five
days, without so much as an old newspaper to look at, or anything to see
out o' the winder but the roofs and chimneys at the back of the house, or
anything to listen to, but the ticking, perhaps, of an old Dutch clock,
the sobbing of the missis, now and then, the low talking of friends in
the next room, who speak in whispers, lest "the man" should overhear
them, or perhaps the occasional opening of the door, as a child peeps in
to look at you, and then runs half-frightened away--it's all this, that
makes you feel sneaking somehow, and ashamed of yourself; and then, if
it's wintertime, they just give you fire enough to make you think you'd
like more, and bring in your grub as if they wished it 'ud choke you--as
I dare say they do, for the matter of that, most heartily. If they're
very civil, they make you up a bed in the room at night, and if they
don't, your master sends one in for you; but there you are, without being
washed or shaved all the time, shunned by everybody, and spoken to by no
one, unless some one comes in at dinner-time, and asks you whether you
want any more, in a tone as much to say, "I hope you don't," or, in the
evening, to inquire whether you wouldn't rather have a candle, after
you've been sitting in the dark half the night. When I was left in this
way, I used to sit, think, think, thinking, till I felt as lonesome as a
kitten in a wash-house copper with the lid on; but I believe the old
brokers' men who are regularly trained to it, never think at all. I have
heard some on 'em say, indeed, that they don't know how!

'I put in a good many distresses in my time (continued Mr. Bung), and in
course I wasn't long in finding, that some people are not as much to be
pitied as others are, and that people with good incomes who get into
difficulties, which they keep patching up day after day and week after
week, get so used to these sort of things in time, that at last they come
scarcely to feel them at all. I remember the very first place I was put
in possession of, was a gentleman's house in this parish here, that
everybody would suppose couldn't help having money if he tried. I went
with old Fixem, my old master, 'bout half arter eight in the morning;
rang the area-bell; servant in livery opened the door: "Governor at
home?"--"Yes, he is," says the man; "but he's breakfasting just now."
"Never mind," says Fixem, "just you tell him there's a gentleman here, as
wants to speak to him partickler." So