The accused woman remained very calm, and it was not until the charge against her began to get monotonous through repetition that she told the conductor to stop the omnibus and call a policeman. The conductor did so.
"That woman has stolen my purse," the passenger at the door shouted when the policeman arrived.
The policeman looked from one to the other, and then said :—
" Why, there's your purse in your lap."
" Yes, I know," the accuser admitted.
" Then, what do you mean by sayin' that lady stole it?"
" I did it out of kindness, constable. The lady has got the hiccoughs, and I wanted to give her a start."
To be accused of having the hiccoughs seemed to annoy the woman in the corner far more than the charge of theft did, and she appealed, excitedly, to the male passenger to say whether or not she had the hiccoughs. He answered boldly that there was not the slightest ground for such an accusation.
"But she was going to have them," the woman by the door declared, an assertion which so
