Dreads and Drolls by Arthur Machen

Decidedly; the murder of Matilda J. Hacker in Euston Square, in the year 1878, is one of those cases that are to be marked with an "and yet." No doubt the verdict of the jury was the right verdict, according to the rules of the law; but.

Miss Hacker, if she had lived in an earlier age, would undoubtedly have been one of those "Characters," of whom we were talking. Like Miss Betty Bolaine, she lived at Canterbury; like Miss Bolaine she had an aversion from the spending of money. But, born in a later age, she did not appear in polite company as an animated and malodorous rag-bag, nor did she make her meals of rotten meat picked up in the gutter and roasted on a fire of cabbage stalks. We have long lost the courage of our opinions; and Miss Hacker expressed herself in a purely negative way--she would not pay her rates at Canterbury. She was a well-to-do old woman, but she did not like paying rates. Accordingly, she absconded. She took various names, and lived in various places, so as to avoid being traced and proceeded against by the Canterbury authorities. At length, she called herself Huish, and took lodgings at 4, Euston Square--the place changed its name in consequence--a house kept by a Mr. and Mrs. Bastindoff. Like many other "Characters" of the chronicles, she was accustomed to keep a good deal of money by her in a cash-box.