he kind of place where one would be afraid of
catching a fever, I think it wouldn't be amiss for me to look him up.'

'You'll do no good by that,' said Amy, indifferently.

'Confound it! It's just because nobody does anything that things have
come to this pass!'

The conversation was, of course, profitless. John could only return
again and again to his assertion that Reardon must get 'a decent berth.'
At length Amy left the room in weariness and disgust.

'I suppose they have quarrelled terrifically,' said her brother, as soon
as she was gone.

'I am afraid so.'

'Well, you must do as you please. But it's confounded hard lines that
you should have to keep her and the kid. You know I can't afford to
contribute.'

'My dear, I haven't asked you to.'

'No, but you'll have the devil's own job to make ends meet; I know that
well enough.'

'I shall manage somehow.'

'All right; you're a plucky woman, but it's too bad. Reardon's a humbug,
that's my opinion. I shall have a talk with Carter about him. I suppose
he has transferred all their furniture to the slum?'

'He can't have removed yet. It was only this morning that he went to
search for lodgings.'

'Oh, then I tell you what it is: I shall look in there the first thing
to-morrow morning, and just talk to him in a fatherly way. You needn't
say anything to Amy. But I see he's just the kind of fellow that,
if everyone leaves him alone, he'll be content with Carter's
five-and-twenty shillings for the rest of his life, and never trouble
his head about how Amy is living.'

To this proposal Mrs Yule readily assented. On going upstairs she found
that Amy had all but fallen asleep upon a settee in the drawing-room.

'You are quite worn out with your troubles,' she said. 'Go to bed, and
have a good long sleep.'

'Yes, I will.'

The neat, fresh bedchamber seemed to Amy a delightful haven of rest. She
turned the key in the door with an enjoyment of the privacy thus secured
such as she had never known in her life; for in maidenhood safe solitude
was a matter of course to her, and since marriage she had not passed a
night alone. Willie was fast asleep in a little bed shadowed by her own.
In an impulse of maternal love and gladness she bent over the child and
covered his face with kisses too gentle to awaken him.

How clean and sweet everything was! It is often said, by people who are
exquisitely ignorant of the matter, that cleanliness is a luxury within
reach even