“Are you on a commission?” Dammler asked. Prudence wasn’t sure whether he was serious, or if it was a setdown.

“Certainly not! I do not undertake work of this sort for any monetary consideration,” Mulroney answered, offended.

“What is done to prepare them to leave? If they come out of here without having learned any useful skill, they’ll end up back on the streets.”

“You have been at the church service, milord. They attend service three times a day, and extra Bible readings on Sunday, and for punishment if they misbehave. We hope to raise their morals to awaken them to the dangers of immortal hell if they persist in their abandoned behaviour.”

“You’d do better to raise their ability to make an honest living.”

“Each girl is given a Bible upon leaving.”

“Yes, she can hawk that, but what does she do the next night, when the shilling is gone?”

Dr.Mulroney lifted his eyebrows at this. Prudence felt Dammler was going a little far, but knew there was no hope of curbing him. “They are not released without having a place to go. They are usually placed in a home as a domestic servant.”

“Are the homes carefully selected?”

“Selected-what do you mean? I don’t understand the import of your question, my lord.”

“It must have occurred to you gentlemen of a sort will come here looking for domestics.”

“They are well-to-do families we place the girls with.”

“Money is beside the point; the girls will see little or nothing of it. What of the morals?”

“You can’t expect me to ask a gentleman such a question!” Again Mulroney looked at Prudence with an uncomfortable expression.

“No, asking them would certainly be pointless. Character references could be obtained though.”

“What-ask character references for the hiring of a servant who is costing the city twenty-five pounds a year to keep? Upon my word, I never heard of such a thing. We are lucky to be rid of these-girls-to whomever will take them off our hands.”

“Surely you don’t consider yourself an employment agency! Your job is to restore these girls to a decent life. Their success depends on where you place them.”

“Oh, as to that, if they are put in too strict a home, they only run off in a month. The fact is, milord, they are no good, nine-tenths of them, or they wouldn’t be here.”

“They are desperate, ten-tenths of them, or they wouldn’t stay in this hell hole,” Dammler said and arose abruptly. “Come along, Miss Mallow, I've seen what I wanted to see.”

Mulroney accompanied them to the door, trying to pour oil on the ruffled waters, with a very poor success.

Dammler was highly incensed with the visit, and to get him started talking, Prudence asked him what he thought of Mulroney.

“The man is a jackass, and totally unfit for the position he fills. To be speaking of those poor unfortunate little girls-God, did you notice how young they are-as though they were hardened street-walkers. You need a man with compassion and understanding for such a post as that. Someone who is concerned for their welfare, who cares about them, and not a dammed accountant. Hastening them through faster and cheaper is all he thinks of, so it will look well on his record. He’s pushing to become a bishop, no doubt. Teaching them nothing, and shoving them into any house that will take them. I heard a gentleman-a rake, a pervert of the worst sort-say the other day he was going there to pick up a new maid and he said it with a very meaningful leer, which is why I asked that particular question about selection. Picture one of those pathetic little girls being placed into the hands of a man like-well, never mind his name, but I shall see he doesn’t get one.”

“How can you do that?”

“By getting rid of Mulroney.”

“You can’t get rid of him, Dammler. You are only a visitor.”

“Of course I can. Lucas is in charge of it. I’ll speak to him. He’s a good man, but so busy he doesn’t know what’s going on. Let Mulroney go back to preaching his fire and brimstone sermons. He is good enough at that. However, I learned what I wanted to know.”

“What, about Mulroney? Is that why you went, to see what he’s like?”

“Mulroney? No, I had no idea he was in charge. I know now what charity I am interested in. The insane are pitiful, and half the prisoners in the jails are no more guilty than you and I, but I know I’m lazy and insensitive, and if I’m not deeply interested in a project, I won’t follow it through.”

“No, you’re not lazy or insensitive.”

“Yes I am. But I’m interested in those girls-no comments, please. Aren’t they enough to tear your heart out? Babies, and already producing more babies. I didn’t think to ask what is done with the new babies. That’s the proper time to catch them, before they go, or more probably are led, astray.”

“I thought you’d burst during the sermon. I nearly did myself.”

“Show-all show. That, I fancy, was put on to impress us. As though ringing a peal over them could help. You’d think they’d purposely set out to ruin themselves. More likely ruined by some son of…" He stopped suddenly. “I’m getting carried away. But it makes my blood boil. Such a criminal waste of human life and potential. We think ourselves advanced here in England. I didn’t see much worse than what I saw today in the most backward countries of the East. Yes, this is a project I can become enthusiastic about.”

Two days later Dammler asked Prudence what she did with the earnings from her books. She hadn’t seen him in the two intervening days. “I buy hats with them,” she replied. She was wearing her navy glazed bonnet with the red rose.

“No, seriously, what do you do?”

The question seemed irrelevant; it did not seem impertinent, which it was. “Well, I pay my bills. What else should I do? And save when I can. I should like to go on a little holiday with Mama. We haven’t been anywhere since we came to London, except home to Kent once to visit friends for two weeks.”

Dammler said nothing for a moment, but he seemed much struck by her answer. “You’re not telling me you have to write for the money?” he asked.

“To keep body and soul together you mean?” she asked in a mock tragic voice. “No, we managed to scrimp along before I sold anything, but I confess the extra income has been a great comfort to us. We hadn’t much left when Papa died, for the estate, you remember I told you, was entailed.”

“But your uncle-you seem to live in a very good style with Mr. Elmtree.”

“He has been marvelously kind to us. We should have ended up in some horrid rented lodgings but for him.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I told you ages ago. The first time we went out, or shortly after. What, did you think I should be constantly bemoaning my cruel fate? We are very lucky. We want for nothing with my uncle.”

“I thought-I just assumed you had money. Stupid of me, of course. I never think of things like that. And you let me take you to Fannie’s and bludgeon you into buying two ferociously expensive hats! Dammit, Prudence, you should have told me.”

“They weren’t so very expensive.” He hadn’t noticed he used her first name. It had taken a fit of anger to make him do it.

“You can’t fool me about Fannie’s prices. I am an old customer. Now, I am going to make a grossly indecent suggestion. Prepare your reticule to beat me about the head and shoulders. I want to pay for them.”

“Don’t be absurd.”

“I'm not. Like a cloth-head I dragged you to the most expensive shop in town without considering-I have had the pleasure of them, and I want to pay.”

“I would really prefer not to discuss this any further,” Prudence said in a tight voice.

He dropped the matter immediately, but felt the greatest, blindest fool in the kingdom. And a boor for having mentioned it at all. Poor people were always sensitive about money.

“Anyway, why did you ask the question?” Prudence said, to break the uncomfortable silence.

“I thought you might want to join with me in my project.”

“What project?”

“My home for unwed mothers. I told you that was what I had decided to do with my earnings.”

“Ah, I thought perhaps your earnings too went to Fannie, as you are so familiar with her prices.”

“No, I pay for my pleasures out of my own pocket.”

“If your earnings aren’t out of your own pocket, what is?”

“A nobleman, my dear Miss Mallow, does not work for gain. Infra-dig. We lords are too toplofty to engage in common labour for a wage. The taint of having earned money by the sweat of our brows can only be removed by donating it to charity. No, we are allowed to keep anything we wring out of our tenants by starving them in a hovel, but honestly earned money must be got rid of immediately.”

“How ridiculous you make it sound.”

“The truth often has a ridiculous ring to it. Well, I don’t have to tell you. It’s what your books are all about, isn’t it?”

“I never thought so.”

“You may not have known you thought it, but you wrote it. There was your Lady Allyson de Burlington, remember? The illiterate who kept the house full of books to hide the truth; and your Sidney Greenham-half greenhead and half pig I assume-who would never allow pork to be served at his table as he had his humble beginnings in a sausage factory. Hiding the truth at every turn, because it is unpalatable. In any case, I am not allowed to keep my hard-earned money, and I mean to give it to my favourite people-ruined females.”

He made a joke of it, but Prudence knew he was serious about helping the girls, and was proud of him. “Where will you set up your Magdalen House, here or in Hampshire?”

“I have pretty well decided on Hampshire, not too far from the Abbey, so I can keep an eye on it personally. I refer to the running of it-the finances and employees and most of all, where the girls are placed when they leave.”