Little by little she came round to the wonted topic.

Had he been to see his friend the thief?
Was she in prison again yet?
Whom had she been stealing from of late?
Oh, she was innocence itself, of course; too good for this evil-speaking world.
Tonight he could not bear it.

He rose from his chair like a drunken man, and staggered to the door.

She sprang after him, but he was just in time to escape her grasp and spring down the stairs; then, out into the night.

Once before, not quite a month ago, he had been driven thus in terror from the sound of her voice, and had slept at a coffeehouse.
Now, as soon as he had got out of the street and saw that he was not being pursued, he discovered that he had given away his last copper for the omnibus fare.