continue her way.

There came a time when her legs refused to carry her further; her
head throbbed violently; a dark veil seemed to gradually blot out
things as she knew them. She remembered no more.

When next she became dimly conscious, she seemed to be in a
recumbent position in a strange room, where she was watching the
doings of a woman who was unknown to her.

When Mavis first set eyes on this person, she appeared to be a
decent, comely, fair-haired, youngish woman, who was dressed in the
becoming black of one who had recently emerged from the mourning of
widowhood. But as Mavis watched the woman, a startling
transformation took place before her eyes. The woman began by
removing her gloves and bonnet before a dressing glass, which was
kept in position by a mangy hair brush thrust between the frame and
its supports. Then, to the girl's wondering astonishment, the woman
unpinned and took off her fair curls, revealing a mop of tangled,
frowsy, colourless hair, which the wig had concealed. Next, she
removed her sober, well-cut costume, also, her silk underskirt, to
put on a much worn, greasy dressing-gown. Then, she pulled off her
pretty shoes and silk stockings, to thrust her feet into worn
slippers, through which her naked toes showed in more than one
place.

Mavis rubbed her eyes; she expected every moment to find herself
again in the street, clinging to the railings for support, at which
moment of returning sense she would know that what she was now
witnessing would prove to be an effect of her disordered