Esther Waters Part 57

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.

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