ling.

He turned and went from the room.

It was long since he had lost his place of porter at the filter-works.
Before leaving England, Joseph Snowdon managed to dispose of his
interest in the firm of Lake, Snowdon, & Co., and at the same time
Hewett was informed that his wages would be reduced by five shillings a
week--the sum which had been supplied by Michael Snowdon's benevolence.
It was a serious loss. Clara's marriage removed one grave anxiety, but
the three children had still to be brought up, and with every year
John's chance of steady employment would grow less. Sidney Kirkwood
declared himself able and willing to help substantially, but he might
before long have children of his own to think of, and in any case it
was Shameful to burden him in this way.

Shameful or not, it very soon came to pass that Sidney had the whole
family on his hands. A bad attack of rheumatism in the succeeding
winter made John incapable of earning anything at all; for two months
he was a cripple. Till then Sidney and his wife had occupied lodgings
in Holloway; when it became evident that Hewett must not hope to be
able to support his children, and when Sidney had for many weeks p aid
the rent (as well as supplying the money to live upon) in Farringdon
Road Buildings, the house at Crouch End was taken, and there all went
to live together. Clara's health was very uncertain, and though at
first she spoke frequently of finding work to do at home, the birth of
a child put an end to such projects. Amy Hewett was shortly at the
point when the education of a board-school child is said to be
'finished;' by good luck, employment was found for her in Kentish Town,
with three shillings a week from the first. John could not resign
himself to being a mere burden on the home. Enforced idleness so
fretted him that at times he seemed all but out of his wits. In despair
he caught at the strangest kinds of casual occupation; when earning
nothing, he would barely eat enough to keep himself alive, and if he
succeeded in bringing home a shilling or two, he turned the money about
in his hands with a sort of angry joy that it would have made your
heart ache to witness. Just at present he had a job of cleaning and
whitewashing some cellars in Stoke Newington.

He was absent from the kitchen for five minutes, during which time the
three sat round the table. Amy pretended to eat unconcernedly; Tom made
grimaces at her. As for Annie, she cried. Their father