to their minds. As I was dealing with a scholarly one,
I made use of such ornamental literary skill as I possessed, to prove
urgency. He supplied me with bread, fruit, and wine. In the end he
procured me pupils. I lodged over a baker's shop. I had food walks, and
learnt something of forestry there--a taking study. When I had saved
enough to tramp it home, I said my adieux to that good friend and
tramped away, entering London with about the same amount in small coin
as when I entered Nancy. A manner of exactly hitting the mark, that some
would not find so satisfactory as it is to me.'

The minister sighed. 'There comes in the "philosophy," I suppose. When
will you understand, that this "philosophy" is only the passive of a
religious faith? It seems to suit you gentlemen of the road while
you are young. Work among the Whitechapel poor. It would be a way for
discovering the shallows of your "philosophy" earlier.'

Gower asked him: 'Going badly here, sir?'

'Murders, robberies, misusage of women, and misconduct of women!--Drink,
in short: about the same amount. Drink is their death's river, rolling
them on helpless as corpses, on to--may they find mercy! I and a few
stand--it's in the tide we stand here, to stop them, pluck them out,
make life a bit sweet to them before the poor bodies go beneath. But
come! all's not dark, we have our gleams. I speak distressed by one
of our girls: a good girl, I believe; and the wilfullest that ever had
command of her legs. A well-favoured girl! You'll laugh, she has given
her heart to a prize-fighter. Well, you can say, she might have chosen
worse. He drinks, she hates it; she loves the man and hates his vice. He
swears amendment, is hiccupping at night; fights a match on the morrow,
and gets beaten out of formation. No matter: whenever, wherever, that
man goes to his fight, that girl follows to nurse him after it. He's
her hero. Women will have one, and it's their lottery. You read of such
things; here we have it alive and walking. I am led to think they 're an
honest couple. They come of established families. Her mother was out
of Caermarthen; died under my ministration, saintly, forgiving the
drunkard. You may remember the greengrocer, Tobias Winch? He passed away
in shrieks for one drop. I had to pitch my voice to the top notes to get
hearing for the hymn. He was a reverent man, with the craving by fits.
That should have been a lesson to Madge.'

'A little girl at the greengrocer's