'Perhaps I had learned that certain things had been sent to my garrets, but I paid no thought to any risk or danger——'
'That might have been pleaded.'
'The case being over, that property can bring no other person into trouble, I believe?'
'I should think not. The case is ended.'
'Then, Sir, I pray you to consider this question. If some person very closely connected with yourself were actually guilty of this crime: if you yourself were charged with it: if your acquittal would lead to that person's conviction, what would you do?'
'That is what they whisper,' he replied. 'Madame, I hope that such a choice may never be made to me. Is this true—what you suggest—what people whisper?'
'Many things are whispered concerning me,' said Jenny proudly. 'I do not heed those whispers. Well, Sir, such a choice has been presented to me. It is part of the penalty of my birth that such a choice could be possible.'
'Then it is true?' he insisted; 'the "Case of Clarinda" is true?'
'Sir, it is true in many points. I was once an Orange Girl of Drury Lane. My people were residents of St. Giles's in the Fields. I was brought up in the courts and lanes of that quarter. You, Sir, are a lawyer. Need I explain further the nature of that choice?'
'Madam,' said the lawyer, 'I think you are the best woman in the world as you are the loveliest.' So saying he lifted her hand to his lips, bowing low, and left us.