string across for telegraph wires.
That'll be a very good idea, won't it, Dad?' and Owen agreed.

'But of course I'll come to meet you just the same as other Saturdays,
because I'm going to buy a ha'porth of milk for the kitten out of my
penny.'

After the child was in bed, Owen sat alone by the table in the draughty
sitting-room, thinking. Although there was a bright fire, the room was
very cold, being so close to the roof. The wind roared loudly round
the gables, shaking the house in a way that threatened every moment to
hurl it to the ground. The lamp on the table had a green glass
reservoir which was half full of oil. Owen watched this with
unconscious fascination. Every time a gust of wind struck the house
the oil in the lamp was agitated and rippled against the glass like the
waves of a miniature sea. Staring abstractedly at the lamp, he thought
of the future.

A few years ago the future had seemed a region of wonderful and
mysterious possibilities of good, but tonight the thought brought no
such illusions, for he knew that the story of the future was to be much
the same as the story of the past.

The story of the past would continue to repeat itself for a few years
longer. He would continue to work and they would all three continue to
do without most of the necessaries of life. When there was no work
they would starve.

For himself he did not care much because he knew that at the best--or
worst--it would only be a very few years. Even if he were to have
proper food and clothing and be able to take reasonable care of
himself, he could not live much longer; but when that time came, what
was to become of THEM?

There would be some hope for the boy if he were more robust and if his
character were less gentle and more selfish. Under the present system
it was impossible for anyone to succeed in life without injuring other
people and treating them and making use of them as one would not like
to be treated and made use of oneself.

In order to succeed in the world it was necessary to be brutal, selfish
and unfeeling: to push others aside and to take advantage of their
misfortunes: to undersell and crush out one's competitors by fair means
or foul: to consider one's own interests first in every case,
absolutely regardless of the wellbeing of others.

That was the ideal character. Owen knew that Frankie's character did
not come up to this lofty ideal. Then there was Nora, how would she
fare?

Owen