Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. III, 1889.djvu/42

 “How can I remember? Three or four bob, I s'pose.”

“Three or four bob!” she repeated, snarling. “Give her one, and make her live all the week on it. Wear her down! Make her pawn all she has, and go cold!”

Her cheeks were on fire; her eyes started in the fury of jealousy; she set her teeth together.

“I’d better do for her altogether,” said Bob, with an evil grin.

Clem looked at him, without speaking; kept her gaze on him; then she said in a thick voice:

“There’s many a true word said in joke.”

Bob moved uncomfortably. There was a brief silence, then the other, putting her face nearer his:

“Not just yet. I want to use her to get all I can about that girl and her old beast of a grandfather. Mind you do as I tell you. Pennyloaf’s to have her back again, and she’s to make her talk, and you’re to get all you can from Pennyloaf,—understand?”

There came noises from the shop. Three work-girls had just entered and were buying