"
"I don't know."
"Take my advice, and go straight back and ask 'er to overlook it, this
once."
"Oh, no, she'd never take me back."
"Yes, she will; you suits the child, and that's all they think of."
"I don't know what will become of me and my baby."
"No more don't I. Yer can't stop always in the work'us, and a baby'll be a
'eavy drag on you. Can't you lay 'ands on 'is father, some'ow?"
Esther shook her head, and Mrs. Spires noticed that she was crying.
"I'm all alone," she said; "I don't know 'ow I'm ever to pull through."
"Not with that child yer won't--it ain't possible.... You girls is all
alike, yer thinks of nothing but yer babies for the first few weeks, then
yer tires of them, the drag on yer is that 'eavy--I knows yer--and then
yer begins to wish they 'ad never been born, or yer wishes they had died
afore they knew they was alive. I don't say I'm not often sorry for them,
poor little dears, but they takes less notice than you'd think for, and
they is better out of the way; they really is, it saves a lot of trouble
hereafter. I often do think that to neglect them, to let them go off
quiet, that I be their best friend; not wilful neglect, yer know, but what
is a woman to do with ten or a dozen, and I often 'as as many? I am sure
they'd thank me for it."
Esther did not answer, but judging by her face that she had lost all hope,
Mrs.
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