Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. III, 1889.djvu/156

146 THE NETHER WORLD. their gaze, felt startled, she did not know why. At the same moment he stepped down from the threshold and walked away without speaking.

“I shouldn’t care to have him for a ‘usband,” pursued Mrs. Griffin. “Of course he must go an’ lose his work, just when his wife’s wantin’ a few little extries, as you may say.”

“Lost his work?”

“Day ‘fore yes‘day. I don’t like him, an’ I don’t like his ways; he’ll be gettin’ into trouble before long, you mind what I say. His family’s a queer lot, ‘cordin’ to what they tell. Do you know them, Miss?”

“I used to, a long time ago.”

“You knew his sister—her as is come ’ome?”

“His sister?”

“Her as was a actress. Mrs. Bannister was tellin’ me only last night; she had it from Mrs. Horrocks, as heard from a friend of hers as lives in the Farrin'don Buildin’s, where the Hewetts lives too. They tell me it was in the Sunday paper, though I don’t remember nothing about it at the time. It seems as how a woman threw vitrol over her an’ burnt her face so as there’s no knowin’ her, an’ she goes about with a veil, an’ ‘cause she can’t get her