I do hope she'll get over it. If anything
happens, mind my word, there'll be a nice to-do! Clara says she'll
go to a magistrate an' let it all out, if nobody else will. She
hates the Peckovers, Clara does.'
'It won't come to that,' said Sidney. 'I can see the old man'll take
her away as soon as possible. He may have a little money; he's just
come back from Australia. I like the look of him myself.'
He began to talk of other subjects; waxed wrath at the misery of
this housing to which the family had shrunk; urged a removal from
the vile den as soon as ever it could be managed. Sidney always lost
control of himself when he talked with the Hewetts of their
difficulties; the people were, from his point of view, so lacking in
resource, so stubbornly rooted in profitless habit. Over and over
again he had implored them to take a rational view of the case, to
borrow a few pounds of him, to make a new beginning on clean soil.
It was like contending with some hostile force of nature; lie spent
himself in vain.
As Hewett did not return, he at length took his leave, and went into
the back-room for a moment.
'She's asleep,' said Snowdon, rising from the chair where he had
been sitting deep in thought.
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