policeman informed her. He had directed many fresh, comely young
women, who had arrived from the country, to the "young ladies'"
entrance; later, he had seen the same girls, when it was often with
an effort that he could believe them to have been what they once
were.

Mavis followed his directions and nearly missed the first on the
right, this being a narrow turning. Many-storied buildings, looking
like warehouses, were on either side of this; their height was such
that the merest strip of sky could be seen when Mavis looked up. She
then came to an open door. Above this was a fanlight, which fitfully
lighted a passage terminating in a flight of uncarpeted stone steps.
It was all very uninviting. The girl looked about for someone of
whom to make further inquiries. No one came in or went out; all that
Mavis could see was one or two over-dressed men, who were prowling
about on the further side of the way. A little distance up the
turning was another open door lit in the same way as the first. This
also admitted to a similar passage, which, also, terminated in a
flight of bare stone steps. Just as she got there, two young women
flaunted out; they were in evening dress, but Mavis thought the
petticoats that they aggressively displayed were cheap, torn, and
soiled. They pushed past Mavis, to be joined by two of the prowlers
in the street. Mavis walked inside, where she waited for some time
without seeing anyone; then, an odd-looking, malformed creature came
up, seemingly from a hole at the end of the passage. She had
scarcely any nose; she wore spectacles and the uniform of a servant.
Before she disappeared up the stairs, Mavis saw that she carried
blankets in one hand, a housemaid's pail in the other. She breathed
noisily through her nostrils. When she was well out of sight, Mavis
thought that she might have got the information she wanted from this