Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. I, 1889.djvu/50

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THE NETHER WORLD.

But she can't be long, an I want to speak to you first. It's a bad night, isn't it? Yes, I feel it in my throat, and it goes right through my chest—'ust 'ere, look! And I haven't slep' not a hour a night this last week; it makes me feel that low. I want to get to the Orspital, if I can, in a day or two."

"But doesn't the doctor come still?" asked Sidney, drawing a chair near to her.

"Well, I didn't think it was right to go on payin' him, an' that's the truth. I'll go to the Orspital, an' they'll give me somethin'. I look bad, don't I, Sidney?"

"You look as if you'd no business to be out of bed," returned the young man in a grumbling voice.

"Oh, I can’t lie still, so it's no use talkin'! But see, I want to speak about Clara. That woman Mrs. Tubbs has been here to see me, talkin' an' talkin'. She says she'll give Clara five shillin' a week, as well as board an lodge her. I don't know what to do about it, that I don't. Clara, she's that set on goin', an' her father's that set against it. It seems as