CHAPTER V.
ONE OF THE WOMEN IN THE CASE There is a woman at the beginning of all great things.
-- _Lamartine_.
A quarter of an hour later, we slowed down on a rough brick pavement, which led toward what then was an outlying portion of the town--one not precisely shabby, but by no means fashionable.

There was a single lamp stationed at the mouth of the narrow little street.

As we advanced, I could see outlined upon our right, just beyond a narrow pavement of brick, a low and not more than semi-respectable house, or rather, row of houses; tenements for the middle class or poor, I might have said.

The neighborhood, I knew from my acquaintance with the city, was respectable enough, yet it was remote, and occupied by none of any station.
Certainly it was not to be considered fit residence for a woman such as this who sat beside me.

I admit I was puzzled.