318 NOVEMBER. 



long drab coat of a most antiquated cut ! See how 

 neatly it has been brushed! How clean he is shaven, 

 how nicely his white cravat is tied, and with what 

 a formal air he puts his stick to the ground ! There 

 has been a world of preparation to set him out: not 

 even the great trouble which rests upon his mind 

 can make him forget that he is in his Sunday clothes; 

 and he walks on his way a creature of such simpli- 

 city that he seems far likelier to be duped himself 

 than to prevent another being so. 



Observe now this solitary woman. For ten years 

 she has lived in the closest court of the closest alley 

 of a great manufacturing town. Her husband, a 

 clever mechanic, has been earning plenty of money, 

 and plenty of children have grown around them. 

 The good creature, in the abundance of her house- 

 hold affairs, has been so happy that she has almost 

 forgotten that there is a world out of her o\vn house. 

 But there has come a change. Her husband's em- 

 ployment has failed, and he has gone forth to seek 

 it elsewhere. For a time she hears good news; he 

 sends her money and hopes of prosperity, though 

 in a distant place. At length his remittances fail, 

 his letters cease ; she is alarmed ; she musters all 

 her skill at penmanship and writes, but gets no re- 

 ply. Her children want bread ; she is reduced to 

 the utmost distress ; but, suddenly summoning all 

 her energies, she seeks and finds employment, and 

 manages to live. But of her husband no tidings ; 

 day and night she lives in fear and sorrow; he 

 must be dead, or he would certainly write. At 



