"For a home," said the slide woman, sharply.
"You must have a curious taste to choose this for a home."
"I had no other. The man what's the father of my child told me to steal a dress, and get in here, and be taken care of. I stole the dress, and he informed on me, and I came here."
"Why didn't he take care of you himself, after bringing that trouble upon you?"
"He couldn't. He give me all his earnings; but couldn't get work enough to do it all."
"An' sure he's nothing but a miserable drunkard hisself," said McMullins.
"It don't become the likes of you to say much about it if he is!" snapped back O'Sullivan.
A poor, old reprobate, from the wash-house, whose hair was once red, now gray, sat next.
"What are you here for, granny?" I asked.
"An' sure they swore a theft on me. I didn't desarve it. I lived with a German family on Rust Street. They missed a solid hundred dollars, and I never saw it no more nor a child unborn. But they got the sintence of ten years on me."