Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III The young woman was not mistaken in her views. When she declared that few of those to whom it was directed would profit by the caution, she was familiar with her subject; she understood that the Press was endeavouring to instil prudence into a class whose stupidity, coupled with their circumstances, made protection a difficult matter. Not only would many of them learn nothing by the warning—they were ignorant what a British Consul was. They had never heard of a British Consul. For all they knew, "The British Consul" might be the name of a public-house. She spoke out of the depths of experience, for she had been in the rank and file of the theatres herself, and even now she seldom read anything but the advertisement sheets of The Era, and novelettes. That the tale she had told Meenie was quite false need hardly be said—she had neither an offer from The Best of AH Girls company, nor any intention of proceeding to Paris. Having cast in her lot with Mr. Hughes, she had temporarily retired from the stage and served him by touting for a business which had every prospect of being exposed in the police-court. More businesses in London than millions of Londoners suspect are touted for by women. Money-lenders frequently find them useful, though they require them to be better dressed and better looking than Nelly Joyce. Meenie, when she could afford to buy one, did read a paper; it was a habit of her non-professional days that she retained. In the life of every girl fighting to support herself, however, there not unnaturally come times when the affairs of the world possess as little interest for her as the affairs of the struggling girl possess for the world. The problem that engrosses her is how to keep out of the workhouse. The death of a monarch or the defeat of a nat...