selling was to cease.
'Well, and 'ave I broke my word?'
'A person has heard her singing and seen her selling baskets,' I
said.
'The person tells a lie,' said the woman, with a dogged and sullen
look, and in a voice that grew thicker with every word. 'Ain't there
sich things as doubles?'
At these last words my heart gave a sudden leap. We left the house,
and neither of us spoke till we got into the Strand.
'Did you see the--body at all?' I asked Wilderspin.
'Oh, yes. After I gave her the money for the funeral I went to
Primrose Court. The woman took me upstairs, and there on the mattress
lay--what the poor woman believed to be the earthly body of an
earthly daughter.
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