need him. The old woman do talk."

"And what does William answer to that?"

"He says as the gentlemen can't be kept waiting for their cheese."

"But William does not go straight home when he leaves the club?"

"That's the kid."

"Kid!" I echoed, scarcely understanding, for, knowing how little the
poor love their children, I had asked William no questions about the
baby.

"Didn't you know his missis had a kid?"

"Yes; but that is no excuse for William's staying away from his sick
wife," I answered, sharply. A baby in such a home as William's, I
reflected, must be trying; but still--Besides, his class can sleep
through any din.

"The kid ain't in our court," the girl explained. "He's in W., he is,
and I've never been out of W.C.; leastwise, not as I knows on."

"This is W. I suppose you mean that the child is at West Kensington?
Well, no doubt it was better for William's wife to get rid of the
child--"

"Better!" interposed the girl. "'Tain't better for her not to have the
kid. Ain't her not having him what she's always thinking on when she
looks like a dead one?"

"How could you know that?"

"Cause," answered the girl, illustrating her words with a gesture, "I
watches her, and I sees her arms going this way, just like as she wanted
to hug her kid."

"Possibly you are right," I said, frowning; "but William had put the
child out to nurse because it disturbed his night's rest. A man who has
his work to do--"

"You are green!"

"Then why have the mother and child been separated?"

"Along of that there measles. Near all the young 'uns in our court has
'em bad."

"Have you had them?"

"I said the young 'uns."

"And William sent the baby to West Kensington to escape infection?"

"Took him, he did."

"Against his wife's wishes?"

"Na-o!"

"You said she was dying for want of the child?"

"Wouldn't she rayther die than have the kid die?"

"Don't speak so heartlessly, child. Why does William not go straight
home from the club? Does he go to West Kensington to see it?"

"'Tain't a hit, it's an 'e. Course he do."

"Then he should not. His wife has the first claim on him."

"Ain't you green! It's his missis as wants him to go. Do you think she
could sleep till she knowed how the kid was?"

"But he does not go into the house at West Kensington?"

"Is he soft? Course he don't go in, fear of taking the infection to the
kid. They just holds the kid up at the window to him, so as he can have
a goo