ce, which made his life hard to bear.

It was with a hard satisfaction that he returned to the shop, and found
all going on in the usual way, Allchin grinning a hearty welcome as he
weighed out sugar. Will's sister talked of the scents of her garden,
how they refreshed and inspirited her to him, the odour of the
shop--new-roasted coffee predominated to-day--had its invigorating
effect; it meant money, and money meant life, the peaceful, fruitful
life of those dear to him. He scarcely gave himself time to eat dinner,
laid for him, as usual, by Mrs. Allchin, in the sitting-room behind the
shop; so eager was he to get on his apron, and return to profitable
labour.

At first, he had endured a good deal of physical fatigue. Standing for
so many hours a day wearied him much more than walking would have done,
and with bodily exhaustion came at times a lowness of spirits such as
he had never felt. His resource against this misery was conversation
with Allchin. In Allchin he had a henchman whose sturdy optimism and
gross common sense were of the utmost value. The brawny assistant,
having speedily found a lodger according to the agreement, saw himself
in clover, and determined that, if _he_ could help it, his fortunes
should never again suffer eclipse. He and his wife felt a reasonable
gratitude to the founder of their prosperity--whom, by the bye, they
invariably spoke of as "Mr. Jollyman"--and did their best to smooth for
him the unfamiliar path he was treading.

The success with which Warburton kept his secret, merely proved how
solitary most men are amid the crowds of London, and how easy it is for
a Londoner to disappear from among his acquaintances whilst continuing
to live openly amid the city's roar. No one of those who cared enough
about him to learn that he had fallen on ill-luck harboured the
slightest suspicion of what he was doing; he simply dropped out of
sight, except for the two or three who, in a real sense of the word,
could be called his friends. The Pomfrets, whom he went to see at very
long intervals, supposed him to have some sort of office employment,
and saw nothing in his demeanour to make them anxious about him. As for
Norbert Franks, why, he was very busy, and came not oftener than once a
month to his friend's obscure lodgings; he asked no intrusive
questions, and, like the Pomfrets, could only suppose that Warburton
had found a clerkship somewhere. They were not quite on the old terms,
for each had