Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. III, 1889.djvu/53

 day great dough-puddings, kept hot by jets of steam that came up through the zinc on which they lay; this food was cheap and satisfying and Penny loaf often regaled both herself and the children on thick slabs of it. Pease-pudding also attracted her she fetched it from the pork-butcher's in a little basin, which enabled her to bring away at the same time a spoonful or two of gravy from the joints of which she was not rich enough to purchase a cut. Her drink was tea she had the pot on the table all day, and kept adding hot water. Treacle she purchased now and then, but only as a treat when her dinner had cost even less than usual she did not venture to buy more than a couple of ounces at a time, knowing by experience that she could not resist this form of temptation, and must eat and eat till all was finished.

Bob flung six pence on to the table. He was ashamed of himself,—you will not understand him if you fail to recognise that,—but the shame only served to make him fret under his bondage. Was he going to be tied to Pennyloaf all his life, with a family constantly increasing Practically he had already made