That's always the way with me. Mr. Willis, he's my
undertaker; you'll find him at Number 17 Green Passage He buried my
'usband; though that wasn't from the Close; but I never knew a job
turned out more respectable. He was 'ere to-day; we've only just
buried my 'usband's mother. That's why I ain't quite myself--see?'
Mrs. Peckover was not wont to be gossippy. She became so at present,
partly in consequence of the stimulants she had taken to support her
through a trying ceremony, partly as a means of obtaining time to
reflect. Jane's unlucky illness made an especial difficulty in her
calculations. She felt that the longer she delayed mention of the
fact, the more likely was she to excite suspicion; on the other
hand, she could not devise the suitable terms in which to reveal it.
The steady gaze of the old man was disconcerting. Not that he
searched her face with a cunning scrutiny, such as her own eyes
expressed; she would have found that less troublesome, as being
familiar. The anxiety, the troubled anticipation, which her words
had aroused in him, were wholly free from shadow of ignoble motive;
he was pained, and the frequent turning away of his look betrayed
that part of the feeling was caused by observation of the woman
herself, but every movement visible on his features was subdued by
patience and mildness.
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