'Not 'im; 'oo is it, then?'
Liza did not answer.
'Eh?' repeated the mother, ''oo is it?'
Liza lay still without speaking.
'Never mind, Mrs. Kemp,' said Mrs. Hodges, 'don't worry 'er now; you'll be able ter find aht all abaht it when she gits better.'
For a while the two women sat still, waiting the doctor's coming, and Liza lay gazing vacantly at the wall, panting for breath. Sometimes Jim crossed her mind, and she opened her mouth to call for him, but in her despair she restrained herself.
The doctor came.
'D'you think she's bad, doctor?' asked Mrs. Hodges.
'I'm afraid she is rather,' he answered. 'I'll come in again this evening.'
'Oh, doctor,' said Mrs. Kemp, as he was going, 'could yer give me somethin' for my rheumatics? I'm a martyr to rheumatism, an' these cold days I 'ardly knows wot ter do with myself. An', doctor, could you let me 'ave some beef-tea? My 'usbind's dead, an' of course I can't do no work with my daughter ill like this, an' we're very short—'