Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. III, 1889.djvu/258

248 if her hands were grimy from toil, as if her limbs ached. Oh that dreadful voice! Was she never, never to escape beyond hearing of it?

“Jane, my dear, come into the sitting-room,” said Bessie. “No wonder it’s upset you. What can it all mean?”

The meaning was not far to seek; Jane understood everything,—yes, even her father’s hypocrisies. She listened for a few minutes to her friend’s indignant exclamations, then looked up, her resolve taken.

“Mrs. Byass, I shall take no more money. I shall go to work again and earn my living. How thankful I am that I can!”

“Why, what nonsense are you talking, child! Just because that—that creature Why, I’ve no patience with you, Jane! As if she durst touch you! Touch you? I’d like to see her indeed.”

“It isn’t that, Mrs. Byass. I can’t take money from father. I haven’t felt easy in my mind ever since he told me about it, and now I can’t take the money. Whether it’s true or not, all she said, I should never have a night’s rest if I consented to live in this way.”