Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. II, 1889.djvu/203

 found much more satisfactory quarters. Friends of Sidney’s, a man and wife of middle age without children, happened to be looking for lodgings; it was decided that they and John Hewett should join in the tenancy of a flat, up on the fifth storey of the huge block of tenements called Farringdon Road Buildings. By this arrangement the children would be looked after, and the weekly twenty-five shillings could be made to go much further than on the ordinary system. As soon as everything had been settled, and when Mr. and Mrs. Eagles had already housed themselves in the one room which was all they needed for their private accommodation, Hewett and the children began to pack together their miserable sticks and rags for removal. Just then Sidney Kirkwood looked in.

“Eagles wants to see you for a minute about something,” he said. “Just walk round with me, will you?”

John obeyed, in the silent, spiritless way now usual with him. It was but a short distance to the buildings; they went up the