Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. III, 1889.djvu/157

Rh own livin’ no more, of course she’s come back ’ome, for all she ran away an’ disgraced herself shameful.”

Jane gazed fixedly at the speaker, scarcely able to oather the sense of what was said.

“Miss Hewett, you mean? Mr. Hewett’s eldest daughter?”

“So I understand.”

“She has come home? When?”

“I can’t just say; but a few weeks ago, I believe. They say it’s nearly two months since it was in the paper.”

“Does Mrs. Hewett know about it?”

“I can’t say. She’s never spoke to me as if she did. And, as I tell you, I only heard yes’day myself. If you’re a friend of theirs, p’r’aps I hadn’t oughtn’t to a’ mentioned it. It just come to my lips in the way o’ talkin’. Of course I don’t know nothin’ about the young woman myself; it’s only what you comes to ’ear in the way o’ talkin’, you know.”

This apology was doubtless produced by the listener’s troubled countenance. Jane asked no further question, but said she would come to see Pennyloaf on the morrow, and so took her leave.