CHAPTER X.
"_WHO'S_ that, I wonder ?" asked Nell Peter as the dark, close-veiled figure glided past them on the stairs.
"Oh, she's a policy-drunkard," answered Pinky, loud enough to be heard by the woman, who, as if surprised or alarmed, stopped and turned her head, her veil falling partly away, and disclosing features so pale and wasted that she looked more like a ghost than living flesh and blood.
There was a strange gleam in her eyes.

She paused only for an instant, but her steps were slower as she went on climbing the steep and narrow stairs that led to the policy-office.
"Good Gracious, Pinky! did you ever see such a face ?" exclaimed Nell Peter.

"It's a walking ghost, I should say, and no woman at all." "Oh, I've seen lots of 'em," answered Pinky.

"She's a policy-drunkard.
Bad as drinking when it once gets hold of 'em.

They tipple all the time, sell anything, beg, borrow, steal or starve themselves to get money to buy policies.