"I must go and see how Sarah is."
"Where am I? What's happened?... Take that candle out of my eyes.... Oh,
my head is that painful." She fell back on the pillow, and Esther thought
she had gone to sleep again. But she opened her eyes. "Where am I?
...That's you, Esther?"
"Yes. Can't you remember?"
"No, I can't. I remember that the 'orse didn't win, but don't remember
nothing after.... I got drunk, didn't I? It feels like it."
"The 'orse didn't win, and then you took too much. It's very foolish of
you to give way."
"Give way! Drunk, what matter? I'm done for."
"Did you lose much?"
"It wasn't what I lost, it was what I took. I gave Bill the plate to
pledge; it's all gone, and master and missis coming back tomorrow. Don't
talk about it. I got drunk so that I shouldn't think of it."
"Oh, Sarah, I didn't think it was as bad as that. You must tell me all
about it."
"I don't want to think about it. They'll come soon enough to take me away.
Besides, I cannot remember nothing now. My mouth's that awful--Give me a
drink. Never mind the glass, give me the water-bottle."
She drank ravenously, and seemed to recover a little. Esther pressed her
to tell her about the pledged plate. "You know that I'm your friend. You'd
better tell me. I want to help you out of this scrape."
"No one can help me now, I'm done for. Let them come and take me. I'll go
with them. I shan't say nothing."
"How much is it in for? Don't cry like that," Esther said, and she took
out her handkerchief and wiped Sarah's eyes. "How much is it in for?
Perhaps I can get my husband to lend me the money to get it out."
"It's no use trying to help me.... Esther, I can't talk about it now; I
shall go mad if I do."
"Tell me how much you got on it."
"Thirty pounds."
It took a long time to undress her. Every now and then she made an effort,
and another article of clothing was got off. When Esther returned to her
room William was asleep, and Esther took him by the shoulder.
"It is more serious than I thought," she shouted. "I want to tell you
about it."
"What about it?" he said, opening his eyes.
"She has pledged the plate for thirty pounds to back that 'orse."
"What 'orse?"
"Ben Jonson."
"He broke down at the bushes. If he hadn't I should have been broke up.
The whole neighbourhood was on him. So she pledged the plate to back him.
She didn't do that to back him herself. Some one must have put her up to
it."
"Yes, it was Bill Evans."
"Ah, that blackguard put her up to it. I thought she'd left him for good.
She promised us that she'd never speak to him again."
"You see, she was that fond of him that she couldn't help herself. There's
many that can't."
"How much did they get on the plate?"
"Thirty pounds."
William blew a long whistle. Then, starting up in the bed, he said, "She
can't stop here. If it comes out that it was through betting, it won't do
this house any good. We're already suspected. There's that old sweetheart
of yours, the Salvation cove, on the lookout for evidence of betting being
carried on."
"She'll go away in the morning. But I thought that you might lend her the
money to get the plate out."
"What! thirty pounds?"
"It's a deal of money, I know; but I thought that you might be able to
manage it. You've been lucky over this race."
"Yes, but think of all I've lost this summer. This is the first bit of
luck I've had for a long while."
"I thought you might be able to manage it."
Esther stood by the bedside, her knee leaned against the edge. She seemed
to him at that moment as the best woman in the world, and he said--
"Thirty pounds is no more to me than two-pence-halfpenny if you wish it,
Esther."
"I haven't been an extravagant wife, have I?" she said, getting into bed
and taking him in her arms. "I never asked you for money before. She's my
friend--she's yours too--we've known her all our lives. We can't see her
go to prison, can we, Bill, without raising a finger to save her?"
She had never called him Bill before, and the familiar abbreviation
touched him, and he said--
"I owe everything to you, Esther; everything that's mine is yours. But,"
he said, drawing away so that he might see her better, "what do you say if
I ask something of you?"
"What are you going to ask me?"
"I want you to say that you won't bother me no more about the betting. You
was brought up to think it wicked. I know all that, but you see we can't
do without it."
"Do you think not?"
"Don't the thirty pounds you're asking for Sarah come out of betting?"
"I suppose it do."
"Most certainly it do."
"I can't help feeling, Bill, that we shan't always be so lucky as we have
been."
"You mean that you think that one of these days we shall have the police
down upon us?"
"Don't you sometimes think that we can't always go on without being
caught? Every day I hear of the police being down on some betting club or
other."
"They've been down on a great number lately, but what can I do? We always
come back to that. I haven't the health to work round from race-course to
race-course as I used to. But I've got an idea, Esther. I've been thinking
over things a great deal lately, and--give me my pipe--there, it's just by
you. Now, hold the candle, like a good girl."
William pulled at his pipe until it was fully lighted. He threw himself on
his back, and then he said--
"I've been thinking things over. The betting 'as brought us a nice bit of
trade here. If we can work up the business a bit more we might, let's say
in a year from now, be able to get as much for the 'ouse as we gave....
What do you think of buying a business in the country, a 'ouse doing a
steady trade? I've had enough of London, the climate don't suit me as it
used to. I fancy I should be much better in the country, somewhere on the
South Coast. Bournemouth way, what do you think?"
Before Esther could reply William was taken with a fit of coughing, and
his great broad frame was shaken as if it were so much paper.
"I'm sure," said Esther, when he had recovered himself a little, "that a
good deal of your trouble comes from that pipe. It's never out of your
mouth.... I feel like choking myself."
"I daresay I smoke too much.... I'm not the man I was. I can feel it plain
enough. Put my pipe down and blow out the candle.... I didn't ask you how
Sarah was."
"Very bad. She was half dazed and didn't tell me much."
"She didn't tell you where she had pledged the plate?"
"No, I will ask her about that to-morrow morning." Leaning forward she
blew out the candle. The wick smouldered red for a moment, and they fell
asleep happy in each other's love, seeming to find new bonds of union in
pity for their friend's misfortune.