"I been gettin' worse every minute.
You and Sadie go by Milla's, Albert, and tell her if I'm not there by ha'-pas'-seven, tell her not to wait for me any longer." "How do you mean 'wait' ?" Albert inquired.

"You don't expect her to come pokin' along with Sadie and me, do you?
She'll keep on sittin' there at home just the same, because she wouldn't have anything else to do, if you don't come like she expects you to.

She hasn't got any way to _stop_ waitin'!" At this, Ramsey moaned, without affectation.

"I don't expect I _can_, Albert," he said.

"I'd like to if I could, but the way it looks now, you tell her I wouldn't be much surprised maybe I was startin' in with typhoid fever or pretty near anything at all.