“Vot’s your opinion of tooth-drawin’?” inquired the man confidentially, retiring and reappearing again, holding up a pair of forceps. “Ain’t it rayther a queer go, don’t you think? I knew a barber as drawed teeth. He never used nothing of this kind. Vot do you think he did? Bust me if he doesn’t set you in a chair, fastens a bit o’ vire to the tooth as is to come out, and ties t’other end of the vire to the leg of a table. Ven all’s ready, ‘Mind yer eye’ he sings out, ups with a razor, rushes at yer makin’ horrible mouths, up jumps you, avays you run, and leaves your tooth behind yer!”
He gargled an asthmatical laugh, adding: “That’s vot I call a sensible vay of drawin’ a tooth; no bits of cold iron shoved into yer mouth as if yer tongue vas hair and vanted curling.”
“Please, sir, will you step into the parlour and sit down,” said the girl, thrusting her head over the banisters and calling to Holdsworth. “Missis’ll be with yer in a minute.”
He entered the wretched little parlour, while the “man in possession” retreated to the surgery arm-chair, and sat severely contemplating some unfinished teeth on the table in front of him.
In a few moments Holdsworth heard footsteps outside, and Dolly came in, holding Nelly’s hand. She was terribly pale, with a look of terror and exhaustion on her face painful to see. There was an unnatural sleepless brilliancy in her eyes that heightened her worn, hopeless expression. She had thrown an old shawl over her shoulders, and through the portion of the fair skin of the neck that was exposed the veins showed dark. The hand she gave to Holdsworth was like a stone.
He was so overcome by the sight of her misery, that for some moments he could not speak. The child came up to him and rubbed her cheek against his hand.
“This is kind, very kind of you, Mr. Hampden,” she exclaimed in a low, faint voice, sinking upon the sofa and shivering as she hugged the shawl about her shoulders.
“You are in great distress, I fear. I only heard the news just now. I came over to you at once,” he answered tremulously, the fierce beating of his heart sounding an echo through his voice.
“It is what I have been daily expecting for many months—for many bitter, cruel months!” she exclaimed. “It has come at last. We are homeless now. And my husband, who ought to be at my side, has left me. He was away all day yesterday and last night. O God! what a night it has been!” she moaned, rocking herself to and fro.