Page:Gissing - Workers in the Dawn, vol. I, 1880.djvu/27

Rh parish doctor ain’t over pertikler in comin’ just when he’s wanted. But he won’t be long now. Maybe you’d take a drop yerself, sir? No! Well, it don’t suit everybody’s stomach, certainly. So ‘ere’s yer very good ‘ealth, sir, an th’ ‘ealth of the poor gentleman too.”

As she ceased she poured the warm liquor down her scraggy throat, leered hideously at the clergyman, and left the room.

Mr. Norman began to pace backwards and forwards in the utmost impatience, rubbing his hands together, intertwisting his fingers, and showing every sign of extreme nervousness. In some ten minutes eleven o’clock sounded from the church hard by, and as the tones ceased a slight commotion was evident upon the stairs. At once footsteps began to ascend rapidly, and Mr. Norman, with a sigh of relief, hurried to the door just in time to meet upon the threshold a young, earnest-looking man, whom the clergyman greeted with instinctive confidence. The doctor examined Golding for a few minutes in silence, then turned away from him with a slight shrug of the shoulders.

“Too late,” he said, looking at the clergyman, “much too late. He won’t last an hour.”

“I feared it.”

“Drink, sir, drink, and a dozen other ailments induced by it. I should only be