"I don't know how you could have gone on helping her," Esther said to Charles when she got inside the bar; and she seemed so pained that out of deference to her feelings the subject was dropped out of the conversation. Esther felt that something shocking had happened. Sarah had deliberately got drunk. She would not have done that unless she had some great trouble on her mind. William, too, was of this opinion. Something serious must have happened. As they went up to their room Esther said—
"It is all the fault of this betting. The neighbourhood is completely ruined. They're losing their 'omes and their furniture, and you'll bear the blame of it."
"It do make me so wild to hear you talkin' that way, Esther. People will bet, you can't stop them. I lays fair prices, and they're sure of their money. Yet you says they're losin' their furniture, and that I shall have to bear the blame."
When they got to the top of the stairs she said—
"I must go and see how Sarah is."
"Where am I? What's happened?… Take that candle out of my eyes…. Oh, my head is that painful." She fell back on the pillow, and Esther thought she had gone to sleep again. But she opened her eyes. "Where am I? …That's you, Esther?"
"Yes. Can't you remember?"
"No, I can't. I remember that the 'orse didn't win, but don't remember nothing after…. I got drunk, didn't I? It feels like it."
"The 'orse didn't win, and then you took too much. It's very foolish of you to give way."
"Give way! Drunk, what matter? I'm done for."