A slight grimness in her manner, the smallest possible edge to her
voice, led the judge to remark:

"She's good-looking, I suppose."

A laugh, short and unmusical but not without a biting humour,
broke unexpectedly from the landlady's lips.

"If she is, HE don't know it. He hasn't seen her."

"Not seen her?"

"No. Her veil was very thick the night she came and she did not
lift it as long as he was by. If she had--"

"Well, what?"

"I'm afraid that he wouldn't have exacted as much from her as he
did. She's one of those women--"

"Don't hesitate, Mrs. Yardley."

"I'm thinking how to put it. Who has her will of your sex, I might
say. Now I'm not."

"Pretty?"

"Not like a girl, sir. She's old enough to show fade; but I don't
believe that a man would mind that. She has a look--a way, that