Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. III, 1889.djvu/214

204 the very point of savagely murdering all his family.

Another voice became audible. It was that of Ned Higgs, who had opened his door to bellow curses at the disturbers of his rest.

“They’ll be wakin’ mother,” said Stephen. “There, I knew they would.”

Mrs. Candy stirred, and after a few vain efforts to raise herself, started up suddenly. She fixed her eyes on the fire, which was just beginning to blaze, and uttered a dreadful cry, a shriek of mad terror.

“O God!” groaned her son. “I hope it ain’t goin’ to be one of her bad nights. Mother, mother! what’s wrong with you? See, come to the fire an’ warm yourself, mother.”

She repeated the cry two or three times, but with less violence; then, as though exhausted, she fell face downwards, her arms folded about her head. The moaning which Bob had heard earlier in the evening recommenced.

Happily, it was not to be one of her bad nights. Fits of the horrors only came upon her twice before morning. Towards one o’clock Stephen had sunk into a sleep which scarcely any conceivable uproar could have broken; he