I noted the
sullen, exhausted expression in her grey eyes; my heart beat at
the beauty of her face.
"Why don't you speak to me?" I said. "I might, for all you know,
be able to do a great deal for you."
This was greeted by a faint gleam and a prolonged shake of the
head.
MARGOT: "You look very young. What is it you did, that brought you
into this prison,"
My question seemed to surprise her and after a moment's silence
she said:
"Don't you know why I am sentenced?"
MARGOT: "No; and you need not tell me if you don't want to. How
long are you here for?"
THE WOMAN (in a penetrating voice): "Life!"
MARGOT: "That's impossible; no one is punished for life unless
they commit murder; and even then the sentence is always
shortened."
THE WOMAN: "Shortened in time for what? For your death and burial?
Perhaps you don't know how kind they are to us here! No one is
allowed to die in prison! But by the time your health is gone,
your hair white and your friends are dead, your family do not need
you and all that can be done for you is done by charity. You die
and your eyes are closed by your landlady."
MARGOT: "Tell me what you did."
THE WOMAN: "Only what all you fashionable women do every day ..."
MARGOT: "What?"
THE WOMAN: "I helped those who were in trouble to get rid of their
babies."
MARGOT: "Did you take money for it?"
THE WOMAN: "Sometimes I did it for nothing."
MARGOT: "What sort of women did you help?"
THE WOMAN: "Oh, quite poor women!"
MARGOT: "When you charged them, how much money did you ask for?"
THE WOMAN: "Four or five pounds and often less.
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