"I have some good news for you too," she added quickly.
"Oh, that's about Eliza, of course; she is the favourite now."
"Don't be foolish, Fanny. I never made a favourite of one more than another; and I am sure you will be pleased to hear the letter Mrs. Parsons has sent me about Eliza."
And she drew the precious letter from her pocket and began to read it. To her at least it was intensely interesting. But Fanny did not see anything to make a fuss about, and she said so, while her mother sat sipping her tea and wondering what could have happened to Fanny that she cared so little for her sister or any of them at home now, and she wondered what she had better do about telling her of the death of Mrs. Collins and the trouble they were all in through it.
But necessity compelled her to do this, for now that she had lent all her housekeeping money to pay Collins's club, it had left her almost without a penny, and so the sad tale had to be told.
"La, mother, do you mean to say you have been running after that Jessie Collins like that? Why, you didn't like me to speak to her when I was at home," retorted Fanny.
"No, I didn't; but I did not know her as well as I do now, and when you were at home, she did little else than run the street, which is no good to any girl. But I have had to do more than go in and out to help them, Fanny, I have had to lend them all my week's housekeeping money to pay up the club that Collins might get the allowance to pay for his wife's funeral. If it had not been paid this morning, the whole six pounds would have been lost."
"And serve him right," said Fanny, coldly. "He kept away from the drink for years and years. What made him take to it just lately? I have seen him hardly able to walk," concluded the girl.
"So have other people; but the poor man is in a great deal of trouble now, and who knows but he may give up the drink after this. At any rate, I could not see them in such trouble and not lift a finger to help them, so I have lent them all the money I had got, and have come to ask you to lend me a few shillings till the end of the week, just to piece out with what I can get on credit," added her mother
"I want a few shillings for myself," said Fanny, in an angry tone. "You seem to think, mother, that I ought to give you every farthing of my wages. I want a new pair of boots and a new frock, and I can't have them because I have not got money enough, and now you come and ask me—"