procession of royalties would leave me cold. I know something of the
environment in which those English men and women have lived out their
arduous lives. Among them I have seen evidences of a bravery which I
deliberately believe to be greater than any that has won the Victoria
Cross.

I once had a room--which I had to leave because of its closeness to a
noisy street--immediately over a basement in which one old bed-ridden
man and two women lived. The man had been bed-ridden for more than
thirty years, and still was alive; for more than thirty years! His
wife and daughter supported him and themselves. The daughter made
match-boxes, and was paid 2 1/4d. for each gross; but out of that
generous remuneration she had to buy her own paste and thread. The
mother lived over a wash-tub. They all worked, slept, and ate, in the
one room, of course, and the man was never outside it for a moment.

At the time of my arrival in that house, the daughter had recently
taken to her bed. She was a middle-aged woman, far gone in
consumption. It happened that a notorious inebriate, a woman, during
one of her periodical visits to the local police court, told a
missionary about my neighbours. He visited them, and was impressed,
though accustomed to such sights. But he could do nothing to help, it
seemed. They were very proud, and the mother washed very well; so well
that she had work enough to keep her going day and night; and, working
day and night, was able to earn an average of close upon eleven
shillings weekly, of which only four shillings had to be paid in rent,
and a trifle in medicine, soap, fuel, etc., leaving from five to six
shillings a week for the two invalids and herself to live upon. So
there was nothing to worry about, she said. She had stood at the tub
for thirty years, and ...

Well, the missionary spoke to other folk, and other folk were touched,
and finally a lady and a gentleman came, with an ambulance and a
carriage, and twenty golden sovereigns. The old woman's liberty was
not to be interfered with. She herself was to have the spending of the
money. She was to take her patients to the seaside, and rest for a few
weeks, after her thirty years at the tub. I find a difficulty in
setting the thing down, for I can smell the steamy odours of that
basement now.

This remarkable old woman quite civilly declined the gift, and
explained how well she could manage without assistance; proudly adding
that she had no fear of fai