But it's you I'm talkin'
to, Amy. You dare to leave this house again till there's another
place found for you! If you'd any self-respect, you couldn't bear to
look Sidney in the face. Suppose you hadn't such a brother to work
for you, what would you do, eh? Who'd buy your food? Who'd pay the
rent of the house you live in?'
A noteworthy difference between children of this standing and such
as pass their years of play-time in homes unshadowed by poverty. For
these, life had no illusions. Of every mouthful that they ate, the
price was known to them. The roof over their heads was there by no
grace of Providence, but solely because such-and-such a sum was paid
weekly in hard cash, when the collector came; let the payment fail,
and they knew perfectly well what the result would be. The children
of the upper world could not even by chance give a thought to the
sources whence their needs are supplied; speech on such a subject in
their presence would be held indecent. In John Hewett's position,
the indecency, the crime, would have been to keep silence and
pretend that the needs of existence are ministered to as a matter of
course.
His tone and language were pitifully those of feeble age.
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