"Very pretty."
"Had she no father to protect her?"
"No."
"Nor mother?"
"No--as far as is known."
"A flower-girl, I gather from the account."
"Yes. I have occasionally bought a posy of her--poor child!"
"Did she trade alone?"
"She had a companion, an elderly woman, who, unhappily, left her a few days before the murder."
"Deserted her?"