Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. I, 1889.djvu/165

 poor little mite! I've always done what I could for her; you know that, Sidney. I do hope she'll get over it. If anything happens, mind my word, there'll be a nice to do! Clara says she'll go to a magistrate an' let it all out, if nobody else will. She hates the Peckovers, Clara does."

"It won't come to that," said Sidney. "I can see the old man'll take her away as soon as possible. He may have a little money; he's just come back from Australia. I like the look of him myself."

He began to talk of other subjects; waxed wrath at the misery of this housing to which the family had shrunk; urged a removal from the vile den as soon as ever it could be managed. Sidney always lost control of himself when he talked with the Hewetts of their difficulties; the people were, from his point of view, so lacking in resource, so stubbornly rooted in profitless habit. Over and over again he had implored them to take a rational view of the case, to borrow a few pounds of him, to make a new beginning on clean soil.