like that."

"You're very kind."

"'Elp that you may be 'elped is my motto. An' then you didn't smell
of drink. I wouldn't 'ave took you in if you had. Girls who're 'on
the game' who drink ought to know better, and don't deserve
sympathy."

Mavis stared at her wide-eyed, striving to recalled where she had
heard that expression before, also what it meant.

"You sit quiet, dear; you'll be better directly," said the woman.
"I've got to wash this stuff off. Beastly nuisance, but, if you
don't, it stains the sheets and pillers, as I daresay you know."

Had Mavis possessed sufficient strength she would have combated this
suggestion; it was as much as she could do to concentrate her
wandering attention on the doings of the woman who had played good
Samaritan in her extremity.

Mavis saw her cleanse the other side of her face and remove two
false teeth from her mouth, actions which completed the
transformation from that of a comely, interesting-looking, youngish
woman to that of an elderly, extremely commonplace person with foxy,
shifty eyes.

"Now I'm 'done.' I never feel reely at home till I get into my
shirt sleeves, as you might say," remarked the woman.