I feel as if I wanted to laugh till I fairly split my sides.'

And she began to sing: 'For 'e's a jolly good feller--for 'e's a jolly
good feller!'

Her dress was all disarranged; her face covered with the scars of
scratches, and clots of blood had fixed under her nose; her eye had
swollen up so that it was nearly closed, and red; her hair was hanging
over her face and shoulders, and she laughed stupidly and leered with
heavy, sodden ugliness.

'Disy, Disy! I can't afford a kerridge.
But you'll look neat, on the seat
Of a bicycle mide for two.'

She shouted out the tunes, beating time on the table, and her mother,
grinning, with her thin, grey hair hanging dishevelled over her head,
joined in with her weak, cracked voice--

'Oh, dem golden kippers, oh!'

Then Liza grew more melancholy and broke into 'Auld Lang Syne'.

'Should old acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?

* * * * *

For old lang syne'.

Finally they both grew silent, and in a little while there came a
snore from Mrs. Kemp; her head fell forward to her chest; Liza tumbled
from her chair on to the bed, and sprawling across it fell asleep.

'_Although I am drunk and bad, be you kind,
Cast a glance at this heart which is bewildered and distressed.
O God, take away from my mind my cry and my complaint.
Offer wine, and take sorrow from my remembrance.
Offer wine._'

12

About the middle of the night Liza woke; her mouth was hot and dry,
and a sharp, cutting pain passed through her head as she moved. Her
mother had evidently roused herself, for she was lying in bed by her
side, partially undressed, with all the bedclothes rolled round her.
Liza shivered in the cold night, and taking off some of her
things--her boots, her skirt, and jacket--got right into bed; she
tried to get some of the blanket from her mother, but as she pulled
Mrs. Kemp gave a growl in her sleep and drew the clothes more tightly
round her. So Liza put over herself her skirt and a shawl, which was
lying over the end of the bed, and tried to go to sleep.

But she could not; her head and hands were broiling hot, and she was
terribly thirsty; when she lifted herself up to get a drink of water
such a pang went through her head that she fell back on the bed
groaning, and lay there with beating heart. And strange pains that she
did not know went through her. Then a cold