Only I'm afraid I haven't got enough to pay the cabman." But while she was speaking she knew from Sarah Gailey's face that the worst and the most ridiculous of her night-fears had been justified by destiny.
Three days previously Mrs.Lessways had been suddenly taken ill in the street.

A doctor passing in his carriage had come to her assistance and driven her home.

Food eaten on the previous evening had 'disagreed' with her.

At first the case was not regarded as very serious.

But as the patient did not improve in the night Miss Gailey telegraphed to Hilda.
Immediately afterwards, the doctor, summoned in alarm, diagnosed peritonitis caused by a perforating cancer.