r French or English. But
he was inquisitive touching the urgency. That was my chance. The French
are humane when they are not suspicious of you. They are generous, if you
put a light 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