Page:The Mystery of Central Park.djvu/40

34 all smile, miss, when they've handed in their 'counts—she were a devil. She's done time on the island, and they've had her in Blackwell's Insane Asylum, but 'twan't no good; soon as she got out she was at her old tricks. Drink, drink, if she had to steal it, an' fight an' swear! They picked her up on a sidewalk the last time and hauled her to the station-house, but when mornin' come an' they called her she didn't show up; an' when they dragged her out, thinkin' she was still full, they found she'd got a death sentence and gone on a last trip to the island where they never come back."

A little woman, stumpy, fat and old, in a shabby black frock and plain black bonnet, came in with one of the keeper's assistants. She held a coarse white cotton handkerchief in her hand, and her wrinkled, broad face with its fish-like mouth, thick, upturned nose and watery blue eyes, looked prepared to show