midday
Like all the women of her class , utterly ignorant and helpless in the matter of preparing food , she abandoned the attempt to cook anything , and expended her few pence daily on whatever happened to tempt her in a shop , when meal-time came round . In the present state of her health she often suffered from a morbid appetite and fed on things of incredible unwholesomeness . Thus , there was a kind of cake exposed in a window in Rosoman Street , two layers of pastry with half an inch of something like very coarse mincemeat between ; it cost a halfpenny a square , and not seldom she ate four , or even six , of these squares , as heavy as lead , making this her dinner . A cookshop within her range exhibited at midday great dough-puddings , kept hot by jets of steam that came up through the zinc on which they lay ; this food was cheap and satisfying , and Pennyloaf often regaled both herself and the children on thick slabs of it . Pease-pudding also attracted her ; she fetched it from the pork-butcher 's in a little basin , which enabled her to bring away at the same time a spoonful or two of gravy from the joints of which she was not rich enough to purchase a cut . Her drink was tea ; she had the pot on the table all day , and kept adding hot water . Treacle she purchased now and then , but only as a treat when her dinner had cost even less than usual ; she did not venture to buy more than a couple of ounces at a time , knowing by experience that she could not resist this form of temptation , and must eat and eat till all was finished .