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The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly — 9.1896

DOI Artikel:
Russell, T. Baron: A Guardian of the Poor
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26392#0224

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A Guardian of the Poor

at the little head, just hidden by the flannel it was wrapped in.
They dared not speak, lest the child should rouse—and indeed,
Mary was hardly strong enough to talk yet, though she described
herself, in a whisper, as “ getting on famous.”

The charwoman departed early in each evening, now, and John
slept, secretly, on the landing, that he might hear his wife’s call, if
she should need him in the night. He was supposed to lie on a
couch in that mathematical-looking parlour, the use of which was
so rigidly confined to Sunday afternoons: but this was a myth,
loyally concealed by the charwoman, who was spared the trouble
of a bed-making by the inscrutable whim of her patient’s husband.
He caught a severe cold in the process, which was not surprising.

Mary’s progress did not satisfy the doctor. Ten days showed
little or no recovery of strength. He ordered beef tea, and John
provided it. But no success attended this time-honoured prescrip-
tion. Possibly it was not skillfully prepared : anyway the patient
grew worse. On Wednesday at dinner time, John found the
doctor waiting for him. “ I don’t like the looks of your wife, Mr.
Hunt,” he said, bluntly. “ She isn’t picking up as fast as we
should wish. I should like her to have some beef essence—a
small quantity, every two hours.”

“What, Liebig ? ” asked John.

“ No, no, not Liebig : essence, not extract. It is a kind of
jelly. You get it at the chemists : lot of nourishment in a small
space—very easily assimilated, you know.”

John didn’t know, but he neglected his dinner and hurried to
the drug stores. “Fifteen pence,” said the man at the counter ;
and John’s heart sank at the smallness of the tin that was handed
him. On his return he met the landlord, demanding the rent.
Three more visits to the chemists, at one and threepence, left him,
by Thursday night, with an empty pocket -} and there was only

enough
 
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