"Why should she steal your child?"
"Ah, that's a long story. I'll tell it to you if you like, sir."
"I'm ready to hear it," answered Eustace, wondering at the coincidence which had brought his former housekeeper into contact with Balkis.
"Burl drank," began the lady, abruptly. "He was a house-painter, and earned wages of the highest when not at the bottle. He turned me out into the street one night with Tilly." Mrs. Burl pointed to her newly-found offspring, who giggled. "We lived near the Docks, by reason of the cheap rents. I had nowhere to go, and was found by that black woman, who called herself Balkis."
"How long ago did this happen?"
"Never you mind," replied Mrs. Burl, drawing her shawl closely round her. "I'll tell what I can, and that which I don't tell don't matter. Balkis (as she called herself) said she wanted a servant, and took me in. She gave no wages, but a comfortable home. We--Tilly and me--stopped with her for some time. Then I left."
"Why did you leave a comfortable place?" asked Jarman.
Mrs. Burl pursed up her lips, and shook her head. "It weren't respectable," she said, nodding. "No; though in one way it were. I haven't a word to say against Balkis, who always kept herself like a lady, though she was the colour of the tea-kettle. But you see, Mr. Jarman, she kept an opium shop, and a gambling den."
"Ah! did she. What did the police say?"
"Now you come to the reason of my leaving, sir. The police knew nothing about the gambling. I don't think they minded the opium smoking. Such people came there!" Mrs. Burl shuddered. "Chinamen and Lascars, and low sailors, and sometimes gentlemen who were fond of the pipe. But all that was almost public, as you might say. The gambling"--here Mrs. Burl lowered her voice--"it took place in the secret rooms."