accommodated
three, and was--for we have measured it, as we would have measured the
cell of the prisoner of Chillon--just eight feet by six.

We do not intend, reader, to indicate, by broad colours and in long
detail, the moral deterioration of our hero; because we have found, by
experience, that such pains on our part do little more than make thee
blame our stupidity instead of lauding our intention. We shall therefore
only work out our moral by subtle hints and brief comments; and we shall
now content ourselves with reminding thee that hitherto thou hast seen
Paul honest in the teeth of circumstances. Despite the contagion of the
Mug, despite his associates in Fish Lane, despite his intimacy with Long
Ned, thou hast seen him brave temptation, and look forward to some other
career than that of robbery or fraud. Nay, even in his destitution, when
driven from the abode of his childhood, thou hast observed how, instead
of resorting to some more pleasurable or libertine road of life, he
betook himself at once to the dull roof and insipid employments of
MacGrawler, and preferred honestly earning his subsistence by the sweat
of his brain to recurring to any of the numerous ways of living on
others with which his experience among the worst part of society must
have teemed, and which, to say the least of them, are more alluring to
the young and the adventurous than the barren paths of literary labour.
Indeed, to let thee into a secret, it had been Paul's daring ambition
to raise himself into a worthy member of the community. His present
circumstances, it may hereafter be seen, made the cause of a great
change in his desires; and the conversation he held that night with the
ingenious and skilful Augustus went more towards fitting him for the
hero of this work than all the habits of his childhood or the scenes of
his earlier youth. Young people are apt, erroneously, to believe that it
is a bad thing to be exceedingly wicked. The House of Correction is so
called, because it is a place where so ridiculous a notion is invariably
corrected. The next day Paul was surprised by a visit from Mrs. Lobkins,
who had heard of his situation and its causes from the friendly
Dummie, and who had managed to obtain from Justice Burnflat an order of
admission. They met, Pyramus and Thisbe like, with a wall, or rather
an iron gate, between them; and Mrs. Lobkins, after an ejaculation of
despair at the obstacle, burst weepingly into the pathetic repr