Early a case of perjury on the part of Harker's clerk, fo

Essica returned to you safely this morning?" Leroy enquired. "My niece,
Jess, d'ye mean?" replied Wilfer, eyeing him suspiciously. "Ain't seen
'er fer months; run away last June, after 'elping 'erself to some of my
cash, an' ain't been back since. 'Sides, what's it got to do with you,
Guv'nor, I'd like to know? You mind yer own bus'ness." He leered
drunkenly at Leroy, who turned away with a look of disgust. He knew how
useless it was to expect truth from such a quarter. As the gentleman
stepped out into the dirty court and returned to his car Johann Wilfer
blinked his eyes in relief; then with an oath he stumbled up the rickety
stairs into the living-room, and confronted Jessica, who was standing
near the window. "So that's yer little game, is it?" he said with a
sneer; "you're goin' in for swells right away, are yer, my gal? Got your
name as pat as a poll-parrot. Knows all my private business, I dessay;
I'll break every bone in yer body!" He stumbled towards her where she
stood--her face still transfigured with joy at the sound of her
benefactor's voice--and made a sudden grab at her hair. But, alert and
lithe as a leopardess, she bounded over the table, and slipped past him
down the staircase, from the top of which he launched forth a long
volley of curses. Quivering and shaking, both with fear of Wilfer's
violence and her sense of injury at his denial of her presence to Leroy,
Jessica ran, as fast as her frail body would permit her, through the
intricate smaller streets and passages which abound in the Soho
district. Having gone far enough, in her opinion, to be fairly safe from
any danger of Wilfer's pursuit, she stopped to consider whether she
should endeavour to find Leroy. "After all," she thought, "perhaps it is
best as it i

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