father describing her general contentment with the position, stating: "I just write to say you will be glad to know that I am settled in my new place, and going on all right up to now. My people went out yesterday, and have not returned, so I am in charge. It's a grand place inside, with trees and gardens back and front. All has been newly done up. They are teetotallers, and religious, so I ought to get on. They are very nice people, and I have not too much to do. I hope you are all right and the boy has work. So goodbye for the present. From yours truly, Polly." Possibly because Nichols was an alcoholic and her employers were teetotallers, she left this employment after just three months of service, stealing clothing worth £3 10s. and absconding from the premises. Her father was informed of this fact via postcard on 12 July, in response to his attempted return correspondence with his daughter. By the summer of 1888, Nichols resided in a common lodging-house at 18 Thrawl Street, Spitalfields, where she shared a bed with an elderly woman named Emily "Nelly" Holland. She relocated to an alternative common lodging-house at 56 Flower and Dean Street, Whitechapel, on 24 August. 30–31 August At approximately 11:00 p.m. on 30 August, Nichols was seen walking along Whitechapel Road. She visited the Frying Pan public house in Brick Lane, Spitalfields, leaving at 0:30 a.m. on 31 August. By 1:20 a.m., she had returned to the kitchen of her Flower and Dean Street lodging-house. Fifty minutes later, she was seen by the deputy lodging house keeper, who asked her for the 4d required for her bed. When Nichols replied she did not have the money, she was ordered to leave the premises. Unconcerned, Nichols motioned to her new black velvet bonnet, replying: "I'll soon get my doss money. See what a jolly bonnet I've got now." She then left the lodging-house with a likely intention of earning the money to pay for a bed via prostituting herself. Nichols was last seen alive by Emily Holland, walking alone down Osborn Street at approximately 2:30 a.m. (approximately one hour before her death). To Holland, Nichols seemed notably drunk, at one stage slumping against the wall of a grocer's shop. Holland attempted to persuade Nichols to return to her Thrawl Street lodging-house, but Nichols refused, stating: