ght have taken him for one who had already been drinking. No; it was
only a struggle between his despairing wretchedness and a lifelong
habit of mind. Not difficult to foresee which would prevail; the
public-house always has its doors open in expectation of such
instances. With a gesture which made him yet more like a drunken man he
turned from the pavement and entered. . . .

About nine o'clock in the evening, just when Mrs. Hewett had put the
unwilling children to bed, and had given her baby a sleeping-dose--it
had cried incessantly for eighteen hours,--the door of the room was
pushed open. Her husband came in. She stood looking at him--unable to
credit the evidence of her eyes.

'John!'

She laid her hand upon him and stared into his face. The man shook her
off, without speaking, and moved staggeringly forward. Then he turned
round, waved his arm, and shouted:

'Let her go to the devil She cares nothing for her father.'

He threw himself upon the bed, and soon sank into drunken sleep.

CHAPTER XIV

A WELCOME GUEST

The bells of St. James's, Clerkenwell, ring melodies in intervals of
the pealing for service-time. One morning of spring their music, like
the rain that fell intermittently, was flung westwards by the
boisterous wind, away over Clerkenwell Close, until the notes failed
one by one, or were clashed out of existence by the clamour of a less
civilised steeple. Had the wind been under mortal control it would
doubtless have blown thus violently and in this quarter in order that
the inhabitants of the House of Detention might derive no solace from
the melody. Yet I know not; just now the bells were playing 'There is a
happy land, far, far away,' and that hymn makes too great a demand upon
the imagination to soothe amid instant miseries.

In Mrs. Peckover's kitchen the music was audible in bursts. Clem and
her mother, however, it neither summoned to prepare for church, nor
lulled into a mood of restful reverie. The two were sitting very close
together before the fire, and holding intimate converse; their voices
kept a low murmur, as if; though the door was shut, they felt it
necessary to use every precaution against being overheard. Three years
have come and gone since we saw these persons. On the elder time has
made little impression; but Clem has developed noticeably. The girl is
now in the very prime of her ferocious beauty. She has grown taller and
somewhat stouter; her shoulders spread like t