After a pause, he said, "Thank you, sir," meaning for the sympathy that made me tell him that. But it must have been the wine.
"That little girl comes here with a message from your wife?"
"Yes; if she nods three times, it means my wife is a little better."
"She nodded thrice to-day."
"But she is told to do that to relieve me, and maybe those nods don't tell the truth."
"Is she your girl?"
"No, we have none but the baby. She is a neighbor's. She comes twice a day."
"It is heartless of her parents not to send her every hour."
"But she is six years old," he said, "and has a house and two sisters to look after in the daytime, and a dinner to cook. Gentlefolk don't understand."
"I suppose you live in some low part, William."