At her best, in her fine Sunday clothes, she was a superb figure, and wore round her neck a rope of sham pearls that would have done credit to a sham countess.

During the week, however, she slipped, on occasion, into "dshabille," and then she appeared not quite so attractive.

No one knew the exact nature of her profession.

She did a bit of "char"; she had at one time a little sweetshop, where she sold sweets, the _Police Budget_, and--although this was revealed only to her best friends--indecent photographs.

It may be that the police discovered some of the sources of her income; at any rate the sweetshop was suddenly, one morning, abandoned.