Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. III, 1889.djvu/287

Rh always the same walls to look at, day and night—it’s driving me mad!”

“Clara, we can’t move. I daren’t spend even the little money it would cost. Do you know what Amy has been doing?”

“Yes; father told me.”

“How can we go to the least needless expense, when every day makes living harder for us?”

“What have we to do with them? How can you be expected to keep a whole family? It isn’t fair to you or to me. You sacrifice me to them. It’s nothing to you what I endure, so long as they are kept in comfort!”

He stepped nearer to her.

“What do you really mean by that? Is it seriously your wish that I should tell them—your father and your sisters and your brother—to leave the house and support themselves as best they can? Pray, what would become of them? Kept in comfort, are they? How much comfort does your poor father enjoy? Do you wish me to tell him to go out into the street, as I can help him no more?”

She moaned and made a wild gesture.

“You know all this to be impossible; you