Ultimately the Longs were told not to send any more milk—Peace and the old lady evidently hoping in this way to cut off the communication between the two houses.
On the evening to which we more particularly refer, Mrs. Thompson said “he,” meaning Peace, had gone to the theatre, and she did not know when he would be back.
She had seized the chance of running out unknown to Mrs. Ward. She deceived herself. At that very moment Mrs. Ward was at the door, waiting and watching for her return. And that evening she repeated the visit to Peace, who, in Sheffield phrase “paid” the poor wretch severely for her call upon Mrs. Long.
On that night Mrs. Thompson was in great fear.
She trembled all over her body, as she disclosed to Mrs. Long that she felt in danger of her life, adding, now and again, “Oh that I could tell you what I know—oh, that I knew what to do!”
It would be interesting to know if Peace really did play in the orchestra of any London theatre. Mrs. Thompson sometimes accounted for his frequent disappearances at night in this way, until she began to know better, or rather worse, and even she seems to have been undecided between fear of telling the truth and shame of keeping up the old lie in the face of Peckham.
Peace told her that he occasionally played in the orchestra—not that he needed to do so, but simply through love of music, and because, as he boasted, he was pressed to do so by the conductor, who said he was the best “bow” he had.
Peace’s skill on the violin, of course, is well known, having long earned him the distinctive title, of which he was particularly fond, of “the modern Paganini.”
It is not unlikely that one night he operated with his violin in the orchestra to Blackheath ladies and gentlemen, in one of whose houses he the following night operated with equal skill with the burglar’s tools, supplemented by a knife and a revolver slung to his wrist by a leathern thong.
One day Mr. Long was walking down Evlina-road, when he met Mrs. Thompson, to whom he spoke as usual. She seemed in a hurry and disconcerted, passing on at a quick pace, and not stopping to speak, as was her wont.