Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. II, 1889.djvu/166

 Essex somewhere. When was it he was speaking of you? Why, one day last week, to be sure.”

“Speakin’ about me, eh?” said John, turning his glass round and round on the table. And as the other remained silent, he added, “You can tell him, if you like, that my wife’s been very bad for a long time. Him an’ me don’t have nothing to say to each other,—but you can tell him that, if you like.”

“So I will,” replied Mr. Snowdon, nodding with a confidential air.

He had noticed from the beginning of his acquaintance with Hewett that the latter showed no disinclination to receive news of Kirkwood. As Clem’s husband, Joseph was understood to be perfectly aware of the state of things between the Hewetts and their former friend, and in a recent conversation with Mrs. Hewett he had assured himself that she, at all events, would be glad if the estrangement could come to an end. For reasons of his own, Joseph gave narrow attention to these signs.