"stow their talk, and keep their story till they got into court."
While this went on in the waiting-room, Prudence was sitting in an agony of apprehension expecting the summons.
At last the case of The Queen v. Brown was called, and Sal was put forward on remand charged with the criminal neglect of certain infants under one year, committed to her charge, and for that she, an unlicensed person, did receive more than one such infant, contrary to the regulations of the Act 25 Victoria, section 22, clause 4.
An officer from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children deposed that the police had informed him of the deplorable condition of the unhappy infant, whom Sal was using as an offensive weapon on the occasion of the arrest. He went to the station where the woman had been charged, obtained her name and address, and proceeded to make enquiries. A graphic description of Plummer's Cottages followed, and of the wretched objects found there—starved, dirty, and miserable.
Witness after witness was called to testify to the children being left for hours without food, fire, or attention. The children were
