'Not very, miss. My head's bad, an' I'm so thirsty. May I drink out
of the jug, miss?'
'Stay where you are. I'll bring it to you.'
Jane drank a great deal. Presently she fell again into slumber,
which was again broken in the same way. Clara did not go to sleep,
and as soon as it was daylight she summoned her father to come and
look at the child. Jane was ill, and, as everyone could see, rapidly
grew worse.
CHAPTER V
JANE IS VISITED
At ten o'clock next morning Mrs. Peckover reached home. She was a
tall, big-boned woman of fifty, with an arm like a coalheaver's. She
had dark hair, which shone and was odorous with unguents; a sallow,
uncomely face, and a handsome moustache. Her countenance was more
difficult to read than Clem's; a coarse, and most likely brutal,
nature was plain enough in its lines, but there was also a
suggestion of self-restraint, of sagacity, at all events of
cunning--qualities which were decidedly not inherited by her daughter.
With her came the relative whose presence had been desired at the
funeral to-day. This was Mrs. Gully, a stout person with a very red
nose and bleared eyes. The credit of the family demanded that as
many relatives as possible should follow the hearse, and Mrs.
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