Page 924 - of-human-bondage-

‘Maybe the Lord’ll see fit to take ‘em to ‘imself,’ said the
midwife.
Philip caught sight of the husband’s face as he looked at
the tiny pair lying side by side, and there was a ferocious
sullenness in it which startled him. He felt in the family
assembled there a hideous resentment against those poor
atoms who had come into the world unwished for; and he
had a suspicion that if he did not speak firmly an ‘accident’
would occur. Accidents occurred often; mothers ‘overlay’
their babies, and perhaps errors of diet were not always the
result of carelessness.
‘I shall come every day,’ he said. ‘I warn you that if any-
thing happens to them there’ll have to be an inquest.’
The father made no reply, but he gave Philip a scowl.
There was murder in his soul.
‘Bless their little ‘earts,’ said the grandmother, ‘what
should ‘appen to them?’
The great difficulty was to keep the mothers in bed for
ten days, which was the minimum upon which the hospital
practice insisted. It was awkward to look after the family,
no one would see to the children without payment, and
the husband tumbled because his tea was not right when
he came home tired from his work and hungry. Philip had
heard that the poor helped one another, but woman after
woman complained to him that she could not get anyone in
to clean up and see to the children’s dinner without paying
for the service, and she could not afford to pay. By listening
to the women as they talked and by chance remarks from
which he could deduce much that was left unsaid, Philip