Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. II, 1889.djvu/174

 and sold for what they could get. When once they took up their tools, these men worked with incredible persistency, and they expected the same exertion from those they employed. “I wouldn’t give a for the chap as can’t do his six-and-thirty hours at the bench!” remarked one of them on the occasion of a workman falling into a fainting-fit, caused by utter exhaustion. Hewett was anything but strong, and he earned little.

Late on Saturday afternoon, Sidney Kirkwood and his friends were back in London. As he drew near to Tysoe Street, carrying the bag which was all the luggage he had needed, Sidney by chance encountered Joseph Snowdon, who, after inquiring about his relatives, said that he had just come from visiting the Hewetts. Mrs. Hewett was very ill indeed; and it was scarcely to be expected she would live more than a few days.

“You mean that?” exclaimed Kirkwood, upon whom, after his week of holiday and of mental experiences which seemed to have