Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. II, 1889.djvu/301

 not altogether natural. Mrs. Eagles had a shrewd eye; having glanced at Annie and Tom with a discreet smile, she turned her look towards the elder girl, who was standing full in the lamplight.

“Come here, Amy,” she said, after a moment’s scrutiny. “So you will keep doin’ that foolish thing! Very well, then, I shall have to speak to your father about it; I’m not goin’ to see you make yourself ill and do nothing to prevent you.”

Amy, now a girl of eleven, affected much indignation.

“Why, I haven’t touched a drop, Mrs. Eagles!”

“Now, now, now, now, now! Why, your lips are shrivelled up like a bit o’ dried orange-peel! You’re a silly girl, that’s what you are!”

Of late Amy Hewett had become the victim of a singular propensity; whenever she could obtain vinegar, she drank it as a toper does spirits. Inadequate nourishment, and especially an unsatisfied palate, frequently have this result in female children among the poor;