“That is when Mrs. Thompson is face to face with the whiskey bottle. It is then the lady becomes communicative.
“She croons over her connection with ‘Charley,’ referring to the criminal in terms of admiration and horror combined. It is quite erroneous to say, as some papers have done, that Mrs. Thompson was educated at a boarding school, and is a woman of culture.
“To use her own words ‘No, sir, as I was I am. I have brothers and sisters—that is true. But myself, all I can say of myself is, that I disgraced them.’ The woman seems to have money, but she appears to be oppressed by a dread that ‘Charley’ Peace will escape and cut her throat.”
Mr. Brion was certainly hardly dealt by. In the first place he had been greatly deceived by the hero of this work, and in the end he had lost a considerable amount of time in rendering assistance to the Government in the prosecution of the Bannercross murderer, and had no adequate compensation for the same.
A writer for the press gives the following faithful account of his visit to Mr. Peace’s “friend” at Peckham:—
“How Peace came to live at Peckham is a story which has not yet been told, and, I suspect, will not be known unless it is told by Peace himself or by another party whom I called upon yesterday, and who, I suspect, could say a great deal if he could be induced to say it.
“This gentleman, who occupies a good house in a leading road, was a great friend of Peace’s. The people say that he and Peace were ‘always together.’
“Considering Peace’s manner of life, that is more than I can receive as gospel; but it is certainly a fact that this gentleman was more in Peace’s company than any other person in Peckham. My interview with him was not very encouraging.
“A sharp-witted Peckham boy, who acted as my guide in showing me the residences of the people whose names I had on a card to visit, pointed to the street in which the house was situated, and said, ‘You will easily find it; it is the only house on that side where the lower windows are frosted, to prevent people looking in.’
“The boy added that the windows were frosted after this gentleman began to be seen a good deal in Peace’s company. Sometimes he went and visited Peace at 5, East-terrace, and sometimes Peace came and visited him.