“Well, well!—come in,” said Daniel; “and you too, Mr. Brookes, if you please. I’m not myself at all to-night; and it ’ud hearten me to have somebody to back me. Come in.”
He opened the door into a comfortable and neat room, where everything was arranged with scrupulous order; for he was an orderly man by nature and Jessica had already the thrifty habits of a housekeeper. The fire had been well raked over with small coals before he and Jessica started for chapel, and now it was a bank of glowing embers.
The woman tottered across to the hearth and flung herself into Daniel’s arm-chair. They could see now how wan and hollow her face was, with the cheeks fallen in and the burning eyes sunk deep into the head, while, as she stretched out her thin and yellow hands over the fire, the red gleam shone through them. The poor tatters she wore were limp and dank with fog, and the slippers into which her naked feet were thrust were worn out at the toes, so as to give free inlet to the mud of the pavement.
Daniel regarded her in silence for a minute or two, and he then passed on into a small kitchen at the back and returned quickly with some bread and cheese and some coffee, which he warmed up in a little saucepan. She drank the coffee eagerly, but she could not swallow more than a mouthful or two of the bread.
“And this is Jessica’s home,” she said, when she was revived a little; “and a very comfortable home too. Eh! but I’m a lucky mother, and she’s a lucky girl. Will she be in to-night, Mr. Standring?”
“No,” answered Daniel, shortly.
“Well, I can make myself comfortable,” she said, with a laugh which made Daniel shiver. “I dare say her bed is softer than any I’ve slept on of late. Last night I slept under a scaffolding on some shavings. Don’t put yourself out about me. I can make myself comfortable.”
“But you cannot stay here all night,” replied Daniel decisively.
“And why not?” she rejoined. “I suppose I’m as good as my daughter. Ah, she’ll never be the woman I’ve been! I rode in my carriage once, man, I can tell you. And what should hinder me staying a night, or a week, or a month in your paltry little house? No, no! you’ll not see my back to-night, I promise you.”
“I wouldn’t give you a night’s lodging for five shillings,” said Daniel hastily.